Industry Trends – Manufacturing

Manufacturing – Trends:

  • Collaborative robots
  • 3D printing -> faster and cheaper production -> ability to manufacture on demand, instead of having to manufacture big amounts and warehouse them
  • Virtual reality product developers can use it to make modifications to products during the product design stage before they go into modelling process
  • Smart factories -> integration of shop floor decisions with the rest of the supply chain; a system that can self-optimize performance, self-adapt and learn from new conditions 
  • Supply chain optimization -> cloud model that unifies internal and external processes across extended networks -> better flexibility to adapt to disruptions, greater speed of execution
  • Industry 4.0 – current trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies;
  • Internet of Things empowering to manufacturers to make informed strategic decisions by providing crucial, real-time information
  • Predictive maintenance technology -> it monitors the condition of in-service equipment -> thanks to that manufacturer can develop better understanding of how system works and whey they will fail -> could reduce companies’ maintenance costs by 20% and reduce unplanned outages by 50% 
  • Transformation from B2B to B2B2C (business-to-business-to-consumer)
  • Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
  • Reshoring – taking the operations back to the country where the company operate instead of offshoring
  • Electric cars
  • Driverless vehicles

Challenges:

  • Manufactures increasingly rely on technology, so the manufacturers have to be equipped with tech skills as well -> probably hard to find such employees
  • How to implement new technologies to reduce operational costs and improve efficiency
  • Will the robots make manufacturers jobless?

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