February, 2018
www.us-tech.com
Seven Manufacturing Industry Predictions for 2018
By Philip Stoten (@philipstoten) T
his year was a stellar year for the electronics manufacturing industry. Real progress has been made toward the smart factory/Indus-
try 4.0 nirvana that we have been talking about for so long. One of the biggest obstacles, standards,
seems to be out of the way, thanks to the efforts by those involved in the Hermes standard and in the IPC CFX committee. These advances are a testa- ment to the industry’s ability to collaborate when benefits are mutual and the objective is clearly defined. While leaps forward have been
made and some examples of deploy- ment and ROI are beginning to be seen, there is still a long way to go. So, what can we expect from 2018?
Mergers and Acquisitions. The idea of being “better together” is manifesting itself in many ways, in- cluding in mergers and acquisitions. In recent years, we have seen more companies move toward offering full line solutions. Filling the existing spaces in their product lines through the acquisition of domain experts is one way. Developing all new technol- ogy to fill a process gap is challeng- ing, expensive and time consuming. It also adds an additional player to a crowded market. In the pursuit of the smart factory, we are seeing the im- portance of bringing the best ele- ments together, as well as a need for real domain expertise.
Partnerships and Collaborations. Like acquisitions, collaborations are driving Industry 4.0 solutions. Work- ing together to create the standards that the industry wants has helped us all understand what can be achieved through teamwork. Consor- tia have emerged around the Hermes standard and IPC’s CFX that have shown that putting the industry be- fore corporate goals helps everyone. Over the last few months we
have seen several partnership an- nouncements, as companies start to develop ideas and solutions together. Software companies working with equipment manufacturers or con- sumables suppliers, and even with other software companies are finding that they can bring solutions to mar-
ket faster if they combine their energy, their expe- rience and their resources.
New Entries. At productronica we saw the likes of CST, ABB and Kuka from the robotics industry start to develop offerings for the SMT line, often in collaboration with the more traditional players. At the Hannover Fair in April, we also saw IBM, Mi- crosoft, Google, and HP pitch ideas in the manu- facturing sector. As we turn to artificial intelligence (AI), aug-
mented reality (AR) and additive manufacturing to help us improve performance, expect to see more new players in the market, both individuals and partnerships.
Smart Manufacturing. Smart manufacturing is the dominant trend in our industry. Now, it has even become an essential part of any contractor’s manufacturing strategy. It is something that will not only separate the leaders from the laggards,
Continued on page 32
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