25TH ANNIVERSARY Things to come...
Augury Halo provides continuous diagnostics for machines. Installed on an asset, the wireless sensors capture temperature and vibration and check equipment condition
miscalculations in terms of global supply chain decisions will be larger. Choose your global partners carefully and focus on operational resilience – not redundancy of operations – to control the cost of de-risking supply chains. mindset; consumers read everything from quality to safety to country of origin on the products they use – they like that local connection. The price premium can offset the added costs of localising production and supply chains.
people interested in technology and are methodologies will change rapidly and repeatedly, so lifelong learners will be key. Protect your best talent today to bridge the gap as new workers become AI-enabled and -assisted.
A longer-term view We are underestimating how materials science and AI will start intersecting to transform manufacturing. New materials that are more malleable, stronger, and sustainable will become a reality and be part of your manufacturing processes. Massive gains in process insights (process health) will drive real-time production changes where materials, methods, conditions and equipment all play active roles in product creation. Data will prove that lowering energy usage, materials consumption and warehousing costs improve profitability. Tied to the impact of new materials and powerful AI, we’ll see manufacturing that’s as close to net-zero impact as
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possible – and in some cases truly becomes net positive. As manufacturing becomes more local, people will care about how things are made and what’s coming out of the factories. Roughly two billion people were born between 1997 and 2013. This wave of talent will enter the workforce at a time when manufacturing roles are interesting, incentivised and available. They’ll fill the gaps we have today but bring comfort with new technologies and concepts, and a focus on sustainability and health that’s far beyond what we see today. They will not only make the products of the future, they will shape what those products are to begin with. Geopolitical tensions and natural disasters can happen way faster than we can rebuild our global manufacturing systems, so resilience will be an ongoing task. Climate change and national security issues will roil the global landscape and create new challenges for manufacturers. Consumers and workers will live in that stark reality and it will influence their buying decisions and career choices. Key actions for manufacturers, then are:
about metal foams, nanofibers, shrilk, or any other new material that may impact your products. Imagine plants that are modular, agile and digitally-enabled so they can evolve rapidly to embrace solutions that can learn and adjust processes and operations more quickly, based on the characteristics of those materials. Once you’ve learned how to optimise one line, these digital solutions
will accelerate your ability to replicate that on every line in near-real-time.
technologies into decision making and embrace people in your organisation who think that way today (IT, R&D, industrial revolution will be fought and Get comfortable in that world and harness those skills.
community colleges near your plants. Partner on training programs and knowledge sharing to tap into that emerging workforce and arm them with the skills and tools they’ll need. You will know first what those skills are so help create them. to influence policies, processes and products. In many cases they are a change will reshape where people live and local tensions as climate refugees soar and food/water sources become compromised. Prepare to be a leader in that fight – you’ll need to protect your business and align with customers.
and regional politics create supply chain challenges and opportunities. The fundamental need for global supply chains won’t go away but they’ll shift and change rapidly, and the increasing number of environmental disasters, national security events and shifting population trends will necessitate being agile and resilient without adding cost and redundancy.
Automation | May 2024 67
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