The much-anticipated new era of 2020 has not seen the glamorous start that we had hoped for in some countries, and instead of seeing economic growth and prosperity, manufacturing companies have been struggling because of the negative impacts of the New Crown Epidemic, particularly supply chain instability, transportation issues, worker shortages, and inflation.
While the outbreak has been a once-in-a-century challenge for most manufacturing companies, it has also forced many to adapt to the challenge by accelerating their digital transformation. Technologies such as cloud computing, robotic process automation, and low-code development are at the heart of this digital transformation, and they have created countless opportunities for manufacturing organizations to explore new solutions.
The following list of seven trends in global manufacturing in 2022 may reflect, to some extent, the realities of today.
1. Consumer-Driven Manufacturing
As with today's technology, consumer demands are changing rapidly, making it difficult for manufacturing organizations to quickly deliver the products and services that consumers want.
Today, the minimum expectations customers place on manufacturing companies are same-day delivery, personalized products and services, and transparent delivery processes. But if manufacturing organizations want to differentiate their business and remain globally competitive, they need to be highly agile and flexible, which is clearly not possible with traditional business models.
Consumer-driven manufacturing focuses on anticipating the needs of product users. But how? The answer is to integrate a variety of new technologies and capabilities, such as data analytics, the Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence (AI) into existing systems and software.
Manufacturing organizations can implement strategies such as digital quality control, asset location monitoring, and automated material replenishment to improve operational efficiency and get products to consumers faster. These technologies allow users and stakeholders to take ownership of the digital interactive experience.
2. Stable, predictable supply chains
Manufacturing companies are operating in a period of fluctuating supply and demand in the marketplace. According to Deloitte (one of the world's Big Four accounting firms), most purchasing managers will continue to face systemic problems caused by high consumer demand, rising material and freight costs, and slow deliveries.
Supply disruptions have become "routine" and costly. But many manufacturing organizations are working on models to make supply chains and logistics more predictable. Replacing manual labor with technologies such as AI, data analytics, and sensors can help supply chain managers identify patterns, anticipate purchasing needs, and better manage inventory. As Deloitte notes, "Digital supply networks and data analytics can effectively help manufacturing companies take more flexible, multi-layered measures to respond to unexpected supply chain disruptions."
3. Connected services
While technology is enhancing manufacturing companies' operations, it is also transforming the services they provide to their customers.
Connected services are additional services provided by networkable devices based on industrial products.Capgemini (Capgemini Consulting), in evaluating connected services in manufacturing, said, "The business model in manufacturing is shifting to pay-per-use and pay-per-production, where customers don't pay for the actual product, but rather for the revenue it generates. "
Connected services open up endless possibilities, some of the best-known examples of which include:
- Vehicle telematics
- Remote control of equipment and machinery
- Predictive maintenance
- Smart home solutions and automation
Connected services create a better experience for customers, and also enable manufacturing organizations to differentiate themselves from the competition. Manufacturing organizations can capture data at every key point in a customer's business and then use that data to continuously improve the quality of their products and related services. Connected services also create regular revenue streams and higher profit margins for manufacturing organizations.
4. Smart factories
Smart factories are also known as digital factories or smart factories. Smart factories use highly automated and adaptive equipment and machines to improve efficiency and flexibility, track products and inventory through sensors, and understand maintenance needs in real time through cloud-enabled machines.
Adidas is a forward-thinking manufacturing company. To create a factory of the future, Adidas has equipped its "High Speed Factory" with 3D printers, robotic arms, laser-cutting robots, and IoT tools that enable the factory to quickly create models and mass produce them quickly. Adidas uses automation and robotics to help its employees quickly print product templates to meet changing consumer demand by reducing lead times.
5. Industry 4.0 and the digital economy
We are in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0). While the third industrial revolution brought us digital technologies, Industry 4.0 will bring super automation, the Internet of Things, smart factories and big data. These technological advances have led to a qualitative leap in the digital economy.
According to TechTarget, "The fourth industrial revolution builds on the digital revolution, with current technologies deepening the connection between the physical and cyber worlds." Technology is rapidly evolving, and manufacturing organizations need to continually adapt their business models, improve operations and accomplish tasks faster and better than ever before.
The digital economy has given rise to a number of companies, products, and services that are highly dependent on modern digital technologies, such as Netflix, Soundfield, Audemars Piguet, Uber, and Rafflecopter abroad. And as technology evolves, so does the competitive environment. For example, Netflix has been at the forefront of digitalization by providing streaming media services, while Blockbuster, which used to occupy the leading position in the U.S. movie rental market, has lost out in the digitalization battle and has fallen from grace. How many people remember Blockbuster in this day and age when almost everyone has a Netflix account?
On top of that, there have been huge advances in medical device manufacturing. Glucose meters used to be battery-powered, non-networked testing devices. Now, most such devices are fully connected to the digital world. Manufacturing companies can gain better insights, users can track their health, and healthcare organizations can better meet the needs of their patients.
6. Sustainability
Manufacturing companies want to be able to deliver their products globally, quickly and at scale, and this inevitably puts pressure on our environment. According to the World Economic Forum, manufacturing in the United States accounts for 23% of the country's direct carbon emissions, and manufacturing in Europe emits 880 million tons of carbon dioxide annually.
That's because manufacturing companies used to follow a linear model of "acquire-make-waste," which relied on fossil fuels, overproduction, and excessive waste. But more and more manufacturing companies are moving towards a circular economy.
The circular economy uses technologies such as AI and machine learning to automate processes, streamline operations, and improve efficiency. Each stage of manufacturing follows a recycle-refurbish-remanufacture model to minimize waste and reduce costs, which in turn reduces a company's carbon footprint during production. Digitized processes provide manufacturing companies with real-time insights to help them make quick decisions and move toward their sustainability goals.
7. Hyperautomation
Hyperautomation is one of Gartner's key strategic technology trends for 2022 and refers to "a disciplined and business-driven approach to quickly identifying, reviewing, and automating as many business and IT processes as possible. "
Hyper-automation needs to be achieved by orchestrating the use of technologies such as AI, sensors, machine learning, robotic process automation (RPA), low-code development platforms, and business process management (BPM) tools.
Manufacturing is somewhat of a highly siloed environment, with many business organizations still relying on time-consuming manual processes. Hyper-automation can take over manual tasks and make operational processes more transparent. Manufacturing organizations can turn over repetitive but critical work processes to automation technology so that employees can focus on more complex tasks, such as driving innovation.
How Manufacturing Companies Can Accelerate Digital Transformation
No business can become hyperconnected and digital-first overnight. Digital transformation is an important initiative for any business, especially manufacturing organizations with manual processes, legacy systems, and siloed operations and data. And low-code development and multi-experience platforms can fast-track the transformation process.
Siemens Low-Code Manufacturing Industries provides tools, services, and support to help manufacturing organizations rapidly develop custom applications, portals, core systems, and other domain-specific solutions. Because Siemens Low-Code has less impact on core systems than other solutions, it can quickly accelerate the process of connecting people, machines, devices, systems and workflows. Manufacturing companies can also use the Siemens Low-Code platform to modernize legacy systems and enhance custom software development and system integration projects.