Manufacturing is rapidly reviving, unfazed by substantial labor and supply chain issues. To continue this pace, producers must balance increased risks with a commitment to sustainability. Our 2022 forecast delves into five manufacturing industry trends that will assist firms in transforming risks into opportunities and capitalizing on growth.
- Manufacturing will transition from infrequent use of smart factories to widespread adoption: Until date, a fully smart factory with integrated solutions has remained elusive owing to gaps in offers and a lack of suppliers capable of meeting all of the technical requirements necessary to realize a smart factory. However, with the entry of hundreds of start-ups, technology has become more cost-effective. Multiple companies now provide technology and solutions like video analytics, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, autonomous mobility robots, and command centers that formerly required unique and often in-house development. Each component of the technological puzzle has several alternatives.
Starting in 2022 we expect a significant transition from companies with a few smart factory components to those with production environments that are smart.
- FOMO will drive organizations.Fear of Missing Out will play a significant role in driving smart factory adoption in 2022. Organizations are quickly realizing that delaying digital transformation is not an option and that if they do not act soon, they will lose their competitive edge. These organizations will be more receptive to significant adjustments in people, processes, and technologies that will catapult them ahead of their competition.
2022 marks the year when manufacturers will start demonstrating value from their adoption of smart and sustainable manufacturing practices.
- Actions based on data will grab the spotlight. Manufacturers are becoming more acquainted with data from different sources, in different shapes and forms, which is necessary for the operation of a smart factory. True smart factories will include command centers — envision numerous control towers — that will bring data from throughout the company together in ways that businesses have never been able to accomplish before. Data has always been the forte of manufacturing companies, but it has been the usage of this data to drive sustainable and optimized production that has been a challenge in the past.
Through this year, we see companies making significant steps to act on data, bridging the divide between technology and people.
- Vision systems and autonomous mobile robots will be critical components of the smart factory. Organizations cannot afford quality faults as material prices continue to rise. Vision systems will become more important in detecting errors or faults immediately before they affect the whole manufacturing process. This will result in considerable quality and safety gains and will play a vital part in lean transformation. Another critical technology will be autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), which have the potential to significantly increase productivity by automating routine chores. Whereas a corporation may have a few dozen replenishment experts on staff today, that number may soon drop to zero.
We see remote operations and safety requirements for frontline workers driving the adoption of smart manufacturing technologies in 2022
- Workforce augmentation will become crucial. For at least the next two years, the labour shortfall will endure and, in all likelihood, deteriorate before improving. This will increase the need for technology adoption in order for businesses to continue operating and meeting client expectations. Along with smart factory adoption, firms may gain a competitive edge by anticipating how important manufacturing positions will change and developing strategies for improved hiring, training, reskilling, and upskilling for these roles.
2022 is the year for empowering the frontline workforce while building upon the tribal knowledge that manufacturers have accumulated for years. Workforce augmentation is a key recipe for success in onboarding a younger and more agile workforce.
Each manufacturer should evaluate their readiness for The Year of the Smart Factory. If the answer is no, extensive due diligence on their smart factory potential should be done. One point is clear – they need to get started in order to stay ahead.
How can Makoro™ assist?
Makoro™ optimizes industrial supply chain processes by providing continuous insights and recommendations through Makoro™ Mind, the data-driven core that leverages IoT, Digital Twin, Artificial Intelligence, and Advanced Analytics to provide operational suggestions.
Natural-language recommendations from Makoro™ are built for the frontline workers so that they can understand and act upon them.
Additionally, Makoro™ leverages customers’ existing infrastructure investments (cloud, on-premise, or hybrid) and interacts effortlessly with the customer’s existing private/public/hybrid cloud, on-premise, and edge systems.
By correlating real-time asset, maintenance, and workforce parameters with suggestion sentiment, acceptance, confidence, relevance, and originality, the Recommendations Dashboard demonstrates Makoro™’s ongoing value to manufacturers’ operations.