The manufacturing trends that we anticipate for 2022 will all serve manufacturers’ ongoing efforts to overcome obstacles, enhance procedures, and find efficiency. As with any new year, technology advancements, market demands, and corporate goals will dominate manufacturing industry trends.
The top 7 latest trends in manufacturing for 2022 are as follows:
- Consumer-driven Manufacturing
Consumer preferences fluctuate at the same rate as technology advances, making it challenging for producers to respond rapidly enough to provide in-demand goods and services.
Modern clients want, at the absolute least, same-day delivery, customised goods and services, and transparent delivery systems. However, distinguishing your firm and being internationally competitive demand a degree of agility and flexibility that conventional business models are incapable of providing.
Rather than that, consumer-driven manufacturing is concerned with predicting the demands of consumers who will use your goods. However, how is this possible? By incorporating new technologies and capabilities into your current systems and software, such as data analytics, the internet of things (IoT), and artificial intelligence (AI), among others.
Manufacturers may boost operational efficiency and deliver goods to customers faster by using tactics such as digital quality control, asset location monitoring, and automated material replenishment. Users and stakeholders may tailor their digital interaction experiences using these tools.
- Predictable and Reliable Supply networks
Manufacturers are confronted with a period of dynamic market supply and demand fluctuations. According to Deloitte, the majority of buying managers continue to face system-wide challenges as a result of increased customer demand, increasing material and freight prices, and sluggish delivery.
While disruptions are inevitable and expensive, many firms are developing methods to improve the predictability of supply chains and logistics. By replacing human operations with technology like as artificial intelligence, data analytics, and sensors, supply chain managers can discover trends, forecast purchase requests, and manage inventories more effectively.
According to Deloitte, “digital supply networks and data analytics can be effective facilitators of more flexible, multi-tiered disruption solutions.”
- Connected services
While technology improves company processes, it also alters the products and services manufacturers can provide their consumers.
Connected services are extra offers centred on internet-connected objects such as healthcare gadgets, cars, hand tools, industrial, and even wind turbines. Capgemini notes in an evaluation of connected services in manufacturing sectors, “We see business models evolving toward pay-per-use and pay-per-output models, in which consumers pay not for the product itself but for the advantages it provides.”
Although the possibilities for connected services are limitless, some of the more well-known examples include remote management of equipment and machinery through car telematics, maintenance forecasting, smart home technologies, and automation.
Offering connected services improves the consumer experience and enable manufacturers to distinguish themselves from their competitors. Data collected at each stage of the client journey may be utilized to constantly enhance the quality of the goods and services you produce. Additionally, connected services provide consistent income streams and greater margins.
- Intelligent factories
Smart factories, also known as digital factories or intelligent factories, include highly automated and self-adapting technology and machinery to maximize efficiency and adaptability. Sensors monitor goods and inventories, while cloud-connected machinery and equipment give real-time visibility into maintenance requirements.
Adidas is only one example of a company that is forward-thinking. Adidas’ “speed factory,” which aims to establish a factory of the future, is equipped with 3D printers, robotic arms, laser-cutting robots, and Internet of Things capabilities for fast creating mockups and digital copies. Adidas can rapidly print prototypes with the assistance of automation and robotics to satisfy changing customer expectations with shorter lead times.
- Industry 4.0 and the emergence of the digital economy
We are in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution, sometimes known as Industry 4.0. While the third industrial revolution pioneered the development of digital technology, Industry 4.0 is defined by hyper-automation, the Internet of Things, smart factories, and big data. These breakthroughs have sparked the birth of a digital economy, a global economy built on digital technology.
According to TechTarget, “the fourth industrial revolution builds on the digital revolution by bridging the physical and cyberworlds.” Manufacturers have an infinite number of options to adapt business models, enhance processes, and complete jobs quicker and better than ever before.
The digital economy encompasses businesses, goods, and services that would not exist in the absence of advanced digital technology – such as Netflix, Spotify, Airbnb, Uber, and Lyft. And as technology advances, so does the competitive environment.
Do you remember Blockbuster Video? By introducing streaming services, Netflix was ahead of the digital curve, whereas Blockbuster trailed far behind. Today, only those who were alive in the 1990s remember Blockbuster, yet everyone appears to have a Netflix subscription.
Consider improvements in healthcare device production. Historically, blood glucose metres were battery-operated, analogue devices that lacked internet connectivity. Nowadays, the majority of these technologies are completely integrated into the digital world. Manufacturers get new information, consumers can monitor their own health, and healthcare practitioners can better satisfy their patients’ requirements.
- Circular Economy
Manufacturers are expected to supply items quickly and on a global scale, putting an inevitable strain on our environment. According to the World Economic Forum, manufacturing in the United States accounts for 23% of the country’s direct carbon emissions, whereas European production generates 880 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year.
This is because factories have historically operated on a linear “take-make-trash” paradigm that is based on fossil fuels, over output, and waste. However, an increasing number of firms are embracing the circular economy, a sustainable model that maximizes efficiency at every step of production.
The circular economy makes use of cutting-edge technology such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate processes, simplify operations, and boost efficiency. Each step of production is subjected to recycling, refurbishment, and remanufacturing procedures in order to decrease waste and expenses, hence lowering a company’s carbon footprint. Additionally, digitizing processes provide real-time information that enables firms to stay on top of their sustainability targets.
- Hyperautonomy
Hyperautomation is defined as “a business-driven, disciplined methodology that businesses utilize to swiftly discover, vet, and automate as many business and information technology activities as feasible.”
Hyperautomation is enabled by the coordinated use of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), sensors, machine learning, robotic process automation (RPA), low-code development platforms, and business process management (BPM) tools. This tendency is prevalent across previously segregated processes such as engineering, manufacturing, and system and software management in information technology.
Manufacturing occurs in highly compartmentalized settings, and many firms continue to depend on manual, time-consuming procedures. Hyperautomation automates formerly manual procedures and increases operational transparency. While technology takes care of routine but critical duties, your human staff can concentrate on more challenging responsibilities, such as fostering innovation.
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