The Smart Manufacturing market is projected to see substantial growth over the next few years.
The main driver of this growth is the increasing need for connected supply chains and knowledge-based manufacturing, which are furnished with sophisticated control, modeling, sensing, and simulation capabilities.
Advanced manufacturing technologies and digital plants are set to transform production centers, factories, businesses, and whole value chains, thus driving the fourth industrial revolution.
The Rise of Smart Manufacturing
The positive effect of investments and government initiatives to stimulate the adoption of smart manufacturing has been one of the most powerful dynamics driving market growth. The fact that both emerging markets and developed countries are assertively following this path is expected to drive added growth. The principal growth opportunities for smart manufacturing solution providers are in the aerospace & defense and automotive industries.
Other elements driving the rise of smart manufacturing include intensification in emphasis on regulatory compliance, the development of the Internet of Things, a rise in the use of industrial robots, and growth in demand for smart automation processes. The industrial robot is a disruptive technology, which is anticipated to radically transform manufacturing processes.
The rise of 3D printing has also presented new opportunities for companies. The ability to manufacture products and prototypes rapidly with computer aided design from start to finish increases efficiency and changes the game for many industries.
Practical Uses of Smart Manufacturing
Smart manufacturing is recognized as essential to the future of competitive manufacturing. This is partly due to their use of smart process applications, a new kind of software that combines the benefits of advanced analytics and process applications to help factories and other businesses to manage their processes, resources, and systems more efficiently.
In order to speak to a vibrant and international market, smart manufacturing takes advantage of cutting-edge manufacturing tools and information to get flexible and reconfigurable manufacturing practices. It allows all information flows and physical processes to be available when and where they are required across multiple industries, holistic manufacturing supply chains, large companies, and small and medium enterprises.
Smart manufacturing will reorganize production by facilitating programmable, flexible, and embedded forms of manufacturing. Technologies will enable new ways of doing business and participation, creating new products and services and offering new ways of systematizing production. A network centric approach to production in the coming decade will replace linear production processes with flexible and intelligent network approaches.
Importance of Humans and Design in Smart Manufacturing
Workers are having increasing concerns about automation, fearing that smart manufacturing processes will replace their jobs. However, there is considerable skepticism about a widespread takeover, despite the ongoing concern about automation. While automation might be crucial to the future of industry, humans will never be fully replaced.
Human skills remain indispensable for numerous jobs, even as production systems veer increasingly towards informatics, sensors, robotics, mobile devices, and other forms of automation, making the marriage between machines and humans critical to success. It’s essential that companies fully understand how to best design and operationalize both technological and human factors, since human factors will play an essential role in the future of manufacturing, where technology and people are being integrated more closely and intensively than ever before.
Why is Smart Manufacturing Useful?
Smart manufacturing has several advantages. They allow manufacturers to better track a product’s history, operating characteristics, and use pattern. Manufacturers can also control products remotely via cloud rules or algorithms built into the product. The aforementioned monitoring and tracking, coupled with the new level of control, allow for product optimization. Smart manufacturing also allows producers to reach a certain level of autonomy.
The creation of the Internet of Things means that everything is now connected: machines, products, warehouses, factories, and consumers. In addition to optimizing products, manufacturers can now optimize factories to improve and integrate production capacity, leading to more efficient maintenance, more reliable production lead times, and lower levels of stock.
Smart manufacturing has led to smart staffing, made up of sharp, aggressive, and reactive digital talent. Decision makers at every level need to take the intricacy of data-driven knowledge through the power of the Internet of Things, advanced analytics, cloud technology, and Big Data as smart technologies take on incumbency and several tedious human jobs.
