Smart Manufacturing Accelerates Adoption Post-Pandemic

In the post-pandemic circumstances, 83% of manufacturers mention the adoption of smart manufacturing technologies and processes is now a top priority. Worldwide, manufacturing operations were badly hit during the global crisis. However, COVID-19 also turned out to be a critical moment for the industry.

Leading industries are bringing about some absolute changes, including smart manufacturing, to specify value chains and remain strong during crises. Even before the crisis hit, industry 4.0 had been bringing vast changes across manufacturing functions. With COVID-19, manufacturing organizations were forced to deal with the new actualities, which are largely dissimilar from the old normal.

When the COVID-19 crisis hit at the beginning of 2020, the effect on the global economy was tremendous and the smart manufacturing segment notices it with the loss of 1.3 million manufacturing jobs in the U.S. during the month of April. As Asia-Pacific, Europe, as well as North America, shut down their economies with governmental stay-at-home orders, MarketsandMarkets research firms started to research and publish a forecast report with a revised influence to 2020, forecasting a negative growth rate with a drop of 16%.

smart manufacturing market

Improved demand for smart manufacturing solutions and services will carry further growth. This will prompt continued growth of digital twin technology – digital clones of potential and actual physical assets, processes, places, systems as well as devices – in maintaining manufacturing operations across the ecosystem and quickly extending the role of collaborative robots in healthcare and manufacturing sectors.

The research additionally found:

  • Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the top three requirements for smart manufacturing technology are to improve efficiency, enhance supply chain agility as well as support remote work.
  • Near about three-fourths of the survey respondents are initiating to utilize technology to better connect the business, easily automate processes and acquire valuable business insights.
  • A 100% development in the adoption of key technologies (e.g., Industrial IoT, smart devices) in just the past year; showing that many smart manufacturing technologies have gone through the early “overhype” phases of adoption and are now observed as a mainstream.

How will smart technologies assist manufacturers recover?

Use-cases for smart manufacturing cover a huge range of operational processes and strategic applications. Some involve:

  • Advanced plant maintenance utilizes condition-based sensors enclosed in plant assets to analyze the early warning signs that the equipment needs service. Trigger points can signal automatic reactions, likewise scheduling calibration or part replacement, switching work, or, in the case of an emergency, shutting down a whole line.  
  • Autonomous vehicles are being utilized to move raw materials or finished goods to the warehouse as well as shipping. The vehicles, with machine learning, follow safely predefined routes and safety requirements while shifting goods to their destination. 
  • Quality control checkpoints can be included to several points in the production line, assisting to mark noncompliance early, reducing waste of raw resources and time. Sensors that can recognize alignment, weight and many undesirable characteristics.
  • Machine-to-machine connectivity assists to generate a real-time view of production lines and various steps such as finishing, packaging, etc. Smart machines can interact with data about the production status, assisting to streamline the flow of goods, rectify gaps in efficiency as well as handle scheduling of resources for just-in-time delivery. 

Supply chain visibility is made easy with the use of smart sensors on shipping vehicles as well as inventory storage systems so manufacturers can have a real-time, precise view of resources before they arrive at the plant and as they are utilized. Accuracy allows agile adjustments to serve unpredicted shifts. 

Here are a few top trends that will facilitate accelerate the adoption of smart manufacturing globally.

Industrial IoT will realize higher adoption:

Smart manufacturing is increasingly utilized IIoT in several ways to enhance industrial processes. As per reports, more than 50 % of industrial enterprises will utilize IIoT platforms by 2025, a huge jump from the just 10 % that adopted the technology in 2020. IIoT will be a crucial focus as manufacturers change their focus from linear transactions that prioritized cost as well as efficiency to effectiveness and user value. It will also enable industrial organizations to expand and improve their IoT use cases and enable seamless IT-OT convergence, which is observed as the next big wave in manufacturing.

Improved AI/ML use cases to improve predictability and efficiency:

In place of using traditional data sets that only acquired restricted insights, manufacturers will increasingly utilize advanced automation technologies likewise AI/ML, IoT and predictive analytics to improve planning. This means that industries will utilize external data sets enclosing the complete value chain of suppliers, customers. An integration of ML-based tools and IIoT will be utilized crucially in areas of production, quality control as well as security.

Additive Manufacturing:

COVID-19 has shown to be a true turning point for additive manufacturing. Manufacturers across the world utilized the potential of 3D printing to design new products quickly, manufacture products on-demand and most importantly, manufacture locally at times when supply chains were poorly hit just like due to the pandemic. The digital twin is another trend that is ready to revolutionize 3D manufacturing.

Digital technologies to assist the New Normal in Manufacturing:

Remote work, as well as collaboration, was a new move that the manufacturing sector had to get familiar with. In this new normal, organizations have to assure that noncritical employees can resume work remotely, while critical employees are offered safe working environments. As a result, industries will expand their investments beyond collaboration, physical distancing as well as location-tracking technologies. Manufacturing industries will also spend on process automation technologies to increase efficiencies. Smart manufacturing is now ready to be the new normal for the industry in 2021!

To stay ahead of the competition and stay pertinent in a highly unstable market, manufacturers must stay active, make their supply chains more adaptable and resilient and embrace digital technologies in unique ways.