The Innovation Ultimatum

14Smart Factories and Augmented Factory Workers

What Every Business Can Learn from Manufacturing Tech

The global manufacturing industry is the backbone of the modern world. It builds the “stuff” of our lives: paper towels and blue jeans, frozen pizzas and SUVs. With an output of $40 trillion (Source: Interact Analysis), the sector accounts for 16% of global GDP (Source: World Bank) and 14% of global employment (Source: McKinsey). By 2025, the majority of global consumption will be in developing economies where billions of new middle-class consumers will seek high-quality, low-cost products. Manufacturing demand will soar.

Successive innovations—mechanization, mass production, electrification, outsourcing, Six Sigma, just-in-time, automation, LEAN, and others—have boosted manufacturing efficiency, quality, and output. The next set of transformations will focus on distributed manufacturing, mass customization, next-generation automation, supply chain innovation, additive manufacturing, and new materials.

The factories of the future will be highly automated, cloud-connected facilities where robots, AIs, and people work side-by-side. Engineers will design enhanced, easier-to-manufacture products in partnership with collaborative AIs. Workers will receive real-time training and work instructions through augmented reality. These hybrid workers will gain knowledge as if in a scene from The Matrix. Sophisticated AI will quietly coordinate suppliers and schedule maintenance. Manufacturing ...