How factories of the future are leading the way to innovation in manufacturing
As the world of production face a perfect storm wrought by the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), the accelerating climate emergency, raising trade tensions and growing economic uncertainty, manufacturers must develop new capabilities and adapt. The companies best positioned to successfully navigate this storm are those that embrace advanced manufacturing technologies and solutions across their factories and supply chains, creating value and improving operations while also increasing sustainability. These companies can offer valuable lessons to those at risk of falling behind.
The need for vision and leadership in the manufacturing sector is clear: More than 70% of companies are struggling to adopt technology effectively, with their efforts to respond to the 4IR stuck in what we call “pilot purgatory”, the attempt to implement new technological solutions without realizing the expected returns on investment or improvements in efficiency.
To address this, the World Economic Forum’s Global Lighthouse Network, in collaboration with McKinsey & Company, has identified and brought together 44 of the most advanced factories in the world that are showing leadership in applying advanced manufacturing technologies, including AI, the internet of things and big data analytics, to drive financial and operational impact at scale and transform value chains end-to-end.
To succeed in the rapidly changing landscape of the 4IR, factories must operate in a new way. That requires a strong focus on identifying problems and then creating solutions that go beyond adding incremental tools to existing processes. Factories that create new operating systems that incorporate combinations of technology in an agile approach to continuous iteration can create new ways to not only improve efficiency but also scale new solutions across the entire company.
For example, Fast Radius in the US created an analytics platform that captures data in the manufacturing process using sensors and applies machine learning to provide feedback, allowing workers to more quickly improve design and address any issues. This has led to a 36% inventory reduction and a 90% reduction in the time it takes to get products to market.
At SAIC Maxus in China, the company developed a web app to enable customers to customize and place orders and then track the production status.
