How Smart Manufacturers Will Weather The Storm In 2023
Manufacturers already have access to much of the technology they will need to adapt to digital environments. This article from Forbes discusses some of those technologies and their new use cases in manufacturing environments.
The manufacturing sector hasn’t had an easy time lately. The supply chain disruptions and challenging labor market of recent years were joined by surging energy prices in 2022, further squeezing the profitability – and viability – of key industrial processes.
But many of the pieces to help firms adapt, survive, and even thrive in the future of manufacturing are already in place. Pandemic-era innovations were successfully operationalized by the manufacturing sector’s leaders, widening the gap between those companies and their less successful peers. Looking ahead to 2023, we see further examples of manufacturers doubling down on existing technology initiatives to respond, adapt, and set themselves up to weather the storms coming over the horizon. For example:
- Manufacturers with existing internet-of-things investments will repurpose them to bring their energy use under control. With energy prices so high, and with the threat of scheduled blackouts in some European markets this winter, manufacturers are redoubling their efforts to track and understand the role of alternative energy sources such as hydrogen and renewables. But while these will become increasingly important in the future, none will make a big difference in the short term. One area that delivers value quickly is tracking and then managing energy use: If you need to consume €1,000,000 of electricity, at least make sure you get as much useful production from it as possible. Organizations with existing investments in IoT sensors, connectivity, and analytics are finding that they’re well placed to put the technology to work in measuring and optimizing their power bill.
- Clear use cases mean the metaverse will probably emerge in manufacturing first. Industrial use cases for augmented, mixed, and virtual reality are not new. Solid use cases and deployments at scale predate current enthusiasm for the so-called metaverse. While the fully realized metaverse is still at least 10 years away, we expect manufacturing to lead the way in moving beyond today’s metaverse precursors toward more integrated environments, ranging from collaboration solutions to rich digital twin capabilities.
- Innovation ecosystems will help manufacturers focus on their differentiating value. Manufacturers can be a conservative bunch, with a tendency to want to own as much of their value chain as they can manage. But the value of numerous manufacturers duplicating the same undifferentiated foundational services can be questionable, at best. Recent enthusiasm for building and – more importantly – actively participating in innovation ecosystems has begun to change this mindset, and it helps position the sector to respond to its current challenges. No one organization can do everything itself. By nurturing more open relationships with customers, partners, suppliers, and even competitors, we can reduce unnecessary duplication, standardize where appropriate, and then differentiate in the areas that truly deliver customer value.
This post was written by VP, Principal Analyst Paul Miller
This article was written by Forrester from Forbes and was legally licensed through the Industry Dive Content Marketplace. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@industrydive.com.
