Summary of Seven Trends of Manufacturing Industry in 2022

In the new era of 2020 that many people expect, we have not had a brilliant start in some countries, and manufacturing enterprises have not seen economic growth and prosperity. On the contrary, due to the negative impact of COVID-19 epidemic, especially the unstable supply chain, transportation problems, shortage of workers and inflation, they have been trying to support it.

Although this epidemic is a once-in-a-century challenge for most manufacturing enterprises, it also forces many manufacturing enterprises to adapt to this challenge by accelerating the pace of digital transformation. Cloud computing, robot process automation, low-code development and other technologies are the core of this digital transformation, which has created countless opportunities for manufacturing enterprises to explore new solutions.

The following seven trends of global manufacturing in 2022 may reflect the current real situation to some extent.

1. Consumer-driven manufacturing industry

Just like the speed of science and technology development today, the demand of consumers is changing with each passing day, and it is difficult for manufacturing enterprises to provide products and services that consumers need quickly.

Nowadays, the lowest expectation of customers for manufacturing enterprises is to be able to deliver and provide personalized products and services on the same day and realize a transparent delivery process. However, if manufacturing enterprises want to make their business stand out and maintain global competitiveness, they need to have a high degree of agility and flexibility, which the traditional business model obviously cannot do.

Consumer-driven manufacturing focuses on predicting the needs of product users. But how to predict? The answer is to integrate various new technologies and functions, such as data analysis, Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) into existing systems and software.

Manufacturing enterprises can implement digital quality control, asset location monitoring and automatic material replenishment to improve operational efficiency and deliver products to consumers faster. These technologies allow users and stakeholders to choose their own digital interaction experience.

2. Stable and predictable supply chain

Manufacturing enterprises are in a period of constant fluctuation of market supply and demand. Deloitte (one of the four largest accounting firms in the world) pointed out that most purchasing managers will continue to face systemic problems caused by high consumer demand, rising materials and freight costs and slow delivery.

Supply disruptions have become "commonplace" and costly. However, many manufacturing enterprises are studying the mode of making supply chain and logistics more predictable. Using AI, data analysis and sensors instead of labor can help supply chain managers identify laws, predict purchasing demand and better manage inventory. As Deloitte pointed out, "digital supply network and data analysis can effectively help manufacturing enterprises to take more flexible and multi-level measures to deal with the unexpected interruption of supply chain."

3. Internet services

Technology not only improves the management level of manufacturing enterprises, but also changes the services they provide to customers.

Internet service is an additional service provided by networked devices based on industrial products. Capgemini Consulting, when evaluating the interconnection service of manufacturing industry, said: "The business model of manufacturing industry is changing to pay by use and pay by production. Customers don't pay for the actual products, but pay for the benefits brought by the products. "

Internet services bring infinite possibilities, and some of the most famous examples include:

Vehicle telematics

Remote control of equipment and machines

Predictive maintenance

Smart Home Solutions and Automation

Internet services have created a better experience for customers and made manufacturing enterprises stand out from the competition. Manufacturing enterprises can collect data at every key point of customers' business, and then use these data to continuously improve the quality of products and related services. Interconnected services have also created a fixed income source and higher profit rate for manufacturing enterprises.

4. Smart factories

Smart factories are also called digital factories or smart factories. Smart factories use highly automated and adaptive equipment and machines to improve work efficiency and flexibility, track products and inventory through sensors, and understand maintenance requirements in real time through machines supporting cloud computing.

Adidas is a forward-looking manufacturing enterprise. In order to build the future factory, Adidas has equipped its "high-speed factory" with 3D printers, robotic arms, laser cutting robots and Internet of Things tools, enabling the factory to quickly create various models and mass produce them quickly. Adidas uses automation technology and robots to help employees quickly print product templates and meet the changing needs of consumers by shortening delivery time.

5. Industry 4.0 and Digital Economy

We are in the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0). The third industrial revolution brought us digital technology, while Industry 4.0 will bring super automation, Internet of Things, smart factories and big data. The progress of these technologies has enabled the digital economy to achieve a qualitative leap.

According to TechTarget's explanation: "The fourth industrial revolution is based on the digital revolution, and the current technology will continue to deepen the connection between the physical world and the network world." With the rapid development of technology, manufacturing enterprises need to constantly adjust their business models, improve their management level, and complete various tasks faster and better than before.

The digital economy has spawned many companies, products and services that are highly dependent on modern digital technology, such as Netflix, Sonata, Airbnb, Uber and Raffles Overseas. With the development of technology, the competitive environment is also changing. For example, Netflix has been at the forefront of digitalization by providing streaming media services, while Blockbuster, which once occupied the leading position in the American movie rental market, lost its place in the digital confrontation. In this era when almost everyone has a Netflix account, how many people still remember Blockbuster?

In addition, great progress has been made in the field of medical device manufacturing. Blood glucose meter used to be a kind of testing equipment that relied on battery power supply and did not have networking function. Now, most of these devices are fully connected to the digital world. Manufacturing enterprises can gain better insight, users can track their health status, and medical institutions can better meet the needs of patients.

6. Sustainable development

Manufacturing enterprises want to deliver products quickly and on a large scale around the world, which inevitably brings pressure to our environment. According to the report of the World Economic Forum, American manufacturing accounts for 23% of the country's direct carbon emissions, and European manufacturing emits 880 million tons of carbon dioxide every year.

This is because manufacturing enterprises have always adopted the linear model of "acquisition-manufacturing-waste", relying on fossil fuels, overproducing and excessive waste. But more and more manufacturing enterprises are turning to circular economy.

Circular economy uses artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to realize process automation, simplify operation and improve efficiency. Every manufacturing stage follows the model of recycling-renovation-remanufacturing, reducing waste and cost, thus reducing the company's carbon emissions in the production process. Digital process can provide real-time insight for manufacturing enterprises, help them make decisions quickly, and keep moving towards the goal of sustainable development.

7. Super automation

Super automation is one of the important strategic technology trends of Gartner 2022, which refers to "a standardized and business-driven method that can quickly identify, review and automatically execute as many business and IT processes as possible."

Super-automation needs to be achieved through the coordinated use of AI, sensors, machine learning, robot process automation (RPA), low-code development platform and business process management (BPM) tools.

The manufacturing industry is in a highly isolated environment to some extent, and many enterprises still rely on time-consuming manual processes. Super automation can take over human tasks and make the operation process more transparent. Manufacturing enterprises can hand over repetitive but critical workflow to automation technology, so that employees can completely complete more complex tasks, such as promoting innovation.

How to accelerate the digital transformation of manufacturing enterprises

No enterprise can achieve super interconnection and digital priority overnight. Digital transformation is an important measure for any enterprise, especially for those manufacturing enterprises with manual processes, legacy systems and isolated business and data. Low-code development and multi-experience platform can quickly promote the transformation process.

Siemens low-code manufacturing industry provides manufacturing enterprises with various tools, services and support to help them quickly develop customized applications, portals, core systems and other specific domain solutions. Because Siemens low code has less influence on the core system than other solutions, it can quickly speed up the connection process of people, machines, equipment, systems and workflows. Manufacturing enterprises can also use Siemens low-code platform to modernize legacy systems and enhance customized software development and system integration projects.