The rebirth of manufacturing

As the global economy continues to evolve, the manufacturing industry is undergoing something of a renaissance. This is a worldwide phenomenon, but many countries across the Middle East have been quick to grasp the potential as they look to diversify their own economies.

The result has been a wave of government-backed manufacturing initiatives and policies aimed at luring manufacturers to the region and preparing the next generation of talent. And this surge in interest is not limited only to the industry’s biggest players, with small-scale entrepreneurs increasingly designing and manufacturing their own products to sell through artisan fairs, independent retailers, and online platforms.

Indeed, new technologies are changing the economies of scale so that large- and small-scale value chains can be successful. As such, IT is increasingly becoming an integral part of manufacturing’s success, and this trend is only going to intensify as more and more manufacturers embrace the concept of digital transformation.

In order to prepare for this new generation of manufacturing, forward-thinking manufacturers need to review their current application portfolios, modernise both their upstream and downstream processes, and upgrade their decision-making capabilities.

Driving improvements in customer engagement and customer service is critical, as is the need to modernise all aspects of the supply chain so as to support continually evolving market requirements and facilitate rapid speed to market.

This all-important “need for speed” sits at the very heart of the quest for innovation, and must be factored into all related processes, products, and services. That’s because dynamic customer demand and expectations of rapid delivery are placing a serious strain on manufacturing supply chains, requiring manufacturers to innovate in order to remain competitive.

To drive the level of innovation required to support mass customisation, rapid delivery, and the need to keep production as close to the point of consumption as possible, manufacturers are increasingly embracing advancements in robotics, 3D printing, and cognitive computing as critical competitive differentiators.

The development of virtual models, or digital twins, is also gaining traction in the manufacturing sector. This concept has proven particularly useful for facilitating improved product and service innovation, as it utilises sensor-enabled digital models of a physical object to simulate the finished product in a live setting.

This is where computeraided engineering (CAE) truly comes to the fore, helping to create a full digital model of a product, its associated manufacturing processes, and service plans. As performance and process impacts and errors can be modelled and remodelled before physical production begins, this approach greatly reduces the prevalence of costly quality issues and the need for manufacturing rework.

The use of digital twins also improves the time to market, and can be extended beyond engineering, R&D, and manufacturing to incorporate factors such as business strategy and planning, costing, service, and logistics — where different planning, cost, service, and delivery scenarios can be modelled and prescribed. Perhaps the most compelling motivation for applying a simulation as broadly as this is that it will help to drive sustainable, customer-driven innovation and improve sales by enabling lifelike renderings of products that customers can interact with. Such developments are, of course, not the first time that manufacturers have explored the use of emerging technologies to support their shop-floor processes. Some technologies, such as mobile devices, gained strong traction as they provided an invaluable tool for collecting and delivering data to the right people at the right time.

However, cloud has been often been overlooked in the factory setting, with security and service availability issues leading many manufacturers to view it as an unsuitable platform for running mission-critical applications that are collecting and managing a humongous amount of real-time data.

Today, we are witnessing a major transformation. The process of connecting and creating smart factories is generating new needs for modern organisations, with manufacturers increasingly realising that their factories must actively support the innovation business model being pursued by the rest of the organisation. The ability to collect, analyse data, and provide the derived insights immediately will revolutionise organisational tasks. And in this context, the synergy between cloud and big data analytics, amplified by the widespread distribution of mobile tools, will be key.

Advancements in innovation-accelerating technologies will undoubtedly play a critical role in shaping the future of the manufacturing landscape. But, as always, it is important to remember that simply having these technologies in place will never be enough — companies must also work hard to create value from their investments and ensure they have the right talent on board.