Top 10: Trends of 2024
Over the course of 2024 manufacturing has undergone a transformative evolution.
Aspiring for greater efficiency, competitiveness, sustainability and insight, the industry has pursued technological advancement at an increased scale and pace.
This advancement is partially reactive, responding to growing digital skills and hiring gap in addition to an increasingly disrupted supply chain.
Organisations understand the necessity of streamlining their processes and fortifying their ability to reduce downtime like never before.
Many manufacturers have targeted the same areas of their operations in this vein.
From this ten definitive trends have emerged, defining the landscape of global manufacturing in 2024.
10. Workforce upskilling
A topic we have explored at length this year is the challenges surrounding hiring and retaining staff in the manufacturing industry.
With the rise of Industry 4.0, a new dimension has been added to this issue. Manufacturers need employees with the digital skills to effectively manage the advanced technologies they are implementing into factories.
This has led to a marked growth in manufacturers upskilling staff in 2024.
One manufacturer who has done this extensively with BASF, which has invested in workforce upskilling through training programmes that focus on digital tools and technologies.
By empowering the workforce to navigate new challenges, manufacturers give people the opportunity to develop new vital skills and foster superior innovation.
9. Smart factories
Coming in at number nine on our list is the rise of smart factories, a prominent trend in 2024.
These factories are built on a foundation of Industry 4.0, with AI integration and the latest automation and data tools.
By optimising workflows and reducing waste, they help create fully connected and flexible manufacturing ecosystems.
One manufacturer leading in this area has to be ABB, which has embraced smart factories extensively to fuel greater sustainability within manufacturing.
8. Augmented/ Virtual reality
A critical trend we've seen grow this year in manufacturing is the use of virtual and augmented reality technologies.
This trend is extremely exciting for the industry, due to the sheer scale of applications this technology has.
We've covered how its being used in training, engineering, design and many other areas, anticipating its uses to expand even more in 2025.
A manufacturer that has been using it to great effect is Boeing, which uses AR to guide technicians in assembling complex aircraft systems.
By overlaying digital information onto physical objects, the technology reduces errors and improves accuracy.
7. Efforts to build supply chain resilience
Another significant trend of 2024 in manufacturing has been renewed efforts to build supply chain resiliency.
Manufacturers have learned strong lessons from Covid-19, that continue to be reinforced by the supply chain disruption resulting from Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the conflict in Palestine.
These lessons include the necessity of diversified sourcing to reduce dependency and the value of increased supply chain agility.
In 2024, manufacturers have pursued both these objectives through advanced technologies and the power of data.
Intel for example has built resilient supply chains using data analytics, ensuring continuity of its vital semiconductor manufacturing amid global disruptions.
6. Additive manufacturing
Coming in at number six, is one of our favourite topics here at Manufacturing Digital- additive manufacturing.
This has been a dominant trend this year, utilised by manufacturers across industry verticals in some unexpected places.
We've covered 3D printing in space, the maritime industry and beyond, highlighting its incredible versatility and phenomenal potential.
While its scalability is still in question, additive manufacturing continues to enable rapid prototyping along with greater production security, flexibility and speed.
One manufacturer that recognises this is the industry giant General Motors, which has applied 3D printing to create tools and parts, cutting lead times and material waste.
5. Advanced Robotics
Some may overlook the impact of this trend in 2024 due to its sheer ubiquity.
Its extremely rare to find a global manufacturer that has not adopted and sought to advance its use of industrial robots.
They are a proven means to enhance production efficiency, precision and automate repetitive tasks.
We've seen countries like China, Germany and the USA pursue mass adoption in manufacturing to fuel superior industry competitiveness.
And we've seen manufacturers like Toyota integrate robotics more deeply into production to ensure their competitive advance in the high-demand automotive market.
4. Digital Twins
A trend this year we have no doubt we'll see an explosion of in 2025 is digital twins.
By creating virtual replicas of physical systems, digital twins are simulations where manufacturers can test, prototype and train without real-life costs and risks.
Like virtual reality, this technology has an ever-expanding list of applications, being utilised across training, production, design and repairs.
The industry leader in this technology has to be Siemens, a company which has truly pioneered digital twins to simulate and optimise manufacturing processes.
3. Sustainable manufacturing
Sustainability was the word on everyone's lips in 2024 and we saw a colossal push within manufacturing for companies to become more green.
This has been driven by the rise of new regulatory requirements, consumer demands and the desire many manufacturers have to be part of creating a more sustainable future for us all.
Industry 4.0 has been critical to this trend, with tools like data and AI enabling manufacturers to reduce emissions, water usage and waste in order to achieve the much-coveted goal of economic circularity.
Unilever has been leading in this area, with factories that use renewable energy and data to minimize environmental impact.
2. Artificial intelligence
AI was one of the most talked about trends in 2024 across industries.
In manufacturing we saw a prominent rise in companies laying out strategies, moving to adopt and creating critical use cases.
AI has been harnessed to streamlining operations, enhance productivity and increase safety, helping to overcome many of the issues and challenges that continue to exist in manufacturing environments.
By enabling predictive analytics, improved quality control and process optimisation, it helps manufacturers avoid downtime and elevate results.
Industry leaders like Amazon have been using AI-driven robots for picking and sorting, reducing human error and accelerating processes.
1. Industrial IoT
Almost every trend we've covered so far comes under the banner of, or is enabled by Industrial IoT.
This is the big overarching trend of 2024: the digitalisation of manufacturing as we know it and the movement to software-enabled forms of training, production, service and monitoring.
Every industry is undergoing its own distinctive technological revolution and manufacturing is no different.
We've seen General Electric for example leverage IoT through its Predix platform to monitor equipment health and boost productivity.
Arguably the transformation of this sector is more globally significant than any other, with its impact on global transportation, housing, machinery, food and products.
We'll continue to see more of this transformation as we head into 2025.
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