GMIS'2021 Panel on Smart Manufacturing and Supply Chain

Just returning from a few days at #GMIS2021. What an impressive combination of discussions on industry, technology, sustainability, prosperity, youth, and government. Dozens of heads of state, CEOs and senior executives of industrial , academics, entrepreneurs, and investors, among others spoke at the summit and attended several sessions and dialogues.

I was privileged to join a panel - with Ismail Abdulla (Strata Manufacturing CEO), Mike Lordi (Elliott Group CEO), and Laksh Sehgal (Vice Chairman of Motherson Group) with Nadira Tudor (News UK anchor and reporter) as the panel moderator - on the topic of investments in automation vs. smart connected factories and we had a spirited discussion on the pros and cons and the expectations from multiple stakeholders.

My perspective was that while full automation may be an ambition, the reality is that other than for repetitive manufacturing as in the process industries, it does remain a distant dream! Less than 15% of manufacturers around the have achieved a reasonable degree of smart manufacturing and supply chain (aka digital champions – see https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/industrial-manufacturing/digital-supply-chain/digital-champions-2025.html). Further, more than 70% of all data is “dark”, i.e., highly underused. So, the immediate imperative is to ensure that factories and supply chains are “connected” and data are analyzed in real time and appropriate decisions made. Further, it has not been easy to implement smart factories and connected supply chains @SCALE. Going from a few large or small use cases in one factory to dozens of use cases in multiple factories is non-trivial.

These naturally require significant changes and progress in terms of scaling up use cases through effective design and execution, integrating IT with OT (https://www.pwc.com/m1/en/publications/role-of-cio-in-integrating-iiot-for-industrial-companies.html), (up)skilling of shop floor workers and engineers and the role of software engineers to manufacturing organizations (https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/industrial-manufacturing/publications/defining-new-dna.html), as well as redesign of products and processes to be future-ready .. as Tesla's Berlin EV giga factory is doing (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-15/if-elon-musk-is-modern-day-henry-ford-he-ll-have-to-prove-it-in-germany). Furthermore, as companies, governments, and consumers embrace and adopt sustainable manufacturing, expect significant redesign of products and processes to be more sustainable (changes in materials, being recyclable, consume less energy, etc. e.g., see https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/industrial-manufacturing/publications/sustainability-in-manufacturing.html).

Furthermore, smart manufacturing and automation also need to deliver for their stakeholders. From an investor perspective, automation generally requires significant capital investments and so delivering a return on the investment in a reasonable timeline is important. Governments and society expect manufacturing to continue to create value-adding jobs. Employees expect ongoing investments in skills and training alongside expectations of productivity growth.

#smartmanufacturing #digitalsupplychain #sustainablemanufacturing #manufacturingjobs #unido #gmis2021