Top 3 technology trends that will dominate the manufacturing industry in 2019

Are you active in the manufacturing industry and are you finding that you're not surfing the wave of Industry 4.0 to remain competitive and profitable? Well' that's because you're probably focusing only on the automation of today and not on the automation of tomorrow. Today I'm going to share with you three trends that will dominate manufacturing in 2019. This week I've attended Indumation, a yearly technology fair for the manufacturing business which was held at the Xpo in Kortrijk, Belgium. 

The first trend I see that will dominate the manufacturing industry in 2019, seamlessly follows the theme of the fair: "Smart, Integrated & Connected Industry - Automation next level", is that IoT is the next big thing. Manufacturers are increasingly leveraging the Internet of Things (IoT), which entails the interconnection of unique devices like cameras and sensors within an existing internet infrastructure, to achieve a variety of goals like cost reduction, increased efficiency, product innovation, improved safety and meeting compliance requirements. Manufacturers and industrialists in every sector have a significant opportunity at hand where they can not only monitor but also automate many of complex processes involved in manufacturing. That's also the central theme of the Indumation fair, where automation has been brought to the next level with new and innovative robots and cyber physical systems for example. Also your employees and their specialties are integrated into the system so that their work becomes more varied, challenging, but also more efficient.

The second trend I see is that Big Data is helping manufacturers achieve more. IoT is transforming almost every surface into a sensor for data collection and providing real-time insights for manufacturers. The strong growth in IoT creates a huge amount of data. This ability to collect data from so many sources combined with increasingly powerful cloud computing is finally making big data usable, and that has an incredible value. Manufacturers can slice and dice data in ways that provide them with a comprehensive understanding of their business. This enables them to improve production, optimize operations, and address issues before problems arise. But also enables real-time analysis to make data driven decisions much faster, which makes their organization more competitive.

The third and final trend I see is that predictive maintenance is keeping production on track. A breakdown in critical equipment is costly to manufacturers both in terms of repairs as well as downtime and loss of productivity. IoT data has left the opportunity of predictive maintenance wide open for most organizations working with machinery or anything that captures sensor data. The ability of live tracking your production process will make it more dynamic and profitable and enables you to avoid problems. Predictive maintenance is just the beginning of the potential we will see from the steady reduction in the cost of capturing data and calculating predictive outputs. It opens up the pathway to becoming a smart factory and being part of industry 4.0. The inexpensive cost of IoT and machine learning is coming together to reshape how we ask many of our business questions today, across almost every industry.

IoT, Big Data and Predictive Maintenance are the three trends I see that will dominate the manufacturing industry in 2019 and will be the automation of tomorrow. So, what's the next step for you as a manufacturer? How can you leverage those trends? Don't make the mistake of just implementing the technology and assume it will all work for you. Technology is not a band aid solution or a checkbox to tick off. It all starts within the business environment. First, you should go back to the base and verify if your business model and strategic business objectives are still suitable for the automation of tomorrow, or are they limited to the automation of today? Because if the latter is true, you need to start with changing and redesigning that first and define where your organisation needs to go. 

Ask yourself strategic questions like: What do my customers want? What slows down my production process? What insight do I want to get? Once that's clear and done, you can than define what the best data and management information is you need to collect in order to answer your strategic questions. Then have the technology support your strategy and your business model. Not the other way around. 

This process requires change and that's my main point. Without the change, without adjusting and adapting your business environment to the new technology you don't get the progress that you want. And that change can hurt, but not changing will hurt even more. The only way manufacturers can stay ahead of competitors and win market share in today’s quickly morphing environment is to embrace change. Those who wish to thrive and not just survive are leveraging the latest in growth-inducing Industry 4.0 technologies.

So whether you are active in automation and engineering services, machine & equipment building, oil & gas, chemistry and pharma, food, beverages or agriculture. Whether you're big enterprise or a small or medium-sized company. Automation, digitization and innovation have now also become a priority for all of you. Where automation is not only about big projects, but also simple innovations can optimize business processes. Industry 4.0 enables companies to produce more efficiently, which in turn results in an increased competitive position.