Manufacturing in 2020
How does your company see the year ahead? We’re using our crystal ball here and invite you to do the same. Tell us how you see things and developments you are looking forward to. – ed. Manufacturing in 2020 will be exciting, dynamic, and competitive. With the emergence of billions of new consumers into the “developed” world, the emphasis on education, the pressure to raise or maintain living standards while consuming fewer resources, and the global availability of knowledge, manufacturers will have unprecedented market opportunities. The development of adaptive, reconfigurable equipment, processes, and systems will enable the rapid reconfiguration of enterprises to meet competitive pressures but will also improve the integration of human and technology resources, enterprise-wide concurrency, and the development of revolutionary processes. Second, research on modelling and simulation will help meet the challenges for enterprise-wide concurrency, the utilisation of human and technological resources, the conversion of information to knowledge, and the rapid reconfiguration of manufacturing enterprises. Finally, research on information technology will help to meet all the grand challenges. Information technology is the primary technology for converting information to knowledge and will be a key technology for concurrency, the integration of human and technical resources, and the rapid reconfiguration of enterprises. Recommendation. Establish priorities for long-term research with an emphasis on crosscutting technologies, i.e., technologies that address more than one grand challenge. Adaptable and reconfigurable manufacturing systems, information and communication technologies, and modelling and simulation are three research areas that address several grand challenges. Breakthrough Research Technological breakthroughs in two areas—innovative submicron manufacturing processes and enterprise modelling and simulation—would have a profound impact on manufacturing of the future.Bottom of Form Submicron Manufacturing Submicron manufacturing promises to provide economic solutions to meeting increasingly demanding customer needs and, at the same time, decreasing time to market, energy consumption, and environmental costs. […]