What are the 2024 Trends in Manufacturing?

If you’re in manufacturing, you’ll likely have a good idea of what the industry is looking like. You might know what your competitors are up to and what your audiences are hoping to see from your brand. This gives you a keen insight into ongoing developments but doesn’t let you see the future.

With the rapid development of new technologies being what it is, the dawn of a new year gives you time to examine developing trends. Being as well informed as possible of these can help you to decide how to react to them, and whether to jump on board.

Robotics

One of the issues with such rapid technological development in every single sector is that it becomes easy to wave away the sensational developments of yesterday. A lot of the discourse that once surrounded robotics and physical automation can be seen occurring again today around AI. While AI is still a trend making waves in manufacturing, it’s important to remember how much robotics can offer manufacturing – especially as they’ve only continued to improve.

It’s also natural that you might think slightly narrowly about what constitutes robotics. It doesn’t have to be an overhaul of your assembly line or a complete production process automation, and it could be an improvement, such as a Galvo Laser. A Galvo Laser engraver has often been thought of as being better than a CO2 laser, perhaps making it an upgrade that’s worth the cost.

Carbon Neutrality

It’s difficult, if not impossible, to disentangle developments within any given industry from the surrounding issues at large. Just as advancements in technology can give way to new applications for AI in your industry, the ongoing climate crisis puts pressure on your brand to respond in some way. It’s difficult to respond to this in some way that won’t affect your operations. That being said, if your audiences know that you’re taking active strides to do what you can at a time like this, that might improve the perception of your brand – seeing you as different from your competitors in how you plan on tackling the big problems.

Cybersecurity

With so much to focus on in your business and so many new technologies emerging to shake up the landscape and make you consider a new way to operate, it can be easy to forget the pillars that keep your brand going more consistently and quietly.

Security is one such pillar and one that you shouldn’t ignore. You are reliant upon computer systems – partly for the manufacturing processes that are unique to your industry, but also for marketing, websites, administrative work, and other areas that are more universal. You want to ensure that you are as protected as possible from the myriad of online threats that could be lurking. You might do this by ensuring that all of your data is backed up securely in cloud storage. Or, you might consider what cloud-based security systems can do for vulnerabilities in your defenses.