There is enormous opportunity for learning, collaboration, and investment between the manufacturing and technology communities to accelerate innovative solutions and product development in the coming decade. Industry leaders agree that every part of the manufacturing value chain will be transformed by technology — R&D, the supply chain, factory operations, sales, and service. Digital connectivity among designers, managers, workers, customers, and physical industrial assets will unlock enormous value and change the manufacturing landscape. AMT spoke to leaders and innovators throughout the manufacturing and technology ecosystems to get their perspectives on transformative technologies and where they see the key opportunities and challenges in the coming decade.
In the past five years, the market has seen a real acceleration of additive manufacturing (AM). While the medical device industry has had both polymer and metal applications in commercial production for the past decade, it has only been in the past few years that AM has moved from polymer-based prototypes to production-quality metals in other industries. These early adopters bought machines, experimented, and developed their own processes around building parts.