MT Magazine January/February 2025

MANUFACTURING MATTERS

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2025

9

Manufacturing Matters Check in for the highlights, headlines, and hijinks that matter to manufacturing. These lean news items keep you updated on the latest developments.

TECHNOLOGY

At the Intersection of All the Technologies? Manufacturers are facing new challenges with increasing demand from the market. To keep pace, companies can’t rely on a single technology. Instead, cultivating an ecosystem of technologies and capabilities will help maintain their growth. The relationship between technologies is also demonstrated through their interdependency on each other. Automation requires a solid digital footprint. Additive manufacturing relies on subtractive processes for functionality. Subtractive processes use metrology technologies to drive faster time to market and increase confidence in the entire manufacturing process. Metrology depends on digital manufacturing to continuously improve processes and future designs. For manufacturers to be successful in this high demand, agile market, a holistic approach to manufacturing technologies must be taken. This can be done through incremental business process development, value-stream mapping, and consistent strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat analysis.

INTELLIGENCE

As Populations Age, Automation Adoption Increases Renowned MIT economist Daron Acemoglu was awarded the 2024 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his groundbreaking research on how institutions shape national prosperity. Along with his colleagues, Acemoglu demonstrated that societies with a strong rule of law and inclusive institutions generate greater economic growth. This work has implications for understanding global inequality and development. Interestingly, Acemoglu's research extends to the realm of automation and demographics. In another paper, he found that aging populations significantly drive robotics adoption: Within the United States, a 10-percentage-point increase in local population aging led to a 6.45-percentage-point increase in the presence of robot "integrators" in the area. This research suggests that as societies age, they increasingly turn to automation to maintain productivity. The manufacturing technology community can look to how societal factors – be they institutional or demographic – profoundly influence economic outcomes and technological adoption for interesting industry insights that can be leveraged to build stronger strategies.

SMARTFORCE

Smartforce Student Summit Launches Quarterly Newsletter Stay connected to the future of manufacturing with the new Smartforce quarterly newsletter! Designed for educators, students, and industry professionals, this newsletter delivers the latest in workforce development and education news. With insights from technology OEMs, universities, and community organizations, it’s your go-to source for inspiring and equipping the next generation of manufacturing technology professionals. Don’t miss exclusive updates and resources that keep the Smartforce brand active between IMTS shows. Subscribe and join a community of over 20,000 dedicated to advancing manufacturing’s future workforce at IMTS.com/smartforce.