Recently, Sandvik Coromant decided to take a closer look at the ‘macro’ trends influencing the future of the manufacturing industry. The company identified four areas of special interest: rapid urbanisation, sustainability, new advanced materials and new technologies.
Marketing manager (innovation) Kevin Lorch (pictured) says: “Traditionally, the manufacturing industry has been conservative in exploring new opportunities, but the situation is now different. Simply put, the world is moving at a much faster pace than before.
"In order to develop future solutions and meet customer demands, industry leaders have to be perceptive and forward-thinking; and while many companies perform market and trend research for internal use, we decided that the result of the survey could be used to spark a dialogue about the future of manufacturing and the attitudes in the industry towards new challenges.
“Today, half of the world’s population — some 3 billion people — live in urban areas. Over the next 15 years, the ‘top 600 cities’ list will change, as the centre of gravity of the urban world moves south and, even more decisively, east.
“Environmental issues have been part of the manufacturing industry for a long time. However, sustainability will be a much more integrated part of the manufacturing business model in the future in terms of recycling, energy-saving processes, reducing the use of water, and ‘green’ transport.
"Material development will also have a major influence, with high-performance materials like carbon fibre and super alloys — and the on-going demand for increased productivity — influencing new methods of manufacturing, machine and tool design, as well as software.
With the release of the trend report, we hope to spread a dialogue about the future across the manufacturing industry.” The trend report and accompanying video are available for download at the Web site
(www.sandvik.coromant.com/lookingahead).