Week 39 in Manufacturing News

How 5G Will Revolutionize the Manufacturing Sector: The Main Applications; Are Microfactories the Next Big Thing for Manufacturing? US and Eurozone manufacturing.

U.S. Manufacturing Hits 5-Month High, But Trade War Still Looms

While the manufacturing sector staged a muted recovery in September, showing a degree of resilience in the broader U.S. economy, the trade war continues to take a noticeable toll on the overall business outlook, according to new IHS Markit data.

Manufacturing sector activity scored 51.0—up from 50.3 in August and beating out the consensus estimates of 50.4.

Source: Forbes.

Eurozone economy slows amid trade decline and Brexit fears

The eurozone economy came close to stalling in September after declines in global trade and the threat of a no-deal Brexit triggered the fastest fall in manufacturing output in nearly seven years.

Germany was the main driver of the slump after a survey of private sector activity found that the growing threat to international trade from the tit-for-tat US-China trade war had left it in the worst position since 2009.

Source: The Guardian.

How 5G Will Revolutionize the Manufacturing Sector: The Main Applications

5G will have a profound positive impact on technologies in the manufacturing sector, such as with AI and machine learning, by making intelligent algorithms more successful at fulfilling their purpose.

Within manufacturing, there are numerous use cases:

• Utilization of real-time, highly granular location data from across the supply chain can be used to greatly increase efficiency and agility and reduce operational risks.
• Increased use of sensor data to capture data about a specific characteristic.
• Increasing part of the Industry 4.0 and IoT paradigm is the ability for machines to act intelligently with what is termed edge computing and to communicate directly with other machines.

Source: IoT For All.

Are Microfactories the Next Big Thing for Manufacturing?

Taking advantage of new manufacturing technologies, microfactories are small, highly automated factories. In addition to requiring less space, the microfactory doesn’t need as large of a labor force and can use less energy and materials.

The microfactory trend is gaining traction in the fashion and textile industry in particular but is also being utilized in other areas as well.

Source: ThomasNet.