2023 Predictions & Forecasts: The future is bright machines

Two senior executives from Bright Machines, a manufacturing automation company, give Robotics and Automation News their thoughts and forecasts for the year ahead.

The predictions offer insight on manufacturing trends, supply chain evolution, the future of automation, and more.

Paolo Avagliano, COO at Bright Machines

Trade disputes, labor shortages, supply chain disruptions, and a global pandemic contributed to companies evaluating options to reshore and nearshore production to mitigate future risks.

In 2023, economic uncertainty will put additional momentum behind the technology that makes reshoring possible. In creating a distributed network of factories, automation offers a better handle on costs and enables a high level of flexibility that makes scaling easier.

In addition, unlike manual labor, the cost of implementing an intelligent automation solution varies little across geographies, allowing the industry to move production from low to higher labor-cost regions to build closer to where they sell and mitigate future risk.

As a result, the rise of resilient, software-driven automation mitigating the barriers to reshoring will continue in the coming years.

Justine Crosby, VP of marketing at Bright Machines

Today’s automation, driven by intelligent software, is reenergizing industrial business transformation, delivering real value in terms of return on investment by exceeding their expectations on speed, scale, and flexibility.

Manufacturers have already begun changing how they work, using a more distributed, location-agnostic approach to production, meaning they can make better products in nimbler, smaller, and more sustainable factories.

One can sense a future where products are made on-demand, closer to customers. But I’m most excited about this approach’s potential to speed up innovation dramatically. As factories become more digital and distributed, they become more transparent and accessible.

Today’s technology will enable anyone to build anything anywhere on demand, bringing about the true democratization of innovation.