The future shopfloor

Shopfloor of the future: An imagination or reality?

I am a big fan of science fiction movies. Growing up, the time horizon for these movies was always after the year 2000- remember the movie 2012! Now, we live in those times, and we already see some of those things becoming an everyday reality. Some good things like autonomous vehicles, instant communication, space travel, and some bad things like water scarcity, worldwide viruses disrupting everything are already what we see around us. With this background, as a manufacturing business owner, I cannot stop thinking about how a shopfloor or a manufacturing setup would be in the future!

As mechanical engineers, we rely on drawings and schematics of things before we start implementing them. We believe that if we can prepare a drawing- we can manufacture it. So here is a blueprint or a framework of how you can shape your organization to be relevant and profitable in the distant future.

Small is beautiful!

The older generations who started any business, not only manufacturing, wanted to build everything to be big. Hence, we see mega factories spread over acres of land, churning out goods at break-neck speed. The idea of manufacturing in the 1900s was to make things on a large scale to make them cheap and accessible to everyone. Hence, manufacturers applied the ‘ford model’  to almost every shop floor and manufacturing business globally. However, this model has a flaw- it relies on making the same products in huge quantities. This model does not accommodate the customer’s choice or customization.

The consumer trend helped by digitization is going towards customization. Today, it is not ‘cool’ to show that you own a car; today, you want to personalize your car/vehicle and customize it till you can proudly call it your own. Consumers want to have the latest and upgraded versions of products that show their personality and character. Imagine having a vehicle that would be like your signature- like your very own Batmobile!

In the future, this trend would be even more significant. Hence, manufacturing won’t be about achieving economies of scale but an amplification of customer satisfaction. Manufacturers who will find ways to make different things- differently, every time will be the winners. A vehicle manufacturer, or let us say transportation equipment manufacturers (because I don’t think people in the future will be driving on roads!), will be spending countless hours with their customers in developing their very own transportation equipment. These vehicles will be an extension of the personality that will use them- anybody else may not even fit inside the driving seat. Every product which comes out of a factory will be a work of art.

To accommodate such levels of customization, every component in the supply chain, manufacturers will have to design for customization, which can happen only with small and nimble entities. In conclusion, a factory in the future won’t be spread over acres of land; instead, it will be a small setup with bare minimum necessities and will still be as profitable as some of the mega factories we see today.

Sustainable and clean

The evolution of manufacturing is going in the direction of sustainability. The mindset of entrepreneurs in the 1900s was that of abundance. Manufacturers thought natural resources of the earth are infinite, and hence conservation was never part of their conversation. As time progressed, the drawbacks of this mindset became apparent. Today efforts are towards reducing, recycling, and re-using, which means finding ways to reduce the usage of something, recycle it after its use instead of throwing in the open environment, and re-use the recycled product. We see this happening prominently in industrial cutting fluids. Customers want to avoid using cutting fluids, and if that is not possible, they want solutions to reduce its use, followed by recycling it and then re-using it. Everybody wants solutions to avoid discarding or throwing away stuff. Environment consciousness is slowly but surely creeping in manufacturing.

In the future, the evolution of 3D printing technology would be such that instead of cutting or removing metal to achieve desired shapes or forms, manufacturers will print the components. 3D printing is already a reality. However, since the processing time is prolonged- 3D printing cannot replace traditional manufacturing processes at the moment. However, future customers will be ready to wait to get their products made precisely as per their liking rather than feel an imaginary or arbitrary urgency to have the products delivered the moment they think about it.

Apart from 3D printing, manufacturers and their customers would have fully understood the actual cost of harming the environment. Manufacturing sustainability will not only remain a buzzword but a necessity. Manufacturers will have to undergo technology up-gradation rapidly to keep themselves abreast with the changing technology.

The shop floor of the future will look and feel as if someone has entered the operation theatre. There will be no dirt lying around, no leakages of any kind, cutting fluids (if used) will be extremely clean, and it will be a pleasant atmosphere. One would see happy, smiling faces on the shop floor- as if people have spent money to be there.

Manufacturers of the future

As a part of a study published in Sweden, researchers interviewed students or ‘future shopfloor operators’ to describe their possible future work. Below was the student’s interpretation of expectations from prospective shop floor operators or owners-

1. To be a team player with interpersonal skills
2. Innovative creative and ‘get things done.’
3. Holistic understanding of the production system
4. Flexible and multi-skilled
5. IT knowledge
6. Work proactively and an ability to interpret processes and relationships

The above study was published in 2018, and it is not clear as to what time horizon they have considered when they say ‘future.’ However, it is safe to assume that the use of robots will be more prominent on shop floors of the future.
I would take things one step further and say that robots and humanoids will replace humans on the shop floor.

I do not think humanoids can mimic the complex decision-making process that humans can make in a split second. Today, a skilled and experienced operator can feel just by looking if the component is out of specification, even though all machine parameters are within limits. Replacing intuition with a computer program will require high cost and effort. Cost-benefit analysis may not favor ultimately replacing humans, even in the future.

Manufacturers of the future will be comparable to artists. They will be in the manufacturing industry not because of any compulsion but because they want to and enjoy working with their hands. Seeing one’s creation working in perfect harmony is a joy; even the future manufacturers will yearn. Although dependence on digital technology will be prominent in the future, manufacturers will want to perform certain operations with their own hands just because they enjoy doing it. I predict the future shop floor will be a joyful, playful environment where people will come to collaborate and have fun.

How can today’s manufacturers be ready for the future?

Even a journey in outer space begins with a tiny step. Preparation for the future has already started. Manufacturers only need to decide today if they see their organization being relevant in the distant future. If the answer to that question is no, then the business can go on as usual. Manufacturing companies will start, and they will shut down with time. However, companies that will imbibe a culture of constant progress will exist 100 years from today.

Today’s manufacturing firms are single-dimensional entities, i.e., they restrict their thinking within the field of their expertise. However, manufacturers of the future will have to be multi-faceted; they will have to be a jack of all trades and masters of manufacturing/engineering. Manufacturers who rely on the first principles of thinking will be relevant and profitable in the future; a case in point is Mr. Elon Musk, who does not confine himself in thinking within single-dimensional entities.

Young engineers who will be entering the workforce now and will enjoy the technological advances of the future need to inculcate the first principle of thinking as a habit- unfortunately, they do not get to choose. Young engineers who want to have a career as a manufacturer will have to be generalists and not specialists. They will no longer be restricted with access to knowledge as everything is well documented and available on the internet. Relying solely on rote learning and textbooks will prove detrimental. Instead, they should take up projects which solve real problems (irrespective of whether they are getting paid or not) and take those to completion. Only through such a problem-solving approach will they stumble upon executable ideas, leading to factories and shop floors of the future.

Communication is one skill that manufacturers need to master right away if they want to be relevant in the future. Communication is one skill that will never be commoditized or programmed. The need to communicate is very human, and this will remain relevant even in the future. The stories may differ, but the need to tell stories and listen to them will always be there. Only through the manufacturing storytelling will we generate collective wisdom, which will enable manufacturers to remain relevant in the future.

To conclude, the future of manufacturing seems utopian or far-fetched, but so is any sci-fi movie plot. The basic premise of every science fiction is straightforward- its treatment is what makes it fictional. If someone decides to make a movie today on the manufacturing industry in 3021- we will watch and forget about it, considering it to be impossible. But if we decide to dwell upon the thought or idea for some time- we may realize that taking the first step in that journey may be very simple. You take that step, which inspires someone else to take the next, and so the journey will begin, and the fiction will transform into reality.