What the future holds on the precipice of manufacturing’s breakthrough transformation

At the 54th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, Flex CEO Revathi Advaithi participated in the panel discussion: “Manufacturing’s Moonshots Are Landing… Are You Ready for the Next Wave?”

Advanced manufacturing capabilities and technologies are revolutionizing the way products are manufactured, resulting in greater innovation, productivity, and growth. Manufacturing moonshots — the sector’s most ambitious and high-impact goal — have the potential to transform business and industry, while positively affecting economies and societies.

As a December 2023 white paper from the World Economic Forum stated, in this transformative era of manufacturing, “manufacturers across the globe will be compelled to make a strategic decision in response to industry acceleration: to be innovators, accelerators or fast followers. The only wrong choice is to do nothing — laggards will not last long.”

During the panel session in Davos-Klosters, Revathi echoed this sentiment alongside other industry thought leaders in a discussion about how breakthrough technologies — such as nanomachines, artificial intelligence (AI), simulation, and other — can help the sector make meaningful inroads on its four main priorities: innovation, human-centric industries, sustainable operations, and resilient value chains.

Revathi touched on how looking forward, adoption of advanced manufacturing technologies such as AI will make it possible for smaller factories to achieve the same level of productivity, efficiency, and agility as their larger counterparts. She also shared her perspective on recent supply chain crises and how these challenges may be solved differently in the future through end-to-end planning. Finally, Revathi emphasized how available, sustainable power and a skilled workforce are crucial to reaching the full potential of manufacturing’s next era.