An earthquake has struck the world of manufacturing, and its epicenter is digital technology. This revolution, fueled by the digitization of our world, is transforming the old orders of sheet metal fabrication, CNC machining, and stamping and is pushing innovation and efficiency into overdrive. The advent of sheet metal fabrication in the Pentagon (sic) nearly 60 years ago freed the auto industry from the constraints of large-scale production. A recent symposium at Wayne State University helped attendees see how far our local, national, and global business model has come—and how sheet metal fabrication, even in its digital form, has the potential to go even farther.
Digital technology has completely transformed CNC machining. Nowadays, we have advanced software interfaces that allow for better, smoother communication between CAD models and CNC machines. This step alone has virtually ensured the precision of CNC machining components, along with the operating speeds of these machines, which have only improved over time. And this is becoming more of the standard interface for CNC machining, especially in the high-end world of CNC precision machining components.
Digital manufacturing's merging with the principles of Industry 4.0 signifies the beginnings of a paradigm shift. In this data-rich environment, smart factories maintain interconnected systems and IoT sensors. When analyzed with AI, the data becomes supremely useful. In an era often referred to as "the fourth industrial revolution," the advantages of moving toward a more digital workspace appear life-changing. There is, however, a major disadvantage to this radical transformation, and that is the connected systems of a smart factory are at risk for cyber incursions. A connected system is a vulnerable system, and those connected systems desperately need smart cybersecurity.
From a future perspective, digital manufacturing is bound to keep innovating at breakneck speed. The innovation enablers—additive manufacturing, machine learning, and the further development of artificial intelligence (AI)—show no signs of slowing down. If anything, they're beginning to achieve the kind of widely accepted, business-transforming promise that many in industry had hoped for. The integration of digital twins and augmented reality (AR) into manufacturing processes does seem to foretell a future where efficiency, customization, and sheer operational fun of working with new technologies reach heights never before imagined.
This transformation offers a tremendous opportunity for many sectors, especially manufacturing, to gain tremendously in newfound efficiencies and radical productivity improvements. It is not merely a technological advance; it is, at core, a new way of organizing the very essence of industrial production, which Digital Twin and other related technologies will push to innovate to levels we haven't seen in a long time.