Advanced Manufacturing:

A New Narrative
BRIEFING PAPER
OCTOBER 2023
Images: Midjourney, Getty Images, Unsplash

Contents
Introduction 3

1 Driving industry trends 5

2 Key impact areas 7

Resiliency: Improving supply chain control, flexibility and 8

responsiveness to shocks

Efficiency: Maximizing value from scarce resources 11

Sustainability: Reducing environmental footprints and 13

delivering net-zero goals

People: Empowering workers and society for a just 16

transition

Innovation: Adapting what is produced and how 18

3 A call to action 20

Appendix 21

Contributors 22

Endnotes 24

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Advanced Manufacturing: A New Narrative 2

October 2023 Advanced Manufacturing:
A New Narrative

Introduction
Global megatrends are creating increasingly Advanced manufacturing solutions, once perceived
frequent disruptions to economies and as tools for increasing efficiency and productivity,
organizations, which in turn are reshaping can drive lasting improvements for people,
global value chains and pushing industries and planet and prosperity, and are at core of wealth
manufacturing to transform themselves. These creation and economic development. Advanced
megatrends include geopolitical tensions and manufacturing technologies and solutions have
economic instabilities, climate change, technology been shown to drive impact across the following
integration and changing people dynamics. five categories:

While these trends are not new, the magnitude Resiliency: Improving supply chain control,
and complexity are increasing the urgency for the flexibility and responsiveness to shocks
advanced manufacturing industry to respond and
collaborate to change perceptions on the potential of Efficiency: Maximizing value from scarce
advanced manufacturing solutions in driving impact. resources

The World Economic Forum’s Advanced Sustainability: Reducing environmental

Manufacturing Industry community is focused on footprints and delivering net-zero goals
enabling an innovative, inclusive and sustainable
industry transformation and growth. To facilitate People: Empowering workers and society
this, the community has committed to the following for a just transition
five key principles:
Innovation: Adapting what is produced
1. Make advanced manufacturing technologies and how
and solutions openly available across sectors
and countries, as well as large companies and It is important to note that these impact areas are
small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). closely interconnected; with the aim of addressing
a single impact area often multiple are impacted.
2. Put advanced manufacturing at the service In addition, holistic advanced manufacturing
of people by enabling upskilling and reskilling transformation approaches that consider the end-
of workers through new investments and to-end strategic value chain are required to drive the
programmes. biggest impact for industries and organizations.

3. Leverage advanced manufacturing to The New Narrative was developed by the World
make any production environment a more Economic Forum’s Advanced Manufacturing Industry
attractive space for new generations and help community to catalyse the opportunity for advanced
address the current talent gap in manufacturing. manufacturing solutions to unlock real value across
various sectors. The New Narrative acts as a
4. Prioritize advanced manufacturing powerful tool for engaging, changing mindsets and
technologies and solutions that enable the increasing collaboration with various stakeholders
transition towards more sustainable and circular through consistent, concise and compelling
production process and value chains. messaging supported by concrete examples.

5. Build new response mechanisms to help

navigate future crisis and build resilience,
and do so in collaboration and coordination with
all stakeholders, including governments and civil
society organizations.

Advanced Manufacturing: A New Narrative 3

 FIGURE 1 The evolution of advanced manufacturing

Late-18th century Late-19th century Mid-20th century Today

Rapid tech advances and integration

Steam power Electrification, assembly line Automation, emerging across systems and value
and mass production, new resources robots, computer control, chains, sustainability and
production techniques and synthetic materials reduction in manual tasks changing people dynamics

Mechanization Mass production Standardization and Advanced

automation manufacturing

Advanced Manufacturing: A New Narrative 4

1 Driving industry trends
The dynamic shifts and advancements in industries Achieving net zero has become a top priority for
worldwide are propelled by a convergence of companies and a central theme in public discourse,
four key megatrends – geopolitical tensions and representing a synonymous term for climate action.3
economic instability, climate change, technology
integration and changing people dynamics – which Technology integration
are creating new opportunities and challenges for
the manufacturing sector. Understanding these The world is experiencing an unprecedented pace
megatrends helps in strategizing how the opportunity and scale of technological change, where staying
for advanced manufacturing solutions to unlock real ahead is crucial for economic success. However,
value across various sectors is articulated. rapid technological advancements are breeding
intense competition, escalating cybercrime and a
Geopolitical tensions and widening divide between technology frontrunners
economic instability and laggards.4

Shifting political landscapes and evolving regulatory Technology adoption, such as the internet of things
environments, coupled with rising protectionism (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and the
and the ongoing war in Ukraine, social distrust metaverse, and fostering innovation are paramount
and erosion of social cohesion are unmasking for maintaining business competitiveness. The
vulnerabilities for companies and governments. UNIDO Industrial Development Report 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic-induced disruptions in highlights economic benefits of adopting advanced
global supply chains and economic instability further manufacturing technologies, including enhanced
exacerbated these challenges, including slow productivity and improved access to international
economic growth, escalating living costs, energy markets and value chains.5 Studies indicate, the
price hikes, global scarcities, production limitations, world is approaching tipping points for mass
and logistical delays in obtaining vital components. adoption of advanced manufacturing technologies,
with half of companies recently adopting AI.6
Governments, industries and organizations have
responded by adopting smarter strategies to Changing people dynamics
enhance supply chain resilience, favouring short,
agile and just-in-case supply chains. This The green transition, technological advancements,
approach yields positive outcomes, including supply chain transformations, and changing
improved predictions and responsiveness to demographics and societal values are driving
dynamic customer demands and reduced transformation and creating new jobs across
environmental footprints. industries and regions. However, these positive drivers
are offset by growing geoeconomic fragmentation
Climate change and tensions, societal polarization and distrust, slow
economic growth and a cost-of-living crisis.7
Climate change poses a longstanding threat that
is compelling companies and governments to Industries and organizations must proactively
adopt new commitments, adapt in the short term build future skills and adapt to people’s changing
and undergo transformative changes in the long priorities, both within the workforce and broader
term. Historical data reveals a 54% surge in global society. The largest job creation and destruction
net anthropogenic CO2-equivalent emissions from effects are expected to come from environmental,
approximately 38 billion tonnes in 1990 to nearly technology and economic trends. Recent studies
59 billion tonnes in 2019. If this trajectory persists, found that employers estimate that 44% of workers’
temperatures could rise by 4.1°C to 4.8°C by skills will be disrupted in the next five years with a
2100.1 Under the Paris Agreement, all economic shift from manual skills to cognitive and technology
sectors must align with the 2°C or 1.5°C carbon focused.8 In addition, studies indicate that there is
reduction pathway, necessitating a transition to a shift in employees’ priorities and an increasing
net-zero carbon-equivalent emissions for over 50 willingness to change organization driven by many
billion tonnes.2 factors, including salary, job security, work-life
balance, burnout, social and diversity, equity and
inclusion (DEI) values.9

Advanced Manufacturing: A New Narrative 5

Based on evolving trends, the World Economic Leverage advanced manufacturing to
3
Forum’s Advanced Manufacturing Industry make any production environment a more
community committed to five principles at the Annual attractive space for new generations and help
Meeting 2023 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland: address the current talent gap in manufacturing.

Make advanced manufacturing Prioritize advanced manufacturing

1 4
technologies and solutions openly technologies and solutions that enable
available across sectors and countries, as well the transition towards more sustainable and
as large companies and small and medium-sized circular production process and value chains.
enterprises (SMEs).
Build new response mechanisms to help
5
Put advanced manufacturing at the navigate future crisis and build resilience,
2
service of people by enabling upskilling and do so in collaboration and coordination with
and reskilling of workers through new investments all stakeholders, including governments and civil
and programmes. society organizations.

Advanced Manufacturing: A New Narrative 6

2 Key impact areas
Advanced manufacturing solutions,
once perceived as tools for increasing
productivity, have proven to benefit five
pivotal impact areas – resiliency, efficiency,
sustainability, people and innovation.

To stay competitive and navigate the new global Holistic solutions that consider the end-to-end
context, companies and governments must closely strategic value chain are required to drive the
collaborate to embrace advanced manufacturing to biggest impact for industries and organizations.
catalyse change that delivers true impact. These solutions must first consider the broader
global environment impacting advanced
The impact areas are closely interconnected; manufacturing, but be tailored to address the needs
when addressing a single area often multiple are of the local environment (e.g. politics, regulation,
impacted. For example, the efficiency realized workforce skills and resource availability).
by improving the accuracy of demand forecasts
also leads to reduced inventory, waste and The purpose of this section is to articulate the
environmental production footprints. Furthermore, strength of advanced manufacturing solutions to
by training and empowering people through solve for real-life and global challenges. For each of
advanced manufacturing tools such as augmented the five impact areas, the opportunity for impact is
reality (AR)/virtual reality (VR), fewer repetitive defined and illustrated with concrete examples from
and physically demanding tasks are required, leading organizations.
providing more time for higher value work as well
as collaborating with a broader diverse workforce
and ecosystem.

Advanced Manufacturing: A New Narrative 7

 Resiliency: Improving supply chain control,
flexibility and responsiveness to shocks
The global economy is confronting a perfect – Enabling end-to-end visibility across the value
storm of disruptions, including the climate crisis, chain, from suppliers to customers, through
geopolitical tensions and emerging technologies. transparent, scalable and collaborative data-
These disruptions have demonstrated the fragility driven approaches that augments data across the
and challenged the very foundations of global value chain and ecosystem, facilitated by such
value chains, creating a future characterized by digital technologies as blockchains and open AI.
unpredictability and instability. However, the recent
pandemic response has also demonstrated the – Optimizing supply and demand capabilities
ability for advanced manufacturing to rapidly and shifting from just-in-time to just-in-case
adapt, leveraging local production capabilities supply chains through smart warehouses,
and reconfigurable manufacturing approaches inventory and logistics systems, diversified,
that have been crucial in addressing shortages digitalized and short value chains, flexible and
of essential products, supporting scale-up and technology-driven production processes, and
responsiveness.10 digitally enabled value chain collaboration;
ultimately improving the ability to predict “true”
To effectively prepare for and address ongoing end-product demand and link across common
challenges, manufacturing value chains must components.
be resilient; there is a pressing need for shared
responsibility across sectors and to reposition – Embedding “lean” manufacturing to improve
dynamics from customer to manufacturer and flexibility to adapt or scale, drive efficiency and
recycler. In response, many organizations are enable different, robust risk approaches while
adopting “just-in-case” rather than “just-in- minimizing waste, optimizing processes and
time” supply chains strategies, prioritizing lean fostering multi-player collaboration, including
manufacturing and best cost over lowest cost with suppliers.
thinking to enhance resilience and risk management
approaches for supply demand equilibrium.11,12 – Improving resilience to disruptions in
manufacturing and value chains through
Some of the ways advanced manufacturing can IoT technologies in smart factories, allowing
improve resiliency include: real-time data collection for issue detection,
equipment performance evaluation and process
improvement identification.

Change is driven by
the following key trends:
Only 12%
of companies are sufficiently protected
against future disruptions in supply chains
and operations.13

Transformation is supported Instability is the new normal.

Respondents believe disorder and
by the following key principles:
disturbance will remain, if not become
more severe, in the future. Executives
expect the impact of disruption
1 2 3 4 5 on corporate value to increase by

15-25%
over the next five years.14

A number of initiatives are

underway to support industry
transformation: 75%
of executives see the pandemic
as a dress rehearsal for
further disruptions to come,
whatever form they may take.15 Advanced Manufacturing: A New Narrative 8
CASE STUDY 1
Foxconn Industrial Internet

City Shenzen

Country People’s Republic of China

Resiliency

Efficiency

Key impact achieved Sustainability

People

Innovation

To address the rapid release of new smartphone products, increasing product

complexity, stringent quality standards and labour skill scarcity, Foxconn
factory strategically harnessed cutting-edge AI and IoT technologies. The
company aimed to achieve worry-free production by implementing agile
product introduction, quick capacity ramp-up and smart mass production
through the deployment of 37 Fourth Industrial Revolution use cases at
scale including AI-enabled new product introduction, next generation
lights-out CNC workshop, autonomous anodizing with advanced controls,
high-precision automated quality inspection, multi-site benchmarking and
capacity optimization. This comprehensive approach yielded significant
results: it accelerated new product introduction by 29%; reduced ramp-up
time by 50%; decreased quality non-conformance by 56%; and lowered
manufacturing costs by 30%.16

Advanced Manufacturing: A New Narrative 9

CASE STUDY 2
Western Digital17

City Prachinburi

Country Thailand

Resiliency

Efficiency

Key impact achieved Sustainability

People

Innovation

With rapidly growing demand, rigorous quality requirements and cost

pressure for hard disk drives (HDD), Western Digital’s Prachinburi site has
leveraged connectivity and advanced analytics technologies to transform
a capacity-saturated manufacturing site into a digital operation system of
Fourth Industrial Revolution use cases, with real-time visibility in suppliers,
production, logistics and customers and data-based insights and predictions
addressing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

– Predictive risk model detects supply disruptions (e.g. natural disasters),

proactive actions mitigate risk of material availability with 83% improvement
in reaction time on average and 31.5% material cost avoidance.

– Machine learning model connecting supplier component parameters to

production performance optimizes yield with 41% improvement on scrap
avoidance.

– SMART maintenance uses machine learning algorithms to predict repair

actions accurately keeping 1.3M HDD tester slots running with 6%
utilization improvement.

– Analytics algorithm uses customer field log data to predict failure mode to
detect emerging issues and the insights is used to improve product design
and manage customer fleet resulting in 15% warranty liability reduction.

– An intelligent and automated shipment planning and scheduling system

utilizes operational data and IoT and machine learning tools to enable
shipment consolidation and logistics optimization. The improves on
time delivery by 15%, lowers shipment cost by 41% and reduces GHG
emission by 12% from air freight consolidation.

The transformation is done in collaboration with numerous technology

partners and in conjunction with customers. The Prachinburi factory also
collaborates with local universities and technical institutes to upskill and reskill
>60% the workforce.

Advanced Manufacturing: A New Narrative 10

 Efficiency: Maximizing value from scarce resources
In a world of geopolitical disruptions, economic – Reducing operational and production costs
instabilities and rising energy costs, companies and driving production health through process
face mounting pressure to optimize efficiency automation, incorporating innovative, scalable
and enhance competitiveness. Localized and vendor agnostic technologies approaches
transformations have demonstrated double-digit such as dark factories, autonomous mobile
improvements in throughput, cost reduction and robots, modular production cells, automation,
lead time. Universal automation is a new game- robotics and additive manufacturing (including
changer, allowing seamless integration of hardware 3D printing).
and software across brands. This provides
opportunity to unlock the full potential of advanced – Enhancing product quality to decrease
manufacturing, enabling unprecedented productivity costs, enhance customer experience, and
levels.18,19 improve customer retention such as through
the integration of AI and IoT-enabled safety,
Some of the ways advanced manufacturing can inspection and repair systems, as well as
improve efficiency include: digitalized and integrated workflows.

– Enhancing equipment output and – Improving supply demand planning for

effectiveness to minimize downtime right-size inventories with flow on impacts to
and prolong equipment lifespan, utilizing resilience and sustainability through digitalized
technologies such as process automation, value chain management.
equipment condition sensors, predictive
maintenance systems and unmanned inspection
vehicles, as well as implementing real-time
production monitoring and machine learning to
continuously improve.

Change is driven by
the following key trends:
500%
Research conducted among
manufacturing companies across
three sectors found that
environmental performance
between manufacturing plants
differed up to 500% between
worst and best performing
factories that make similar products
Transformation is supported using similar technology.20
by the following key principles:

1 2 3 4 5

A number of initiatives are

underway to support industry
transformation:

Advanced Manufacturing: A New Narrative 11

CASE STUDY 3
Siemens AG, Electronics Works Amberg (EWA)

City Amberg

Country Germany

Resiliency

Efficiency

Key impact achieved Sustainability

People

Innovation

Siemens AG’s electronic factory in Amberg, Bavaria, has undergone a

transformative journey into a smart factory that has embraced advanced
manufacturing, optimizing production and supply chain management.

One of the prominent solutions implemented was the creation of a “digital

twin” of its electronics factory. This digital replica allowed for enhanced
automation and data analytics, facilitating optimized operations.

By deploying smart robotics, AI-powered process controls and predictive

maintenance algorithms, the factory achieved a 140% increase in output
without increasing electricity consumption or altering resources. The
digitization of the factory floor led to a 1,400% boost in productivity.
Previously time-consuming tasks, such as manually adjusting equipment
and machinery, were streamlined, reducing set-up time.

In addition, the factory took significant steps towards meeting and improving
on its net-zero target. This included through adopting digital process
analysis and measurements, reducing its Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions
by 69% normalized to volumes, as well as introducing a holistic ‘5Ps’
sustainability framework (public ecosystem, plant infrastructure, people and
culture, process and the product within the supply chain) and associated
initiatives.21,22,23

Advanced Manufacturing: A New Narrative 12

 Sustainability: Reducing environmental footprints
and delivering net-zero goals
The manufacturing industry has a significant role to – Enhancing material and water conservation,
play in achieving global carbon reduction targets as and circularity and pollution reductions by
it encompasses all manufacturing and value chains collaborating with suppliers on waste-minimizing
and represents nearly 30% of global greenhouse material shapes and geometries, leveraging
gas emissions. lean management practices and edge-sensing
quality control or investing in research and
There is a growing business need for no-excuses development (R&D) for new manufacturing
action in sustainable and responsible production, processes that understand and remove energy
with recognition that reaching key climate targets intensive processes, reduce yield losses,
will not be possible without a significant reduction potentially reducing CO2 emissions by 25-
in manufacturing and production-related emissions. 50% while optimizing water use and reducing
In addition, the connection between climate pollutions.27
action and business performance is becoming
more relevant, making sustainability and resilience – Reimagining product design and business
key drivers for competitive advantage. However, models to extend product and performance
sustainability cannot be achieved by individuals; life, focusing on reliability, durability, repairability,
systemic collaboration across, and between, value upgradability and recyclability, while also utilizing
chains is fundamental. Advanced manufacturing closed resource production loops to maintain
has a key role to play in this collaboration and product value.
provides opportunity meet the growing demand for
sustainable products and services.24,25,26 – Driving broader ESG change and value
chain decarbonization, particularly in Scope 3
Some of the ways advanced manufacturing can emissions, by optimizing supply chain sourcing
enhance sustainability include: and logistics systems and leveraging purchasing
power to promote traceability and transparency
– Accelerating energy efficiencies, promoting and using advanced manufacturing solutions to
renewable energy sources and focusing overcome data integrity and integration issues
on value-added energy by implementing and even automate calculation of product
production equipment enhancements, energy carbon footprints. In addition, supporting
management systems (such as ISO 50001), suppliers’ decarbonization efforts by driving
smart metering and performance management, awareness, target setting and training, and
process control, green energy sourcing, and influencing consumer behaviours.28
raising awareness and building critical green skills.

98%
Change is driven by
the following key trends:
Remanufactured products can
save upto 98% of CO2 emissions
compared to equivalent new products
and significantly support a vision
of a zero-waste stream.29

Transformation is supported
by the following key principles:

1 2 3 4 5

A number of initiatives are

underway to support industry
transformation:

Advanced Manufacturing: A New Narrative 13

CASE STUDY 4
Schneider Electric, Le Vaudreuil Factory

City Le Vaudreuil

Country France

Resiliency

Efficiency

Key impact achieved Sustainability

People

Innovation

Schneider Electric’s Le Vaudreuil site leverages industrial IoT sensors and

digital platforms, incorporating real-time digital twins of plant installations like
heating pumps and lighting systems. This implementation yields significant
efficiency gains: energy management is optimized (-25%), material waste
reduced (-17%) and CO2 emissions minimized (-25%). The site aims to
achieve net-zero carbon status by 2025, supporting Schneider Electric’s
global commitment, without relying on offsets. Additionally, the smart factory
features a zero-reject water recycling station connected to cloud analytics and
AI monitoring, resulting in a 64% reduction in water consumption.30,31

Advanced Manufacturing: A New Narrative 14

CASE STUDY 5
Rockwell Automation

Country United Kingdom

Resiliency

Efficiency

Key impact achieved Sustainability

People

Innovation

Rockwell Automation partnered with a global consumer packaged goods

(CPG) company to reduce and quantify the environmental impact of repairing
industrial automation assets in one of their UK plants. To help achieve this,
both companies collaborated closely to better understand the sustainability
issues and challenges driving the need to take action and improve operations
visibility. The result was the development and enhancement of an analytical
dashboard that detailed the environmental benefits and impact of repairing
components versus buying new.

Through this collaboration, the CPG company achieved an estimated 91%

reduction in CO2e emissions through repair services, which is equivalent to
carbon sequestered by 4.1 acres of US forests in one year. The company also
avoided an estimated 8% of hazardous waste from being sent to a landfill
through these same repair services.

In addition, the company was able to quantify the environmental impact

of their Scope 3 emissions, specifically Category 1 (purchased goods and
services) and Category 4 (upstream transportation) by using new digital
sustainability insights provided by Rockwell Automation. Rockwell is at the
forefront of helping customers in their circular journey by providing them with
dashboarding capabilities to better understand their operations and meet their
sustainability commitments.

Advanced Manufacturing: A New Narrative 15

 People: Empowering workers and society for
a just transition
Like other industries, advanced manufacturing – Enabling accessible and lifelong learning
is witnessing unprecedented and exponential for developing transferable in-demand skills,
technological innovation and integration, alongside such as automation, robotics and AI, through
shifting people dynamics and priorities. This applications like AR and VR training, mobile
includes both within the workforce and broader learning and smart workstations, fostering
society. Paradoxically, as technology becomes continuous on-the-job and off-the-job learning.
more integrated into factories, the role of humans
becomes even more crucial. – Empowering workers for a just transition that
provides every worker with proportional and bio-
The industry must address fears of “robots taking directional access to real-time data about the
our jobs” and attract a diverse talent pool for manufacturing operations they are a part of and
high-skilled, well-paid manufacturing jobs as well enabling them to utilize rest time productively.
as a reluctance for industrial careers. For a “just
transition”, these challenges must be recognized – Creating a more accessible and inclusive
and with a human-centric industry transformation work environment that reduces entry barriers
approach that leverage technologies to benefit to employment, for example, by utilizing
businesses and their workforce, empowering them eyewear or projection-based AR technologies
to thrive, acquire new skills, protect and grow jobs.32 to expand the range of tasks and jobs available
to new employees, promoting flexibility,
Manufacturing also creates strong communities, productivity and equity, and facilitating the
fostering multi-player collaboration between integration of individuals with disabilities in shop-
governments, suppliers, business support services and floor activities.
long-term investment, all while prioritizing people and
their needs. Ultimately, manufacturing and value chains – Improving product safety and people’s well-
need to shape what Klaus Schwab, Founder and being and safety by reducing or supporting the
Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, need for repetitive and physically demanding
calls “a future that works for all by putting people first, tasks, enabling individuals to remain in their
empowering them and constantly reminding ourselves preferred jobs for a longer time, regardless
that all of these new technologies are first and foremost of age, for instance, through the use of
tools made by people for people”.33 exoskeletons or collaborative robots (cobots),
and through enhanced testing, inspection and
Some of the ways advanced manufacturing can certification services.
support people include:

Up to 80%
Change is driven by
the following key trends:
Augmentation technologies can offer
gains in training effectiveness compared
to in-person training, of up to 80%
as well as cost savings and gains
in scalability.34

Transformation is supported
by the following key principles:

1 2 3 4 5

A number of initiatives are

underway to support industry
transformation:

Advanced Manufacturing: A New Narrative 16

CASE STUDY 6
HP Singapore

Country Singapore

Resiliency

Efficiency

Key impact achieved Sustainability

People

Innovation

HP Singapore faced challenges of product complexity, labour shortages,

quality and cost. To align with the national push for higher-value
manufacturing, the company embarked on a Fourth Industrial Revolution
journey, which involved transitioning from manual, labour-intensive processes
to highly digitized, automated workflows powered by AI.

The impact of this transformation was impressive. HP Singapore achieved

a 20% reduction in manufacturing costs and a 70% increase in productivity
and quality. The successful shift to a digitized and automated factory
equipped with AI garnered recognition for HP. Notable impact included: 20%
improvement in manufacturing costs; successful integration of the majority of
HP employees into the smart manufacturing journey; and skill development
for employees and freeing up to take on more advanced tasks.35

Advanced Manufacturing: A New Narrative 17

 Innovation: Adapting what is produced and how
Industries are witnessing exponential technological – Enabling business model innovation at
advancements, from smart devices and apps to scale and customer-centricity by leveraging
analytics and the industrial metaverse, alongside technology such as digitally enabled
shifting consumer and societal preferences. marketplaces and ecosystems that bring
Advanced manufacturing needs to collaborate buyers, sellers and enablers together and
with academia and government to drive innovation amplify the possibilities for them to interact,
across industries, transforming what is produced learn and participate in a given production and
and how, and how value is captured, helping business ecosystem.
others to stay competitive in a rapidly changing
global marketplace. However, these advanced – Facilitating product customization and
manufacturing solutions and innovations are only experimentation through the exploration
powerful if embraced with an innovation or growth of new materials, processes, designs and
mindset, helping drive economic growth and engineering approaches, with AI unlocking new
keeping pace with digital natives.36,37 possibilities for innovation.

Some of the ways advanced manufacturing can – Fostering collaboration, innovation and
drive innovation include: growth culture to deliver on organization
mission/strategy and to adopt new
– Reimaging product design and enhancing technologies (e.g. 5G/AI/Edge computing)
speed-to-market and competitiveness through collaborative tools, industrial
to expedite product development and drive metaverse and improved manufacturing and
component commonality by shortening design operational flexibility.
iteration time, reducing prototyping efforts,
improving safety science, aided by digital and
AI-supported engineering and prototyping,
cobots and additive manufacturing.

A number of initiatives are

Change is driven by Transformation is supported underway to support industry
the following key trends: by the following key principles: transformation:

1 2 3 4 5

Advanced Manufacturing: A New Narrative 18

CASE STUDY 7
Flex, Sorocaba

City Sorocaba

Country Brazil

Resiliency

Efficiency

Key impact achieved Sustainability

People

Innovation

Flex’s Sorocaba plant in Brazil developed a comprehensive system using

Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies to transform e-waste and reintegrate
repurposed materials into the supply chain. The digital transformation journey
resulted into a 50% labour cost improvement, 81% material loss reduction,
while increasing customer satisfaction (+18%) and employees well-being. In
addition, it has led to the creation of over 180 direct and 300 indirect green jobs
and significant GHG emissions reduction (41% for Scope 1 and 2, 44 kilotonnes
Scope 3) and water consumption reductions (30%). The implementation of
circular economy solutions and eco-efficient operations included:

– Cloud-based collaborative reverse logistics system and circular materials lab

– Automatic separation equipment and IoT-based collection bins minimizing

material contamination and optimizing waste collection

– Digital e-commerce platform facilitating the commercialization of excess

inventory and repaired/refurbished products

– Operational CO2-emission dashboards providing visibility of environmental

savings for customers.38,39
 3 A call to action
The New Narrative has articulated the opportunity incubate new private-public collaborations, and
of advanced manufacturing to deliver real impact inform policy that supports manufacturing industries
across industries and offer a path to a more in navigating ongoing challenges while preparing for
innovative, inclusive and sustainable industry the future.
transformation. To support this opportunity for
impact, several initiatives are already being delivered While the New Narrative acts as a powerful tool
in collaboration with the World Economic Forum’s for engaging, changing mindsets and increasing
Advanced Manufacturing Industry community. collaboration with various stakeholders, it is only
as powerful when used. As such, the community
In addition, the Forum will continue to provide a encourages using the messaging contained within.
neutral space for leaders from across industries, In addition, the community will facilitate a series of
public sector, civil society and academia to dialogues with various stakeholders to socialize the
understand and anticipate global trends and their New Narrative and catalyse change.
implications, share best practices and knowledge,

Existing, Global Lighthouse Network

key
The World Economic Forum’s Centre of Advanced Manufacturing and Supply Chains has established the Global
initiatives Lighthouse Network to encourage the adoption of advanced Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies in
underway manufacturing, where the industry is lagging behind. The network consists of a community of manufacturers who
exhibit leadership in using Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies to transform factories, value chains and business
to support models, resulting in significant financial and operational benefits.
industry
transformation People as the Future of Manufacturing

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is changing the roles of people and technology in industry, and there is a need to
understand and harness the new paradigm of workforce augmentation. To address this, the Forum has launched
the Augmented Workforce Initiative in collaboration with the University of Cambridge, aimed at creating a community
where industry executives, thought leaders and pioneers can share experiences, exchange knowledge and unlock
cross-organizational collaborations on high-impact use cases for scaling the use of technologies to augment,
empower and upskill the factory workforce.

Industry Net Zero Accelerator

The IPCC has issued warnings on climate change, and upcoming regulations will require companies to act on their
commitments to net zero to maintain their license to operate, competitiveness and market share. To address this,
the Forum has launched the Industry Net Zero Accelerator initiative in collaboration with several partners, aimed at
creating a cross-industry space for executives in the manufacturing ecosystem to collaborate, share knowledge,
and accelerate their journey towards achieving net-zero targets by supporting the incubation and scaling of the
Estainium Association.

Circular Transformation of Industries

Success requires systemic change. Without commitments from all stakeholders and global collaborative efforts, circular
transformation will continue to stagnate, delivering only slow and incremental change. To inform the global discussion
on the circular transformation of industries at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2023 and beyond, the
Circular Transformation of Industries initiative outlines key areas for stakeholders to focus on to accelerate the shift
and achieve robust and sustainable growth.

Industrial Strategies for the Future of Supply Chains

Recent global developments are prompting a reassessment of global supply chain configurations, driven by new
priorities including sustainability, resilience, skilled talent, technology readiness and changing customer demand.
To remain competitive and navigate future disruptions, companies and governments must collaborate to rethink the
configuration of supply chains and future industrial strategies, to ensure productivity, innovation and economic growth.

Advanced Manufacturing: A New Narrative 20

Appendix
CASE STUDY 8
Western Digital40

City Shanghai

Country People’s Republic of China

Resiliency

Efficiency

Key impact achieved Sustainability

People

Innovation

In the context of growing demand, Western Digital’s Shanghai site doubled

its petabyte (PB) output between 2017 and 2021 while reducing its
environmental footprint per PB to achieve corporate ambitions. This result
was enabled by multiple, diverse Fourth Industrial Revolution use cases such
as intelligence product design assistant systems, machine learning-based
virtual testing and E2E automation. The site also pioneered machine learning
to dynamically optimize the performance of the water recycling plant and
should consumption prediction to detect abnormal energy consumption
based on real-time operating data. These measures reduced water
consumption by 62% and energy consumption by 51% per PB.

Advanced Manufacturing: A New Narrative 21

Contributors
Authors

Francisco Betti
Head, Global Industries Team; Member of the Executive Committee

Maya Ben Dror

Manager, Advanced Manufacturing and Automotive and New Mobility Industries

Lena McKnight
Community Lead, Advanced Manufacturing and Automotive and New Mobility Industries

Community contributors

The World Economic Forum thanks the following Advanced Manufacturing Industry community members
for their contributions to the New Narrative through use cases and community discussions.

Revathi Advaithi, Chief Executive Officer, Flex David Goeckeler, Chief Executive Officer, Western
Digital Corp.
Sami Atiya, President and Member of the Group
Executive Committee, ABB Hideaki Harada, Senior Executive Vice-President,
Chief Strategy Officer, Panasonic Connect Co.
Gunter Beitinger, Senior Vice-President,
Manufacturing; Head, Factory Digitalization, Yasuyuki Higuchi, Chief Executive Officer,
Siemens Panasonic Connect

Terrence Brady, Chief Executive Officer, President Peggy Johnson, Chief Executive Officer,
and Trustee, Underwriters Laboratories Magic Leap

Cameron Carr, Chief Strategy Officer, Flex Jackie Jung, Vice-President, Global Operations
Strategy and Centre of Excellence, Western Digital
Brand Cheng, Chief Executive Officer, Foxconn Corp.
Industrial Internet
Philipp Jung, Senior Vice-President and Global
Martin Cotter, Senior Vice-President, Industrial, Head of Strategy, HP
Consumer, and Multi-Markets, Analog Devices
Artem Kroupenev, Chief Strategy Officer, Augury
Daniel Diez, Chief Transformation Officer,
Magic Leap Gregor Kumm, Head, Strategy & Corporate
Development, Robotics & Discrete Automation,
Abhay Edlabadkar, Vice-President of Business ABB
Transformation, Coherent Corp.
Liu Zongchang, Chief Data Officer, Foxconn
Charlotte Farmer, Senior Vice-President and Chief Industrial Internet
Operating Officer, Underwriters Laboratories
Enrique Lores, President and Chief Executive
Barbara Frei, Executive Vice-President and Chief Officer, HP
Executive Officer, Schneider Electric
Vincent Mattera, Chief Executive Officer and Chair,
Marco Freidl, Head, Group Strategy and Business Coherent Corp.
Development, OC Oerlikon
Blake Moret, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer,
Ric Fulop, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Rockwell Automation
Desktop Metal

Advanced Manufacturing: A New Narrative 22

Jonah Myerberg, Co-Founder and Chief Prafull Sharma, Senior Vice-President, Strategy,
Technology Officer, Desktop Metal Industrial Automation Business, Schneider Electric

Cedrik Neike, Member of the Managing Board, Michael Süss, Executive Chairman, OC Oerlikon
Siemens
Saar Yoskovitz, Chief Executive Officer and
Cyril Perducat, Senior Vice-President and Chief Co-Founder, Augury
Technology Officer, Rockwell Automation

Vincent Roche, Chief Executive Officer and Chair

of the Board of Directors, Analog Devices

Production team

Bianca Gay-Fulconis, Designer

Mark Schulman, Editor

Advanced Manufacturing: A New Narrative 23

 Endnotes

1. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change, 2022.
2. Paris Agreement to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Dec. 12, 2015, T.I.A.S. No. 16-1104.
3. World Economic Forum, The “No-Excuse” Framework to Accelerate the Path to Net-Zero Manufacturing and Value
Chains, 2023.
4. World Economic Forum, The Future of Industrial Strategies: Five Grand Challenges for Resilient Manufacturing, 2023.
5. United Nations Industrial Development Organization, Industrial Development Report: Industrializing in the Digital Age,
2020.
6. World Economic Forum, The Future of Industrial Strategies: Five Grand Challenges for Resilient Manufacturing, 2023
7. World Economic Forum, Future of Jobs Report, 2023.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. World Economic Forum, Winning the Race for Survival: How Advanced Manufacturing Technologies Are Driving
Business-Model Innovation, 2020.
11. World Economic Forum, Charting the Course for Global Value Chain Resilience, 2022.
12. World Economic Forum, The Resiliency Compass: Navigating Global Value Chain Disruption in an Age of Uncertainty,
2021.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. World Economic Forum, Global Lighthouse Network: Shaping the Next Chapter of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, 2023
17. Source: Provided by organization
18. World Economic Forum, Global Lighthouse Network: Shaping the Next Chapter of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, 2023.
19. World Economic Forum, Unlocking Business Model Innovation through Advanced Manufacturing, 2022.
20. Bocken, Nancy, David Morgan and Steve Evans, “Understanding environmental performance variation in manufacturing
companies”, International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, vol. 62, no. 8, October 2013, pp. 856-
870, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261062146_Understanding_environmental_performance_variation_in_
manufacturing_companies (accessed 21 November 2022).
21. World Economic Forum, Global Lighthouse Network Report, 2023.
World Economic Forum, Factories of the Future Find Growth and Sustainability through Digitalization, May 2021.
22. Siemens, Digital transformation: Leading by example, https://www.siemens.com/global/en/company/stories/industry/
electronics-digitalenterprise-futuretechnologies.html (accessed June 30, 2023).
23. World Economic Forum, The “No-Excuse” Framework to Accelerate the Path to Net-Zero Manufacturing and Value
Chains, 2023.
24. World Economic Forum, The Future of Industrial Strategies: Five Grand Challenges for Resilient Manufacturing, 2023.
25. World Economic Forum, Sharing Data to Achieve Decarbonization of Value Chains, 2022.
26. World Economic Forum, “8 innovations in advanced manufacturing that support enhanced ESG reporting”, Forum
Agenda, 17 January 2022, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/01/8-innovations-advanced-manufacturing-support-
esg-reporting.
27. World Economic Forum, The Future of Industrial Strategies: Five Grand Challenges for Resilient Manufacturing, 2023.
28. World Economic Forum, Towards a Common Framework for ESG in Advanced Manufacturing, 2022, https://www3.
weforum.org/docs/WEF_Towards_a_Common_Framework%20_for_ESG_in_Advanced_Manufacturing_2022.pdf.
29. World Economic Forum, Making Manufacturing Sustainable by Design Report.
30. World Economic Forum, Global Lighthouse Network: Reimagining Operations for Growth, 2021.
31. World Economic Forum, The “No-Excuse” Framework to Accelerate the Path to Net-Zero Manufacturing and Value
Chains, 2023.
32. World Economic Forum, Unlocking Value from Artificial Intelligence in Manufacturing, 2022.
33. World Economic Forum, Augmented Workforce: Empowering People, Transforming Manufacturing, 2022.

Advanced Manufacturing: A New Narrative 24

34. Ibid.
35. World Economic Forum, Global Lighthouse Network: Reimagining Operations for Growth, 2021.
36. World Economic Forum, Unlocking Business Model Innovation through Advanced Manufacturing, 2022.
37. World Economic Forum, Supply Chain Collaboration through Advanced Manufacturing Technologies, 2021.
38. World Economic Forum, Global Lighthouse Network: Shaping the Next Chapter of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, 2023.
39. World Economic Forum, The “No-Excuse” Framework to Accelerate the Path to Net-Zero Manufacturing and Value
Chains, 2023.
40. Source: Provided by organization.

Advanced Manufacturing: A New Narrative 25

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