Smart factories to make great strides in 2025, forecasts technology specialist

Generative AI will unlock new value for mainstream manufacturers and tech-enhanced humans will increasingly be found on smart factory floors in 2025, predicts Chris Iveson, CEO of Four Jaw Manufacturing Analytics.

He also predicts that Cloud will become the dominant form of computing in manufacturing and new regulations will spark a boom in sustainable manufacturing. 

He said:“The manufacturing industry is often bombarded by tech companies and consultants pushing pipedream technologies nowhere near ready for deployment in most factory settings. 

“Despite this, the smart factory movement keeps marching on, driven by practical, down-to-earth tools that manufacturers can deploy at scale to deliver rapid ROI. When it comes to technologies that matter, we believe four areas will have an outsized impact in 2025.”

The first is Generative AI which will unlock new value for mainstream manufacturers, Mr Iveson says:“All manufacturers use data in some form today, and we see huge volumes collected from machines and IoT devices on the factory floor. New Generative AI tools will make it easier for manufacturers of all sizes and specialisms to identify problems and improve processes by automatically recommending actions from their data.

“AI and machine learning will move mainstream in 2025, going beyond isolated pilot projects and large manufacturers with dedicated data teams. Generative AI could make predictive maintenance standard practice and support a raft of process improvements that drive quality, productivity and sustainability.”

The second is that tech-enhanced humans will ‘power the factory floor’. “Manufacturing needs skilled people, but the industry has a talent crisis that makes them harder to find and much more expensive. The best option is for manufacturers to enhance the productivity of their people with technology.

“In 2025, many manufacturers will augment their people with a range of proven, practical, and intuitive technologies that make them more productive. They include smart devices to improve communication between the top and shop floors, AI to spot problems and drive decisions on the shop floor, automation, exoskeletons and semi-autonomous cobots for material handling tasks.”

Thirdly, Cloud will become the dominant form of computing in manufacturing. Mr Iveson said:“When we founded FourJaw in 2020, most manufacturers we spoke to used on-premise IT infrastructure in their factories. Since then, there has been a big shift towards cloud computing, a significant enabler of the smart factory movement. The cloud has become the default setting for new manufacturing technologies.

Fourth, new regulations will spark a boom in sustainable manufacturing. Mr Iveson said:“A wave of new legislation will drive even greater focus on sustainability in factory settings. Until now, many sustainability initiatives have been driven by cost and ESG considerations. New rules such as the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, which will be fully operational at the start of 2026, are putting regulatory and financial pressure on manufacturers to understand and reduce carbon emissions from production.

“Manufacturers need to know precisely how much carbon is emitted producing every unit they sell. We are seeing a concerted effort from manufacturers to understand the power drawn by each machine and production process to ensure they can measure their carbon emissions properly.”

* Chris Iveson’s predictions draw on his work at FourJaw, which supports over 130 manufacturers globally by capturing production data and turning it into actionable insight to enhance productivity, sustainability, and profitability, and his previous experience identifying and commercialising manufacturing technologies developed at the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre.