Introduction:

This report is a discussion on the techniques that were proposed in the article “A third industrial revolution”. We will also discuss that how these techniques will transforms the future of manufacturing. Techniques such as involving digital tools, 3D printers, Modularer Querbaukasten, automated milling machines etc. will be discussed and how the scenario will be changed after their introduction. How the introduction of digital methods in the manufacturing process is changing the ethical ways of production will also be reported.

Ideas mentioned in the Report and how will they affect the manufacturing process.

We all are bounded with machines. We are dependent on digital tools and machines that increase our efficiency and minimize the cost. It helps in increasing the proportion of the production as compared to the one produced manually. In an article titled, “A third Industrial Revolution” a study of the new techniques and the ideas that could transform the manufacturing process has been done. How these techniques could affect the manufacturing process has been highlighted below.

There are variety of tools and machines that have remarkably transformed the process of manufacturing. A trade fair in Frankfurt known as EuroMold that presented some machines that was dedicated to create prototypes of products, some tools that were used in the process of production and other manufacturing stuff. The fair was full of highly technical machines and other manufacturing material.

As compared to the ethical process of creating a prototype using lathes, drills, stamping presses and molding machines, EuroMold had such machines that are anyhow does not display any sign of oily machinery that does not require any assistance of human workforce. The industry will only require man power to sit in front of computer screens to watch out the production process.

In another EuroMold fair a concept of using 3 Dimensional (3D) printers was presented that can produce finished products without bashing, bending and cutting materials. It arranges the material in layers and can easily produce a product that too perfectly. This is called “Additive Manufacturing”.

For instance let us take an example of making a Hammer, you need a hammer and you went to a producer to make a hammer as per your design and you will be greeted with a bill of huge amount. This is because they have to make a molding pattern and casting pattern as per your requirement. He will cast the head, machine it to a suitable finish, turn a wooden handle and then assemble the parts. However if you order many pieces at once then only you can get a lower price but what if you need only one piece? At such instance machines make it easy to produce. If the producer would have a digital machine such as (3D printers) he could have manufactured the product by arranging and designing the product as per the consumer needs in software that can be easily edited as per your needs. This means the producer has to incur only one time amount that for setting up a machine and he could produce anything in anyway endlessly.

However products like a car and a mobile phone cannot be manufactured using “Additive manufacturing”. No Doubt it is a new technology and people does own some material made via this technology but we cannot rely on this technology for our every need. Thus, we cannot subsidize the current manual framework with the machines and electronic tools to meet all our needs.

Companies are now formulating and inventing new methods to manufacture almost all consumer required products. As mentioned above Additive manufacturing cannot be used to manufacture Cars but with best possible efforts Volkswagen a leading car manufacturing company formulated a new production strategy called Modularer Querbaukasten, or MQB that can produce their models by standardizing the parameters to certain level easily. This proves that everything is now getting dependent over electronic items and technology.

Another new technology that was introduced was the use of automated milling machines in factories. These machines can easily change their own tools, can work in multiple directions and can even check on its own for any flaws with the help of robots equipped with vision and other sensing systems.

Even certain British companies such as Rolls-Royce, also gives the same verdict that with the improvement in technology the days in which the factories running with lots and lots of man power/human resources has been gone. Moreover if the human resources in the industry decline then there would also be decline in the total cost of production that was exhibited by the industry previously. (A third industrial revolution)

Conclusion

With these technology improvements it would not be wrong to say that these techniques will make it cheaper and faster to respond to the changing preferences and tastes of the consumers. Not only there is a shift in the human resources, also there are changes in the materials also. For example Carbon-fibre composites, for instance, are replacing steel and aluminum in products ranging from mountain bikes to airliners. (Stakeholders urge EU institutions to support the “Third Industrial Revolution”)

With the advancement in technology, in the near future everything in the industry will be operated via smart software that can handle most of the work of the industry. The outcomes of these changes will include that as the manufacturing is getting digital, the consumer will be able to procure the desired products at a cheaper price that too in a small quantity. In other words they are moving towards the economization of cost. This will make it more flexibly and with a much lower input of labour, thanks to new materials, completely new processes such as 3D printing, easy-to-use robots and new collaborative manufacturing services available online.

These proposed changes are shifting the manufacturing process from mass production to individualized production. This will help in bringing some more job opportunities in rich countries that were lost previously in the emerging world. Moreover these changes will allow small and medium size enterprises to flourish.