Shaping the future with adaptive production

As efforts to revive and modernize local manufacturing accelerate in regions around the world, including North America and Europe, adaptive production could help manufacturers overcome some of their biggest obstacles--firstly, attracting and retaining talent. Nearly 60% of manufacturers cited this as their top challenge in a 2024 US-based survey. Highly automated, technology-led adaptive production methods hold new promise for attracting talent to roles that are safer, less repetitive, and better paid. "The ideal scenario is one where AI enhances human capabilities, leads to new task creation, and empowers the people who are most at risk from automation's impact on certain jobs, particularly those without college degrees," says Simon Johnson, co-director of MIT's Shaping the Future of Work Initiative. Secondly, the digitalization of manufacturing--embedded in the very foundation of adaptive production technologies--allows companies to better address complex sustainability challenges through process and resource optimization and a better understanding of data.