LONDON, 9-Feb-2021 — /EPR INDUSTRIAL NEWS/ — COVID-19 taught us numerous things when it comes to manufacturing. Throughout 2020, we saw countless industries and companies alike struggling to source materials, complete production, and get their product to the end user. When normal supply chains were disrupted, there was a challenge and difficulty sourcing alternative means to achieve supply chain stability during this time, and keep production going.

Despite the world having a magnitude of advanced manufacturing capabilities, these are difficult to find and access. What has become clearer than ever before, is that current supply chains and manufacturing processes are international, proficient, and well-organised, and at the same time, they are delicate and can struggle delivering transparency to its user when hit with unforeseen instability. This was demonstrated by the shortage of supplies in numerous industries, from medical, to automotive, to digital goods. Not only did raw material become a challenge to source, but key industrial component shortage led to issues with final assembly of goods.

The future of the manufacturing industry requires improved resilience, agility, and supply chain transparency in order to manage any future disruption more effectively. Breaking the existing mold, embracing new technology, and developing a digital supply network which is able to quickly respond and adapt to any situation thrown its way.

This industry requires visible and accessible manufacturing in a digital format. China, in particular, is a country which is at the forefront of this new vision. China boosts advanced manufacturing competences, resources, and has a transparent and accessible infrastructure. Agility and resilience is key, and digital manufacturing platforms, particularly ones that offer an online marketplace at the users fingertips of a multitude of capabilities, is key. This digital core allows high transparency, easy visibility, easy access, and agility when faced with disruption.

Having a digital marketplace which can be accessed at any point from anywhere for any kind of manufacturing requirement allows for a truly agile foundation of digital supply networks. A user can identify manufacturing resources and capabilities at the touch of a button from part designs, features, machine tools, capabilities and more. This essentially breaks down the barriers and reduces effort typically found when sourcing manufacturing resources and capabilities.

The future will see more complex and improved versions of this digital manufacturing marketplace, allowing a user to be able to search for diverse manufacturing resources and capabilities and multiple variables such as manufacturing capacity (such as machine tool / specification) and complex part design. A further development is likely to be a more inclusive service, allowing the user to source based on capability to manufacture components with specific requirements, such as 5-axis CNC turning with horsepower and x/y/z travel metrics with metal additive manufacturing as an option.

Manufacturing is an extensive and multifaceted sphere, therefore a comprehension platform with effective searchable options is something which needs to be continually adapted and upgraded. Haizol’s manufacturing platform provides users with over 200,000 suppliers in Asia with wide-ranging capabilities and the ability to filter based on a variety of criteria. In terms of supplier, the user can select based on manufacturing type, region, industry, factory size, employee number, annual turnover, certification, R&D capacity, and more. They also have the option to filter by product, choosing process, material, and region, to see examples of what factories have previously made, to guide their decision making.

SOURCE: EuropaWire