When thinking about the term “disruptive technologies,” I focus on disruptive technologies used in manufacturing because manufacturing is where I spend my life. But it’s also true that most of the disruptive technologies we currently talk about have applications both in consumer products and manufacturing.
The disruptive manufacturing technologies of 2018 include things like the rapid increase in quantity and capability of robots in the factory as well as the workplace; industrial use of 3D printing; virtual reality moving from the gaming industry to the factory floor; artificial intelligence at all levels; and, certainly not least of all, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).
