As the COVID-19 pandemic took hold around the world, it delivered a shock to the system that tested manufacturers’ ability to adapt to change. Global electronic manufacturing services (EMS) providers are quite accustomed to navigating the complexities that come with supporting thousands of customers, products and regulations. But COVID-19 presented a unique challenge, as organizations had to quickly incorporate new government and health department criteria in impacted regions to protect the health of the workforce.

This major undertaking required reevaluating every aspect of factory operations to ensure a safe working environment. Business-continuity plans had to be modified and updated to reflect regional requirements. Factory layouts had to be rearranged, machines reconfigured, and workers appropriately spaced on factory floors to ensure physical distancing. The frequency of sanitizing facilities was increased. Personnel had to change their daily work habits; begin to wear masks, gowns, shields and gloves, and undergo regular temperature checks. In some countries, only certain items considered essential, such as medical or communications products, were allowed to be produced, requiring a rerouting of resources.

This rebalancing act needed to happen very quickly, while maintaining the same level of factory output and preserving established quality and regulatory standards for production of highly regulated products.

Factories have had to adjust to a new reality. Implementing a myriad of changes so quickly has not only helped them comply with immediate needs, but has also introduced positive ways that bolster operations for the future. This environment has enabled the implementation of new practices, technologies and automation that can further mitigate the impact of the ongoing pandemic, and other unexpected circumstances that could interfere with operations.

Expect some of these major developments to occur within the next two to five years:

• Automation to increase by up to 50%. To offset the threat of COVID-19 transmission, automation can reduce worker involvement on the factory floor, allowing repetitive processes to be performed by machines that can be monitored safely from a remote location. This is no pipe dream; a lot of the technology is already here. Some medical, network, automotive and electronic products can’t be touched during production to avoid contamination. Fully automated lines that use robotics and machine-to-machine (M2M) communications have already become a necessity. Moving forward, more manufacturing machines will become connected. Some will become smarter, drawing on predictive, prescriptive and preventive maintenance algorithms issued from a cloud-based manufacturing execution system (MES) platform, to perform tasks that typically would require a higher level of human judgment, and create a truly digital factory.
• Factory spaces and machines will be redesigned. Sites will be organized to utilize space, people, and manufacturing machines more efficiently and safely. Plants must be laid out so that changing external factors can’t interfere with production. With the use of machines and robotics for assembly, the total footprint required can be greatly reduced. This could mean that factories of the future simply require less space to operate. Alternatively, some of the newly available space could be devoted to new production lines or high-complexity products that require a deeper level of human involvement. The design of factory machines will likely continue to become more compact and intelligent to accommodate new spacing rules and digital factory requirements. Fewer parts and reconfigurable product designs will minimize the number of human-based decisions and tests that are physically needed on the production line.
• 5G will facilitate faster decision making and enable new applications within the digital factory. Once 5G adoption becomes mainstream, it will enable faster computing, data transfer and testing response times between intelligent factory machines and a cloud-based MES platform. The data analytics generated from these communications will speed management decisions to help avoid errors, ensure quality and improve productivity. Faster connectivity will enable seamless communications from wearable devices that measure biometrics such as body temperature and physical distance between workers, in order to abide by local requirements during the pandemic. This will help staff stay focused on their work, with automatic notifications that correct behaviors that are out of compliance. 5G will also open the door to virtual applications such as augmented reality, which can assist personnel in activities such as training and assembly.
• Decision making will become more decentralized. For global operations, decision making at the regional level will be brought more into focus. Major sites must be bolstered with redundant capabilities, data analytics and skilled executives who can make decisions for their region and unique circumstances, when there isn’t time to wait for direction from headquarters. Redundancy and disaster-recovery plans will also be strengthened, to take into account the global impact and regional responses to events like COVID-19 that can have ongoing repercussions.

While the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over, operational practices should continue to embrace new practices, technologies and automation at a much faster pace, to bolster execution and effectively navigate what has become the new normal. Moving to a digital factory model that employs automation is no longer a “nice-to-have” solution, but a core element of a flexible factory operation that can quickly respond and adapt to unexpected events. Robots and machines have already proved that they can take over basic production tasks. Now they’re being enhanced to perform more complex decision-making activities to ensure further continuity of operations.

In addition to providing a safer working environment, incorporating more automation and technology will elevate workers, empowering them to learn new skill sets that free them from mundane repetitive tasks on the production line. Being able to remotely tap data from connected machines and platforms will allow them to “own” their workstations, enabling data-based decisions that improve productivity and make work a much more satisfying experience.

Mulugeta Abtew is vice president of manufacturing technology development at Sanmina.