The future of smart manufacturing is built upon four core foundations - digital twin, augmented reality, IoT platform, and edge computing. 

Future factories will be built twice: once virtually and again physically. Future functional tests on production equipment will be conducted using virtual simulation and commissioning models. Head-mounted augmented reality displays will be used for worker training to significantly reduce safety and training costs. 

Through connected devices, operators in the production line will have access to live data. This will assist them in making the best decisions whether it is OEE optimization, equipment maintenance, or plant maintenance.

As industrial IoT evolves, we will see improvements in traceability, end-to-end supply chain integration, and workplace safety and health. This digital transformation will assist the manufacturing sector in meeting its ESG and lean manufacturing objectives.

By extending processing and storage capabilities to the edge, we can improve the latency and cyber security of smart manufacturing systems. Because computing occurs closer to the data source, the risk of data leakage is reduced. Furthermore, edge storage alleviates the strain on cloud infrastructure by allowing manufacturers to send only relevant data to their cloud solutions. This reduces storage costs while also lightening the load on cloud-based analytics.