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Being aware of developments in other industries as they’re happening can help you anticipate new solutions to improve efficiencies and add value in your business. Aside from the Internet of Things (IoT), information-driven manufacturing (iDM), social robots and Internet 5.0, here are three trends manufacturers need to watch:

1. Rapid prototyping + crowdfunding: Together, these two trends allow almost anyone to bring solutions to market quicker than many organisations can develop counter measures. It is the very definition of “disruptive innovation”.

2. Cradle-to-grave traceability: Every recall hitting the headlines reminds manufacturers of the critical need for end-to-end traceability to mitigate the risks to consumers and businesses. Intensifying this need are the proliferating counterfeit markets, worth US$32 billion and causing one million deaths annually. Traceability can counteract this.

3. Beyond the IoT: Blockchain is an emerging technology beginning to play a major part in IoT, especially with its potential to overcome many manufacturers’ concerns around data security. Another IoT evolution is machine learning, which falls under the wider artificial-intelligence umbrella. While adding natural language processing to machine learning gives a whole new opportunity: cognitive learning systems.

Find out more about these trends by reading the full story here and watching this video:

 

Food & Drink Business

Almond processor Select Harvests has announced the resignation of CEO and managing director, David Surveyor, marking the end of a three-year tenure that saw the business return to profitability.

Australia has long been a major exporter of fresh produce, with its agricultural sector playing an important role in supplying global food markets. Lineage director business development, Christian Rossow, looks at why the infrastructure connecting producers to ports and global supply chains is just as vital as product quality.

Automated intralogistics solutions company, Swisslog, is strengthening the resources available to its Australian and New Zealand (ANZ) customers through a new structure for the Asia Pacific excluding China (APeC) region.