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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

Knorr, Hellmann’s, Maille and Frank’s will sit under McCormick’s roof in a transaction that marks Unilever’s exit from food manufacturing and the second-largest food deal in history.

Fonterra Co-operative Group has completed the sale of Mainland Group to French dairy giant Lactalis, closing a divestment process that began in mid-2024 when the co-op announced a strategic shift to become a pure-play global B2B dairy provider.

A potential combination of the world’s second and fifth largest spirits companies would create a $43.6 billion (US$30 billion) global player, second only to Diageo.