Opinion
Sophisticated ...
... this adjective describes the current situation of German industry quite well, as there are few economic certainties and no easy answers in these fall days of 2019. On the one hand: crisis and fear of recession. The automotive industry and its suppliers are cutting jobs. The German economy as a whole could have shrunk over three quarters in 2019. Only a slight contraction, but a contraction nonetheless. Added to this are Brexit and a global trend towards new tariffs and trade barriers.
But things are not quite that simple after all. This is because the global manufacturing industry is facing a fundamental technological change: production must become environmentally friendly and resource-efficient, even in countries such as China; it must be networked and data must flow in real time. Consumers want their products to be individually configured and delivered without having to wait. Challenging for manufacturers - but also a great opportunity for the German mechanical engineering industry, which is capable of developing such systems.
In Germany in particular, there is another problem that is both a risk and an opportunity: birth rates have been falling for 54 years, since 1965, and with them the potential workforce. In the meantime, the critical point has been reached when the baby boomers of the 1950s retire. Modernization and automation of the plants can provide a remedy: On the one hand, talented young people are looking for an inspiring working environment based on apps, tablets and real-time networking. On the other hand, modern worker guidance systems can also enable employees with less prior training to perform more complex tasks in the plant.
In short, the challenging task of the manufacturing industry is to invest in a fundamentally new production infrastructure in the face of increasingly uncertain revenues.
Motek is certainly the right place to find out which components and technologies can be used to implement all this successfully.
I look forward to meeting you in Stuttgart.
Daniel Schilling
Editor-in-chief handling
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