Bob Tilling, VP Global Sales at Kallik identifies four trends set to disrupt manufacturers in highly regulated industries in 2023: the industrial metaverse, the need to get a tighter arm on cybersecurity, the rise of eco-anxiety as the 2025 sustainable packing deadline looms, and a focus on data centricity.
Businesses and manufacturers in highly regulated markets, in particular pharmaceutical, food and beverage, cosmetics and consumer packaged goods (CPG), have experienced huge change in recent years, most significantly in the technologies they use, the regulations they face, and the changing demands from their customers.
In 2023 these macro-level changes are going to have a serious impact on regulated industries – with technology-driven change exploiting the industrial metaverse right down to the packaging, labelling and artwork used when manufacturing each individual product.
- The Industrial Metaverse Will Blur Digital and Physical Like Never Before
The global metaverse market is set to grow at an annual compound rate of 39.8% between 2022–2030. As part of the wider metaverse umbrella, the industrial metaverse combines a mix of immersive technologies including physical-digital fusion and human augmentation to create digital representations of a physical environment. Early adopters are already seeing benefits in terms of streamlining logistics and processes, achieving tangible return on investment (ROI), and delivering high-quality products across multiple industrial applications.
Many companies are still trying to envision the future of the industrial metaverse, but its potential to transform design, manufacturing, and interactions across global ecosystems is gaining significant interest. We have already seen the introduction of digital twins during Industry 4.0, a virtual model designed to accurately represent a physical object. When supported by other innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and 3D rendering, the true powers of digital twins can be felt and the road to the full impact of the industrial metaverse becomes nearer.
In conjunction with digital twins, we can expect to see the use of 3D rendering rapidly increase in 2023. 3D rendering is the process of using a computer to generate a 2D image from a digital three-dimensional scene. In fact, 3D rendering for artwork and labelling is already a core industry focus – helping to generate labels or artwork to put on the product and produce a 360-degree view of what it will look like before it goes to market.
- Get to Grips with Cybersecurity – Put Data at the Heart of Operations
Sophisticated hackers are increasingly finding ways through business security defences, so cybersecurity will become a clear focus in 2023. In the UK, nearly two-fifths of businesses experienced a cyber attack in the year leading up to July 2022. For the healthcare sector, cyberattacks have been a long-standing issue – it received 20% of the UK’s cyberattacks in 2021. Its vast amount of personal data combined with a reliance on outdated, legacy technology has made the healthcare market a sought-after target and unfortunately, medical devices have become an easy entry point for attackers. Medical device manufacturers are on the front line and must integrate an effective cybersecurity plan throughout the entire product development lifecycle, from pre-market and post-market phases to device disposal.
