Research on Disruptive Technology and Future Manufacturing Developments

Abstract

Industrial transformations, that are triggered by disruptive technologies, have the property of persisting over time. They may represent new ways to do existing activities, or they may represent genuinely new activities. In order to occupy a dominant position in future developments, many different countries, around the world, are actively embracing disruptive technologies. This is manifested by the pre-emptive incubation of new industries. The present paper is based upon an extensive literature search. It is argued that disruptive technologies, in particular, those that are associated with synthetic biology, aerospace manufacturing, and zero-carbon manufacturing, have been selected from a strategic perspective. Through a combination of qualitative descriptions and case studies, the significance and importance of the roles played by biomanufacturing, aerospace manufacturing and green/low-carbon manufacturing, in modern life, are elaborated upon. This allows the case to be made about the three modes of manufacturing that are noted above, that they are subverting traditional manufacturing. Indeed, they are gradually (and sometimes quickly) becoming new manufacturing models. In addition, we note that manufacturing based on new energy sources, intelligent (i.e., robotic) manufacturing and virtual (i.e., data based) manufacturing, (delete the space) are also likely to become highly important topics, and they will be worthy of attention in future considerations.