Gian Paolo, CEO, Dassault Systemes SOLIDWORKS

As we announced at the beginning of 2020, we have initiated the most consequential transformation SOLIDWORKS has ever undertaken with the introduction of the 3DEXPERIENCE Works portfolio. We want to expand from a product-focused organization to a platform-oriented organization.

Why? Because the world of design is changing and the pace of innovation is accelerating. In 1870 it took 35 years for one quarter of the U.S. population to adopt the telephone, in 2009 in just five years, a quarter of the U.S. population adopted social networks.

Platforms lower the barrier for businesses and individuals to innovate. Platforms enable new paradigms and help build creative communities that are vital to stimulate and foster innovation.     Platforms, therefore, can and will transform businesses that want to stay relevant and competitive.

Our first prediction for 2021 is that we will see a dramatic acceleration in the adoption of our 3DEXPERIENCE Works portfolio because the industry is undergoing a retooling to realize full digital continuity from design to manufacturing to support accelerated innovation.

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Jeff Setzer

Everyone knows what kind of a year 2020 was, which humbles people like myself when asked to make industry predictions for the upcoming year. Even so, we’ve been through enough “forced change” early on, and “new norms” have started to take shape, that I feel there are a few things I can predict for 2021.

Working From Home Will Stick.

Before the pandemic, many companies were already starting to employ people from their homes; 2020 accelerated that evolution out of necessity. Companies that originally resisted WFH — but were forced to adopt it — found there were many benefits, and are already implementing WFH in their long-term plans. For our industry, that means distributed data access becomes more important, but we are seeing that offline capabilities are also still needed — especially for those workers in remote areas without highly-reliable and speedy Internet access. For those with good Internet access, or occasional access, the ability to do real-time collaboration is a powerful draw that will push the adoption of CAD-friendly tools in that space. All of this will change the nature of human resources and employment opportunities, and physical location will become less important when hiring white collar team members.
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The use of Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR) or Virtual Reality (VR) (collectively known as Extended Reality (XR)) has started to see a steady rate of growth and adoption throughout manufacturing and engineering industries.

The global COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated it further, with many workers needing to be able to work remotely.

Author: Katharine Edmonds

Many organisations are now looking into ways to try and keep things ‘business as usual’, whilst in different locations. XR devices, and their remote collaboration capabilities offer a solution, enabling workers to continue to collaborate virtually, and in context, with their 3D CAD data with their colleagues, from their separate locations.

With remote working set to continue in 2021, is this the year you should consider XR? And how do you start?

You’ll still need a device…

The AR/VR market has been driven over the last 5 years by a raft of new headsets and mobile devices- many from familiar names like Apple, Facebook, HTC, Google, Microsoft and Samsung- along with dozens of start-ups.

Other than an expectation that Apple will release an MR headset sometime in the next 12 -24 months, there is no expected “breakthrough”, or major change to the technologies, just a lot of incremental improvement to what already exists.

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Sam Mahalingam, Chief Technical Officer

Digital twins break a new speed barrier: With the convergence of ML and data analytics in the product design cycle, we saw the rise of the digital twin. The next-gen product development lifecycle will bring a vastly expanded set of capabilities together, spanning hardware, data, and sensors, converging simulation, data analytics, and HPC, which will yield a cross-collaborative environment for engineers and designers to work faster and in tandem.

Demand for IoT in manufacturing explodes post-pandemic: Advancements in connected machines and data analytics, including leveraging AI and machine learning on the shop floor, are fueling innovation and accelerating smart manufacturing transformation. Expected to reach $400 billion by 2024, the smart manufacturing market encourages the adoption of unmanned, contactless transport machines, while delivering tangible results in production efficiency, product quality, and cost, due to sophisticated and cohesive analytics models for predictive maintenance and warranty management.

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Bjorn Sjodin, COMSOL

2020 brought great challenges to the global R&D community, as well as the community at large, and many of these challenges carry over to 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic forced workplaces to close, and businesses scrambled to make a quick switch to remote work in order to keep the workforce productive. Soon, many companies were set up for remote work and meetings, but for many operations, the switch to working from home was not so smooth. For instance, access to lab space and testing facilities became severely restricted, both in terms of physical access and the amount of time people could spend there. In 2021 and beyond, it is inevitable that R&D organizations will continue to look for ways to make the R&D process “quarantine-proof” as well as more robust with regards to similar crises in the future.

What options do we have? One possible solution is to bring lab and test equipment to your home, which is not always convenient — or even possible. Another method is virtual testing by using modeling and simulation (M&S) software. Computer modeling in your home can offer a comfortable and decentralized alternative during pandemic times. It will not replace physical testing altogether, but at a minimum, it allows R&D work to progress despite all of the pandemic’s constraints. M&S can, for instance, help reduce both the number of times you have to go to the lab to run a test and the number of physical tests that you have to perform.

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Wow, if we survived 2020, then 2021 will be a piece of cake, maybe, hopefully, fingers crossed, with eyes closed looking upward. In terms of technology, the little engine that could, i.e. Additive Manufacturing, kept climbing the hill. Despite all the difficulties, researchers, printer manufacturers, and end users continued to push the envelope with regard to innovations and applications. Additive Manufacturing and its close friends the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Nano Technology and Automation all made greater steps toward integration.

The difference in 2020 was that the breakthroughs and advancements were low key affairs, in which news was shared via online remote webinars and video conference calls. As a community we maintained the momentum but also learned new ways to produce and share results because of the unprecedented constraints that were placed on interaction as a consequence of the pandemic. So what lies ahead? Well let’s all gaze into the Additively Manufactured Crystal Ball and take a peek into what might be in 2021.

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Blake Teipel, CEO and Co-founder, Essentium

The promise of additive manufacturing has always been tremendous. But it’s not just a promise anymore—now the capability is a reality. Here are five trends that will push 3D printing to greater success in the coming year.

1: Additive manufacturing will be deployed more broadly

The question has always been: how do you use this technology to cost-effectively create not just one or two items but hundreds or thousands? Well, manufacturing companies have finally cracked the code, and there will be no turning back.

Essentium recently completed the third installment in our annual additive manufacturing industrial survey, conducted by Dimensional Research. We found that the number of companies now using additive manufacturing for full-scale production runs of hundreds of thousands of parts doubled from 7% in 2019 to 14% in 2020. And we expect that percentage to grow even larger next year.

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Bryan Crutchfield, VP & GM, Materialise

In 2021, we enter the fourth decade of 3D printing. At the same time, we are entering a decade with potential for radical renewal in our industry. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, 3D printing stood up to make a difference, providing an alternative way to produce vital goods and supplies in a fast, local, cost-efficient and safe way. The three trends we foresee in the coming year look to take us to the other side of the COVID crisis stronger, more flexible and ready for the possibilities where 3D printed products and components bring more value.

The first is a continued, supercharged move toward digitization. This shift will require more than just incremental steps. With an opportunity to go back to the drawing board and rethink how we approach manufacturing solutions, we open the door to radical new designs and innovative processes, something 3D printing is naturally designed to do. 3D printing frees designers from the constraints and limitations of traditional manufacturing technologies, helping them to focus on the solution instead of the product. The Corona-crisis represented an opportunity for 3D printing to demonstrate its potential. Now, as digitization accelerates, we have an opportunity to demonstrate how 3D printing can create real business value.

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Venkat Eswara, VP of Product Marketing

Pandemic Drives New Customer Experience

From remote service to “contactless” test drives, manufacturing has gone to great lengths in its attempts to modify existing operations so that it can meet customer needs in a “COVID safe” manner. And with customers becoming more accustomed to these offerings, and workers becoming more comfortable with these new methods, expect the manufacturing industry to further integrate these “alternatives” into its long-term approaches. This will allow manufacturers to not only deliver more personalized service, but will also give them the opportunity to further diversify their operations and build new workforces.

New Technology Officially Becomes “Mainstream”

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the manufacturing industry to scrutinize its entire infrastructure and operations. And with that, manufacturing businesses are beginning to more widely embrace sophisticated computing technologies to help them optimize weaknesses that may have been uncovered during the COVID era. For example, more and more manufacturers are beginning to embrace IoT technology to provide greater verification of sourcing provenance, while others are looking at ways in which technology — such as AI, ML and IoT — can be used to support remote workforces to make them more agile and effective. This means that 2021 could be the dawn of a manufacturing sector that looks much different technologically from anything that we have seen in the past.

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