Smart Manufacturing

At the second edition of the MES & Industry 4.0 International Summit in Porto, Portugal, Lucian Fogoros, Co-founder of IIoT World, spoke with Francisco Almada Lobo, CEO and Co-founder of Critical Manufacturing, about how generative AI is evolving the role of Manufacturing Execution Systems

Modern manufacturers face a paradox: despite generating more data than ever, as much as 80–95% of valuable operational data remains unused. The result? Missed opportunities, fragmented visibility, and stalled digital transformation efforts. Our new executive booklet, based on the expert panel “The Connected

Manufacturers are under relentless pressure to adapt—fast. But while the demand for agility is everywhere, the reality on the ground tells a different story. Most factory floors still rely on outdated systems, fragmented data, and manual workarounds that leave them

Forget the hype. Generative AI isn’t replacing workers or designing entire factories — yet. But it is changing what happens on the factory floor, where complexity, variability, and labor shortages meet real-time decisions. From reducing assembly errors to preserving expertise

As manufacturers accelerate their digital transformation journeys, the limitations of fragmented data environments are becoming more visible—and more costly. The promise of smart manufacturing hinges on one capability: enabling data to move seamlessly from the factory floor to the cloud

Digital transformation is a top priority for manufacturers—but executing it without disrupting daily operations remains one of the toughest challenges in the industry. Downtime is expensive. Retraining teams is resource-intensive. And implementing new systems while maintaining output often feels impossible. IIoT

In today’s industrial landscape, there are only two kinds of manufacturing companies: those that turn data into value and competitive advantage—and those that don’t. Period. Yet many manufacturers remain stuck. Some are too focused on legacy processes and past decisions; others

Industry 5.0 will empower people by positioning them back at the center of manufacturing. This will be achieved by focusing on a more strategic collaborative relationship between humans and machines in addition to increasing sustainability and resilience. Getting there isn’t

The thought of digitalization can be overwhelming. When we first started talking about IIoT or digitalization about a decade ago, the concepts were prescribed as an all-encompassing, top-down approach taking the industrial world from Industry 3.0 to Industry 4.0. However, that