Manufacturing: $1.4 Trillion Margin Improvement

Manufacturers – especially in the automobile industry – can widen their margins by $1.4 trillion by digitizing the processes that manage how an idea emerges from research and development through sales to delivery and factory maintenance, Oliver Wyman contends.

Most of that money would come in sales and delivery, the bulk of that through better demand forecasting and intelligent pricing, the report said.

TECHNOLOGY OPPORTUNITY? The report tells how German manufacturers already deploy 3D printing and modeling techniques that simulate processes and will change the way they maintain their factories. The technology also helps avoid keeping more stocks of spare parts on hand than are needed.