CATHY BONNSTETTER
Smart Manufacturing
The Next Industrial Revolution
In West Virginia, across the country and around the world,
the fourth industrial revolution has arrived. Smart manufac-
turing or manufacturing 4.0—the use of big data and the
artificial intelligence needed to sift through it—gives managers
the information they need to be proactive rather than reactive
with just the tap of a finger on their cell phones or computer
screens, making their processes responsive and transparent
and their operations sleek and profitable. Smart manufactur-
ing could also be a catalyst for jump-starting the Mountain
State’s economy.
“West Virginia desperately needs to diversify its economy,”
says John Deskins, West Virginia University (WVU) assistant
dean for outreach and engagement, director of the Bureau of
Business and Economic Research (BBER) and assistant profes-
sor of economics at the WVU College of Business and Econom-
ics. “Our recent problems have been caused by losses in coal
and our lack of other growing industries. The biggest super
sector we can look to in the future is manufacturing, and with
natural gas in abundant supply in this region, we have limit-
less opportunities in the petrochemical sector if we can do the
right things to be sure it comes here.”
Diversifying Our Economy
Those right things involve using smart manufacturing in
small- to medium-sized operations—the majority of the state’s
businesses—as well as large ones. European companies and
large U.S. companies such as Toyota and Procter & Gamble
are already savvy in the ways of smart manufacturing and
are reaping the rewards. West Virginia companies of all sizes
have to do the same.
“We can create good, high-paying jobs if we can do this,”
says Deskins. “Smart manufacturing will attract these jobs.
This is no longer just for the General Electrics and Teslas of
the world. Medium-sized companies are increasingly adopting
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