Digitalizing manufacturing accelerates development cycles and prototyping and enables companies to move quickly into production, ultimately helping them to meet the needs of today’s consumers, according to Vicki Holt, President and CEO of Protolabs (Maple Plain, MN).

Yes, collaborative robots are replacing workers, but in a good way.

Digitalization is revolutionizing the manufacturing space, and as computing power increases while costs come down, manufacturers are able to buy “more-capable machines for less money that are easier to use,” said Michael Jacobs, President and CEO of Applied Manufacturing Technologies (Orion, MI).