While the whole world was going crazy over the advantage of digital and cutting edge technologies, manufacturing, like always, was showing resistance, majorly because of the industry's conventional nature and trust issues. But the COVID-19 pandemic has been an exceptionally bitter learning experience for the industry. The whole industry came to a near halt over the several waves of the pandemic and worldwide lock downs. The priority is to ensure that nothing calls 'statue' on the industry like that ever again.

Researches consistently show that organizations need to be digitally mature to induce greater resilience in

employee engagement and supply chain operations, which will help them shield themselves from predicaments like this in the future. Infosys research backs up the claim that Manufacturers that have moved their critical applications to the cloud have functioned more smoothly as their workforce access what they need from their homes. Leveraging the power of data has also become a multi pronged tool that helps to ensure cost, performance and workforce optimization. The industry can also pursue technologies like 3D printing more aggressively now that additional use cases have emerged.

When it comes to future proofing manufacturing, organizations can no longer consider price as the primary criterion while sourcing components from across the globe. Remember, during the pandemic, Apple had to limit the online sale of its popular iPhones to two per customer because of the part shortages in Asia. It's imperative to avoid similar supply chain disruptions in the future. This substantiates the need for regional supply sources. The government of India has been quite foresighted with its thought process and initiatives. In this issue, we shed light on a few stories from the manufacturing industry.
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