Advanced Manufacturing: Fill & Download for Free

China’s success has led many African capitals to pursue the country’s same industrialization trajectory. Over the last few years, African leaders have been pursuing policies designed to mimic the path China took.Some of these policies include creating special economic zones after China’s Shenzhen and positioning the manufacturing sector as a fulcrum to attract investments and create new jobs. Despite these efforts, Africa has yet to advance in its industrialization at the same speed China did.And over time, China moved from basic manufacturing into advanced manufacturing domains, where state-of-the-art technologies are used to improve processes and many lower-skill processes are automated. Consequently, China has improved its capabilities in robotics and broad emerging technologies like virtual reality, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence. Today China is recognized as a leading AI player.It is in these technological advancements that China can continue to dominate while Africa may struggle.If the manufacturing jobs by global entities like Dell, HP, and Siemens do not need to be outsourced, the expected opportunity Africa is banking on may not materialize.African leaders have expected that as China rises further, its wage levels will create disincentives for global manufacturers to continue sending work there. As that happens, they hope countries like Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Kenya can be seen as reliable alternatives that provide affordable labor with enough infrastructures for basic manufacturing.But with AI advancements decreasing outsourcing, the availability of cheap wage becomes irrelevant. China understands that, and is investing heavily to win the race of advanced manufacturing, tapping into the capabilities it acquired by making things for the world.If any outsourced manufacturing will remain, it is the advanced manufacturing. Based on available reports, Africa is not preparing for that level yet, as it continues to struggle with basic enablers like electricity, challenges that many countries solved many decades ago.Africa can find the paths to industrialization, but in ways that do not mimic China’s.Africa can no longer depend on global manufacturing to become industrialized, nor can it simply mimic China’s policies. But if Africa educates its citizens, integrates effectively on trade and currency, and improves intra-African trade, its industries can compete at least to serve its local markets.

We need to think about manufacturing jobs in a different way. A new wave of software-driven innovation is changing the face of manufacturing. They include new production techniques, like 3D printing and 4D printing. But also the ability to link through a “digital thread” every component of a factory floor, connecting machines to workers, and the factory to supply chains and distribution networks. Workers can be more productive and safer through electronic sensors and portable and wearable devices. These are new and better manufacturing jobs, which require a new set of skills, and are made possible by innovation and high quality infrastructure. We have just released a paper on how advanced manufacturing is transforming jobs. We show that advanced manufacturing jobs are higher-paying, and sup(more)

May his soul rest in peace.. Good man and his heart was in the right place. Yet, in the resource base economy idea, he had is nothing new - it's based on a bartering utopian ideology. Dreamy not realistic.The irony is that it does not enable complex manufacturing structures to formulate while the whole economic model depends on advance manufacturing process.