A New Era of Manufacturing in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: $7 Billion of Possibilities Uncovered in Michigan

The report identifies a $7 billion annual value opportunity for Michigan's automotive sector through the adoption of four key Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies: augmented workforces, cobots, smart digital twins, and metal 3D printing. It argues that these technologies can decouple economic growth from environmental degradation while addressing labor skills gaps and improving workplace safety.

• The targeted implementation of four primary Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies could deliver over $7 billion in annual value to Michigan's automotive sector by 2022, contributing to UN Sustainable Development Goals 3, 8, 12, and 13.
• Augmented workforce schemes, utilizing AR and VR, represent a $2.6 billion value opportunity by increasing worker productivity and reducing training time by up to 75%, which could potentially create over 7,000 jobs in Michigan.
• Collaborative robots (cobots) offer a $2.1 billion value opportunity by improving throughput and safety, potentially saving 7,900 worker-days and creating 7,300 jobs through the onshoring of manufacturing.
• Smart digital twin technology presents a $1.4 billion annual opportunity by reducing product development costs and enabling predictive maintenance, which could reduce CO2 emissions by 620,000 tons through better-maintained vehicles.
• Metal 3D printing provides an $800 million opportunity by reducing material and inventory costs and enabling vehicle lightweighting, which is estimated to reduce CO2 emissions by 370,000 tons.
• Michigan is positioned as an innovation hub for mobility due to its high concentration of R&D investment—receiving 76% of the US automotive industry's total R&D—and its leadership in mobility-related patents with over 2,500 awarded in five years.
• To realize these gains, the report recommends the creation of an Advanced Manufacturing Platform (AMP) hosted by Automation Alley to facilitate multistakeholder collaboration and workforce development.

APA

World Economic Forum (2019). A New Era of Manufacturing in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: $7 Billion of Possibilities Uncovered in Michigan. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_New_Era_of_Manufacturing_in_the_Fourth_Industrial_Revolution.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. A New Era of Manufacturing in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: $7 Billion of Possibilities Uncovered in Michigan. 2019. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_New_Era_of_Manufacturing_in_the_Fourth_Industrial_Revolution.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=A New Era of Manufacturing in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: $7 Billion of Possibilities Uncovered in Michigan |date=April 2019 |url=http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_New_Era_of_Manufacturing_in_the_Fourth_Industrial_Revolution.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2019new, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{A New Era of Manufacturing in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: \$7 Billion of Possibilities Uncovered in Michigan}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2019}, month = apr, url = {http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_New_Era_of_Manufacturing_in_the_Fourth_Industrial_Revolution.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }