The future of design for manufacture needs to incorporate the specific requirements emanating from the digitisation of downstream activities, particularly manufacturing and services. Without a systematic consideration of these requirements, the benefits of digitisation cannot be fully realised in manufacturing. Although current research has investigated the exploitation of digital technologies within design, manufacturing and services separately, there is a need to research the implications that digital manufacturing and digital services have on design. This will ease the adoption of digital technologies in manufacturing and services and enhance the benefits from their adoption. The key research question is how to design the next generation of products that are digitisation-ready and furthermore enable communication from such products to be analysed and used in such a way that added value is enabled for stakeholders throughout the value chain including the customer, designer and manufacturer.

The report is available for download at the link below.

Design for Future Manufacturing report