Best of LinkedIn: Smart Manufacturing CW 13/ 14

We curate most relevant posts about Smart Manufacturing on LinkedIn and regularly share key takeaways. We at Frenus enable smart manufacturing providers with detailed, feature-by-feature competitive intelligence, ensuring faster decision-making and stronger sales positioning. You can find more info in here: https://www.frenus.com/usecases/product-feature-benchmarking-and-sales-battle-cards-know-exactly-where-you-win-where-you-lose-and-why This edition outlines the 2026 industrial landscape, where manufacturing is transitioning from isolated digital experiments to unified, AI-driven ecosystems. Key leaders emphasise that the era of "scripted" automation is ending, replaced by physical AI and digital twins that allow factories to simulate, predict, and adapt in real time. Global technology providers like Siemens, NVIDIA, and Rockwell are forming strategic partnerships to create a seamless digital thread connecting product design directly to shop-floor execution. However, the contributors warn that success depends on rigorous data foundations and organisational redesign rather than simply deploying more robots. Significant investments in AI infrastructure across North America and Europe, alongside China's push into humanoid robotics, signal a shift where technology is now a requirement for strategic resilience and survival. Ultimately, the transition to autonomous operations is framed as a systems-integration challenge that requires moving intelligence from the cloud to the industrial edge. This podcast was created via Google NotebookLM.