Best of LinkedIn: Smart Manufacturing CW 17/ 18

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 In this edition, reports and insights from industrial leaders outline the 2026 roadmap for autonomous manufacturing, highlighting a shift from experimental pilots to industrialised execution. Central to this evolution is Industrial AI, which is moving beyond simple pattern recognition toward agentic and physical AI systems that can reason and act within production environments. Technologies like digital twins are being used to simulate facilities, such as those at PepsiCo, to drastically reduce capital costs and increase throughput. The sources emphasise that success depends on a robust data foundation and the convergence of Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) through open standards. Strategic investments in infrastructure and upskilling are also presented as essential to overcoming structural labour shortages and geopolitical disruptions. Ultimately, the transition to smart factories requires moving beyond hardware silos to embrace software-defined automation and living digital engineering assets. This podcast was created via Google NotebookLM.