The Impact of COVID-19 on the Future of Advanced Manufacturing and Production: Insights from the World Economic Forum’s Global Network of Advanced Manufacturing Hubs

While powerful megatrends like global trade tensions, climate change, new technology innovations, and the current COVID-19 crisis impact all parts of the globe, the reality of those impacts – and therefore the necessary responses to them – are inherently driven by unique regional characteristics and the regional enabling environments. The Global Network of Advanced Manufacturing Hubs (AMHUBs) connects regional manufacturing ecosystems to help rapidly transform manufacturing to keep pace with the global megatrends that might otherwise create disruptions for manufacturers around the globe.

With the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic, there is a need for the industry to move faster than ever to support the response to this international health crisis while mitigating its impact on manufacturers and their respective supply chain networks around the globe. This paper reflects an aggregate of voices from the Global Network of AMHUBs and focuses on COVID-19’s impact in each region; response efforts from manufacturing and governments; and best practices to achieve rapid results and mitigate repercussions to subsequent regions by learning from those affected earlier. The World Economic Forum is committed to enabling and amplifying cross-AMHUB collaborations that accelerate the industry’s ability to adapt to the current crisis while ensuring future resilience through advanced manufacturing technologies and processes.