Editor’s note: This is part one of a four-part series offering the author’s perspective on how different aspects of manufacturing may be affected in the future. Part two covers production management; in part three, inventory management; and in part four, product quality.

Some time ago, I made a vision document and road map for transforming a machining line in a more than 50-year-old, complex-discrete manufacturing plant. When I started, I approached multiple topics including part quality, cutting tool management, manufacturing asset performance, associate/operator performance, and material/production tracking. I approached the vision from the standpoint of what is technically possible and how it would work in a utopian state. In this article, I want to walk through the portion of that vision pertaining to managing cutting tools. This vision includes automation, lots of data, and artificial intelligence.

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