# Keynote: Alignex Customer Event – The Future of Manufacturing – Minneapolis, MN
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Alignex provides 3D manufacturing and engineering solutions - and given the absolutely massive acceleration of these technologies and concepts within the manufacturing sector, they invited Futurist Jim Carroll to give the opening keynote address at a major customer user group event. Jim spoke about the disruption, transformation, and reinvention of manufacturing and why the opportunity for reinvention is so critical. Collapsing product lifecycles. Mass customization. Digitization, robotics, and the cloud. Design based on crowd thinking. Build to demand, as opposed to build to inventory, business models. The role of the Internet of Things in product innovation as well as manufacturing process innovation. Spatial innovation with advanced manufacturing robotics. New materials and substances that allow for a change in product development. Rapid prototyping, sketch to scale, and agility-based business models…. are you ready for the new world of manufacturing? That was Jim's challenge to the audience!

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Source: https://jimcarroll.com/2016/10/keynote-alignex-customer-event-the-future-of-manufacturing-minneapolis-mn/