Issue link: https://resources.mouser.com/i/1499865
High-Speed Data in Industrial, Automotive, Healthcare, and Data Centers 26 Sustainable Sustainability refers to designing and operating systems in ways that do not compromise the natural environment or the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Industrial automation can support sustainability goals by improving productivity, reducing energy use, and reducing waste. Customers are increasingly aligning with companies that share their values in considering environment impact and reducing environmental damage. In this sense, sustainability in industrial automation can help companies move from satisfying customers to delighting them. Sustainability is also a potential result of increasingly automated industrial environments: • Accessibility enables collaborative installation, operation, troubleshooting, and repair from afar, which requires fewer people on-site and reduces travel-related fuel consumption and pollution. • Access-enabling technologies such as AR can reduce the need for volumes of paper documentation and updates for installation, operation, troubleshooting, and repair. • Data insights make processes more efficient, leading to lower energy requirements and reduced waste in manufacturing products. • Data-driven insights make processes more efficient, which can lead to less manufacturing-related pollution. • Data-driven insights make predictive maintenance possible, leading to a reduced need for redundancy in cyber- physical systems. • Collaborative robotics can reduce the amount of physical space needed, reducing manufacturers' footprint on earth. Finally, sustainability results in impressive monetary benefits. Today, a range of solutions is available for capturing, mining, and monitoring energy-related data that translates into insights for cost reductions. Conclusion Customers increasingly want customized products that are manufactured and delivered quickly by manufacturers that are aligned with their values. The traditional manufacturing goals of efficiency, accuracy, and safety remain relevant, but new characteristics are emerging to help meet customer needs and expectations, including agility, accessibility, data- driven decision-making, collaboration, resilience, and sustainability. Manufacturing engineers are already incorporating these characteristics into system designs, and we can expect to see them become more prevalent. n