SMS Offers Predictions for 2018

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Sitting at the heart of innovation and technology, with the headquarters in Nottingham, UK, SMS Electronics, an electronics manufacturing service provider, share their tech trends predictions for 2018.

Robert Colclough meets with new and emerging innovative tech led companies every day in his role as head of sales and marketing for SMS. This puts him into a unique position with the ability to forecast the growing markets with a view to ensuring manufacturing readiness.

For almost 100 years, SMS has been the company behind the scenes working with their OEM partners to fulfill their ideas by offering an agile and adaptive supply chain solution to bring electronic products to market faster, smarter and simpler.

Smart Tech from the Factor Floor into Your Home

"At SMS – Smart Made Simple, we have seen a burst of energy for the smart and connected home. This ranges from the rise in demand for sustainable energy and we are working closely with universities, governing bodies and OEMs within the smart meter and home thermostat division," said Colclough. "Moving onto solar technology and an increased demand from our customer’s customer, the end-user to live life on the grid, onto lighting and vast improvements being made to conserve energy through LEDs for example. The largest growth sector for us, however, has been in the demand for smart appliances. From a consumer perspective a few years ago, we witnessed the boom of the smart TV, so it was natural that products that enhance this technology would evolve such as the Amazon Echo – Alexa and other voice-controlled gadgets. The verdicts coming out of the Consumer Electronics Show, CES, mirror our own experience that this technology is currently following through to the domestic world with hoovers, fridges, washing machines all going through a much-needed upgrade.”

Sensors to Sense Our every Movement

“Smart packaging, consumer goods, retail and factory automation are all key markets for sensors," Colclough continued. "In the EMS world, that ability to track and trace is essential.  Up until a few years ago, this was a computerised system combined with manual checks.  Obviously, with anything manual, there will always be room for error.  When you manufacture products for the medical and aerospace and defence markets like we do at SMS – Smart Made Simple, there is no room for error.  So, how do we remove it? The solution sensors.  The result, the ability to track data and provide our OEM customer with added information and the ability to interact with the brand owner/logo. According to Allied Market Research (AMR), the global market of sensors is poised to grow with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.3 percent until 2022 when the market would reach $241 billion.”

Market drivers

• The growing adoption of IoT
• Advancements in consumer electronics
• The sensor technology itself is far greater
• The increase in smartphone and tablet technology
• Back to the factory floor with Industry 4.0 and the smart factory movement
• The automotive industry evolution with electronic components contained within increasing through to autonomous and driverless cars
• And everyone seems to be wearing one, some kind of wearable device linked to an app on your smartphone to track movement and health
• Closing the Gap Between Technology Advancements and Manufacturing Capabilities

“We are ready for today and what tomorrow’s world will bring," said Colclough. “We have invested heavily in our development services and work closely with our OEM customers to transition their products from concept to creation to commercialisation through to the consumer themselves.  Whether the product is IoT related, a medical device, communications equipment or part of the next industrial revolution, SMS – Smart Made Simple knows that every product begins with an idea.  We understand that to make ideas reality, innovators need manufacturing partners for product realisation and fulfilment, and we know that thanks to the diversity of our experience and scalable service, SMS has the solution. We hope that you enjoy 2018 and all the innovation that it brings.  Be smart.”

About SMS – Smart Made Simple

SMS – Smart Made Simple is the U.K.’s leading manufacturing service provider.

From concept to creation, to commercialization, to customer, for all technology companies. Whether you are a start-up, or an established household brand name, if you have a design, engineering, manufacturing or supply chain problem, thanks to the diversity of our experience and scalable service, SMS has the solution.

Since 1920, SMS has manufactured electronics products from the same home in Nottingham, U.K. For almost 100 years, we have been the company behind the ideas, offering agile and adaptive supply chain solutions, that bring products to market faster, smarter and simpler.

Leader in the specialist low volume, highly complex manufacturing services market space, SMS has earned critical industry facility certifications, that brings full viability and credibility to the aerospace & defence, communications, industrial and medical markets. SMS brings the right scale, capabilities and competitive solutions to customers needing high-reliability attention, product realisation and supply chain optimisation.

For further information, click here.