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The energy industry is often at the forefront of our minds as we watch fuel prices climb and then celebrate when they come down. We continually find ways to be as energy efficient as possible in our homes and workplaces. Media outlets keep us constantly informed of this often-volatile industry’s ups and downs.

We tend to think of the manufacturing industry as an abstract concept, describing it in terms of trends, growth rates and output. Two of our features in this issue, including the cover story, do exactly that. And that’s a good thing!

Consulting firm for the manufacturing industry, Harbour Results Inc. (HRI; Southfield, MI), recently released the results of the Harbour IQ in-depth study on the current state of the automotive vendor tooling industry. The analysis predicts 2019 automotive vendor tooling spend to be $8 billion.

The industrial revolution of today, called Industry 4.0, is driven by the interconnectedness of advanced technology, automation, robotics, and real-time data, also called the Internet of Things (IoT). While these cyber-physical systems can autonomously exchange information to trigger actions and make decentralized decisions, it’s impossible to dismiss the importance of the human element in manufacturing.

After petroleum prices collapsed in the mid-2010s, shale oil and gas producers responded to the down-swing by borrowing techniques and technology from the energy sector’s offshore well operations, manufacturing, and even the medical industry to increase efficiency.

Lithium-ion batteries are the preferred power source for devices ranging from cardiac pacemakers to the rapidly growing fleet of electric vehicles. They are conceptually simple devices consisting of a uniform bit of lithium compound located on either side of a collector.

ArcelorMittal cranks out 15 million tons of raw steel every year in the U.S. alone; thus, saving energy for this steel producer is serious business. Plus, it mines the materials used to create liquid iron, the building block for making steel. The company also competes in the global marketplace to sell its steel to a variety of different industries, including the automotive, construction and appliance industries.

Cummins Inc.—a manufacturer of heavy-duty engines, components, and power generators—didn’t exactly set out to become the energy efficiency leader it is today. When the company set its first public greenhouse gas reduction goal in 2006, executives hadn’t yet quite worked out a plan to achieve it.

As renewables are increasingly integrated into the energy infrastructure, we continue to gain deeper appreciations for both the benefits and challenges they present. The challenges, highlighted in the so-called “Duck curve” first identified in the solar-rich California market, show how disruptive solar power can be for grid stability.

Cofounder Johannes Trabert, who lives a poetic life in the Thuringian Forest, says the future will be focused on ‘the clever share of work’ between humans and robots.