IT Blog

If there’s one characteristic shared by all the companies on this year’s Most Innovative Companies in Manufacturing list, it would be a commitment to working smarter. Whether that means using machine learning to identify ways manufacturing facilities can reduce carbon emissions, creating end products from unlikely sources, or rethinking how abundant but overlooked materials might be repurposed, this year’s contenders are all bringing new ideas to the fore, largely with an eye toward sustainable manufacturing practices.

Both TMC and Taylor Guitars are examples of how sustainable manufacturing processes can take inspiration from materials that are often cast aside. For TMC, that means creating a process to turn a New Zealand textile typically used in upholstery into a substitute for nylon in apparel, and Taylor Guitars is taking trees cut down by cities and turning them into guitars. In the “something from nothing” category, Solugen and Origin Materials are taking low-cost…