We are usually talking about how the manufacturing industry will handle external challenges, but perhaps we should rather focus on the role of the manufacturing industry in the society to be more robust for coping with such crisis on top of each other? The manufacturing industry is a key enabler for sustainable development with respect to environment, society and economy, and this industry is an important part of our common emergency preparedness.
Our best robustness for the future is a society that is prepared for facing a large variety of challenges. In this context, it is vital for Norway to maintain, and further develop, high quality in research, manufacturing and innovation. Governmental cofounding of R&D is one of the most effective efforts build national robustness for facing challenges to come.
Collaborative research, as all partners in SFI Manufacturing have joined in on, have contributed to our most powerful tool to build robustness for the future: knowledge. This annual report gives an overview of the contribution from the centre last year, and I hope you will read this report being motivated to seek possibilities to utilise this knowledge for a common sustainable development.
- Lars Stenerud, CEO Plasto AS
Chair of the board, SFI Manufacturing