In 1925, in a workshop in Esslingen am Neckar, Germany, Gottlieb Stoll asked himself how technology could make work easier. From the initial production of machines for woodworking, Festo, the company he co-founded, morphed into the production of pneumatic and electrical automation technology, selling to 300,000 customers worldwide in over 35 industries.

To mark the family-owned company’s 100^th anniversary this year Festo, which reported a turnover of $3.45 billion in 2024, built what it called an “Incredible Machine" (see the picture) a Rube Goldberg-type contraption which touches on applications the company now covers: everything from battery production for electric cars and laboratory automation in the life sciences to intralogistics and the semiconductor industry. The contraption highlights how even digitalization and AI are becoming increasingly important parts of Festo’s business. But, as the company’s tagline says, in the industrial world of automation standing still is not an option.

Amidst geopolitical and technological turmoil Festo wondered how it should set the right course for the future: what new things should it automate for a world in motion?

Festo decided to work together with UnternehmerTUM, a center for innovation and business creation at the Technical University of Munich. Through a series of workshops over several months they settled on a future focus for its agricultural division. Festo's journey provides some valuable insights on what it takes to become future-ready in a turbulent world.

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Israel’s Enzymit, a 2024 World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, is developing a cell-free bio production technology that aims to transform global manufacturing by converting any feedstock into any product.

“Our mission is to empower localized, resilient product systems to mitigate climate change and revolutionize manufacturing globally,” says Co-founder and CEO Gideon Lapidoth.

Traditional chemical manufacturing contributes 25% of global C02 emissions, wastes resources and strains supply chains. Bio-manufacturing is an attractive greener alternative but today bio-production relies primarily on fermentation, which entails significant complexities, lengthy development time, and high capital costs, says Lapidoth. As a result, today’s fermentation processes are not able to produce commodity chemicals that are cost competitive. “The reason it is so hard is that natural enzymes are not optimized for industrial reactions and they are not stable,” he says.

Enzymit leverages computational design and deep learning to engineer enzymes that outperform their natural counterparts—delivering improved expression and thermal stability, both critical for cost efficiency, and eliminating the need for expensive cofactors, external molecules that many enzymes require to function, which add complexity and cost to industrial-scale production, says Lapidoth.  “Now we have a path forward,” he says.

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