The things people make, and the way they make them, determine how cities grow and decline, and influence how empires rise and fall. So, any disruption to the world’s factories (26)_____ . And that disruption is surely coming. Factories are being digitised, filled with new sensors and new computers to make them quicker, more (27)_____, and more efficient.
Robots are breaking free from the cages that surround them, learning new skills and new ways of working. And 3D printers have long (28)_____ a world where you can make anything, anywhere, from a computerised design. That vision is (29)_____ closer to reality. These forces will lead to cleaner factories, producing better goods at lower prices, personalised to our individual needs and desires. Humans will be (30)_____many of the dirty, repetitive, and dangerous jobs that have long been a (31)_____ of factory life.
Greater efficiency (32)_____ means fewer people can do the same work. Yet factory bosses in many developed countries are worried about a lack of skilled workers—and see (33)_____ and robots as a solution. But economist Helena Leurent says this period of rapid change in manufacturing is a (34)_____ opportunity to make the world a better place. “Manufacturing is the one system where you have got the biggest source of innovation, the biggest source of economic growth, and the biggest source of great jobs in the past. You can see it changing. That’s an opportunity to (35)_____ that system differently, and if we can, it will have tremendous significance.”



