Smart manufacturing for accelerated digitalisation 06:40 | 20/01/2021 Manufacturing accounts for around 16 per cent of global GDP, and is one of the foundations for the global economy. Denis Brunetti, president of Ericsson in Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos, analyses the pivotal role smart manufacturing plays in Vietnamâs endeavour towards increasing its industryâs productivity and competitiveness. Denis Brunetti, president of Ericsson in Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos In a recent report on connected manufacturing, Ericsson and Swedish tech group Hexagon AB examined five different smart manufacturing applications that may enable manufacturers to conduct their operations more efficiently â autonomous mobile robots, collaborative robots, digital twins, augmented reality, and asset condition monitoring. The report shows that all these cases can pay for themselves in 3-5 years, and when all five are deployed together, payback can occur even within two years.