The manufacturing world is at the brink of transformation, with smart factories and emphasis on automation coming to the fore. Such trends are being aimed towards quality-control processes. The quality-control process is extremely critical in a manufacturing plant, and has changed drastically over the past two decades. Firstly, large manufacturers continue to spend more than 5 percent of their manufacturing costs on building effective quality-control processes. Secondly, over the past ten years, developing countries account for approximately 35% of global manufacturing.

The so-called traditional industrial economies such as the U.S., Germany, France, Italy and the UK are facing decline in terms of manufacturing owing to cheaper labor available in the East. Lastly, economies such as India, China, Brazil, and other South Asian countries are adding to overall complexity in reviving manufacturing in developed economies, owing to cheaper labor, a growing middle class and supportive reforms for foreign direct investments. Developed countries are trying to revive manufacturing by pushing the concept of smart factories and the East is also increasingly investing to increase manufacturing efficiencies. These varying factors have significant impact on technologies such as coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) used in the quality-process.