Manufacturing has been one of the key areas that support and influence a nation’s economy since  the  18th  century.  Being  the  primary  driving  force  in  economy  growth,  manufacturing constantly serves as the foundation and contributes to other industries. In the past centuries, manufacturing contributed significantly to modern civilisation and created momentum that is driving today’s  economy. Despite of various revolutionary achievements, we are still facing challenges  when  striving  to  achieve  greater  success  in  manufacturing  in  the  21st  century. This paper highlights the challenges, particularly in adaptive and collaborative manufacturing, and offers a unique approach to solving the problems.