As with all new trends, the ‘Factory of the Future’ is represented by different themes for different people. Read the industry press and you’ll see terms like ‘Industry 4.0’ and ‘Smart Manufacturing’ bandied about like Jelly Beans. I think it describes how new technologies are creating change in manufacturing on a par with how water […]
VUCA was originally born from the US military in the 1990s. It is an acronym describing the Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity in the world as it appeared to be evolving. An example of volatility is how oil prices reached nearly US$155 in 2008, only to drop as low as $48 later in the year. […]
Artificial Intelligence, commonly referred to as ‘AI’ is the science and engineering of making intelligent machines. Whilst an increasingly familiar term, its roots lie with Alan Turing. He led the team which famously cracked the ‘Enigma’ code machine used by Nazis during World War 2 to pass secret communications. In 1950, he created what has […]
Manufacturing > Services ‘There is no such thing as service industries. There are only industries whose service components are greater or less than those of other industries. Everybody is in services’, Theodore Levitt, Harvard Business Review, 1972 Traditionally, many manufacturers see themselves as ‘widget producers’, with profits coming from either selling large quantities or fewer, […]
Before exploring the skills we’ll need in the next 10-20 years, it’s helpful to look at a few jobs that didn’t even exist just a decade ago in 2006. We didn’t have ‘Social Media Managers’ as the major platforms – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram – either didn’t exist or hadn’t broken free of a few college […]
Servitization adds a service or solution-based offer to traditional product offering. It can be lucrative. But where do you start? The Manufacturer is presenting a new webinar at 10.30am on 28 September to help manufacturers get to grips with the opportunities available through servitization. The webinar presenters, James Woudhuysen (visiting Professor at London South Bank University) and Matt O’Neill (Independent Futurist), have […]
With the arrival of the web came ‘Disintermediation’; a watchword for the removal of middle-men – dealers, wholesalers, advisors, representatives, agents etc. – facilitating producers being able to sell directly to consumers. The theory was that manufacturers could receive a larger share of revenues while prices to consumers dropped. It didn’t work out that way. A […]
Since beginning my journey as a Futurist 8 months ago, I’ve become incredibly optimistic about the power of innovation to solve so many of our challenges. In part 1, we looked at the challenges facing food production today. Here, we’ll explore some of the new developments which present solutions to those challenges. Let’s begin with […]
“This is what virtual reality holds out to us – the possibility of walking into the constructs of the imagination.” – Terence McKenna Most of us love words as they let us conjure up ideas in the imagination. I remember well the telling of campfire horror stories as a Boy Scout. The storyteller had us […]
As the well-worn phrase has it, “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter”. And as an equally well-worn phrase tells us, “history is written by the victors”: those with power mould the ongoing narrative of countries and governments; and decide which groups are characterised in any particular way. For the purposes of this article, […]
