Industrial production of the future will be characterized by the strong individualization of products under the conditions of highly flexible (large series) production, the extensive integration of customers and business partners in business and value-added processes, and the linking of production and high-quality services leading to so-called hybrid products. Information generated in the virtual world flows into real manufacturing processes and as a result completely new production environments will emerge. In smart factories supply chains will automatically coordinate with one another, and unfinished products will send the data needed for their processing to the machines that will turn them into merchandise.
This wil significantly increase industrial value creation. The German media are describing it as a paradigm shift toward smart factories, and even proclaiming the advent of a fourth industrial revolution.
Building Big Data –information- is key to further automation, together with next generation robots. Massive data generated by sensors and communicated across the value network, in combination with information handling technologies such as big data, data mining and predictive modelling, enables better control of production processes and can even lead to fully automated facilities and to smart and automated ways to support production.
Om succesvol te zijn moeten ondernemingen denken als hun klanten: customer centricity. Luisteren naar klanten. Creëren van meerwaarde voor klanten. Steve Jobs wist het: “Get closer to your customers than ever. So close in fact that you tell them what they need well before they realize it themselves.”
Hij was ook de bedenker van de legendarische commercial in 1997, voor mij nog altijd een inspiratie :
“Here’s To The Crazy Ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status-quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world – are the ones who DO !”
Natuurlijk dwingen de uitdagende marktomstandigheden bedrijven om kritisch naar de kosten te kijken. Maar belangrijker is het om op zoek te gaan naar nieuwe inkomstenbronnen. Bedrijven die zich niet aanpassen aan de veranderende omstandigheden hebben of krijgen het steeds moeilijker. Innoveren of verdwijnen. Het gaat om ondernemend gedrag en het vermogen om snel te handelen.
Aad Vredenbregt 