World Monitor Magazine WM_5 | Page 108

additional content
20 percent [ will be ] batteries . If we ’ re not careful , [ German manufacturers will ] only be responsible for the windows , seats , and wheels .” Every company , even if it ’ s in Silicon Valley , will need to improve its technological acumen during the next few years . This is a matter not just of recruiting people with software expertise , but of raising the skills of everyone at your company . They need not just the technical training to use digital tools , but insight into the patterns of technology — for example , how to create an operations footprint that can take advantage of the Industrial Internet , or how to accumulate the type of data that can foster machine learning .
You will be adopting manufacturing execution systems that link the elements of enterprise resource planning with all the factory operations of a company and its suppliers . Augmented reality will enable operators and decision makers to see data about operations ( or anything else ) on wearable devices . A schematic might pop up , helping an engineer ( or , in another setting , a surgeon ) determine where to direct a probe . Digital fabrication will allow a wider range of components and products to be created close to where they are needed , rather than being shipped long distances or going through customs ; the costs of this technology are dropping about 10 percent per year . Interoperability among all these technologies is much more common than it was in the past . This allows even the largest enterprise to coalesce around a more coherent global strategy — and when your people have the right kind of digital acumen , they can make use of systems far more effectively . The industrial infrastructure will make it easier to design your workplace for digital acumen . Set up displays

The next industrial revolution is driven by large-scale digital tech , so it ’ s easy to overlook the way it could affect human relationships .

with shop floor or financial data , offering opportunities for employees to discuss their meaning and how to improve them . If your factories have robots , design them as “ cobots ”: collaborative robots , equipped with sensors that make them responsive to the people who work nearby . The robots handle the rote tasks , such as moving parts into position ; the people handle the more fine-grained parts of the operation , where judgment or artistry is required . Tailor office environments to the work needs , learning opportunities , and emotional engagement of the people who work in them , with collaborative workrooms that bring teams together easily with videoconferencing and other digital connections . In general , design your work spaces as opportunities for your people to learn — from experience , from analyzing data , from the increasingly intelligent technology around them , and from one another .
As people throughout your company become more comfortable with the Industrial Internet , they will develop a collaborative culture of innovation . They will also better understand the risks of the new world — for example , risks related to accidents , privacy violations , and cyber-attack . This insight will be invaluable , not just within your company , but across the platforms you inhabit .
Because possible points of attack or vulnerability are spread throughout the ecosystem , responsibility for their security needs to be shared broadly , and frameworks for legal liability need to keep pace with technological developments . CEOs and their boards may need to be as good at judging when the world is not ready for their technology as they are at judging when their technology is ready for the world .
5 . Innovate rapidly and openly . Innovation and leadership go hand in hand in the next industrial revolution . Many companies will seek disruptive innovation , but a steady stream of incremental innovations can be more profitable . Smaller innovations will be easier to generate and , more important , easier to test in the market . With the tools of the Industrial Internet , you can prototype new products , manufacture them in small batches profitably , distribute them rapidly , and see how your customers respond before rolling them out worldwide . As you continue to develop incremental innovations , they can sometimes snowball into disruption . That ’ s what happened with the smartphone , which evolved between 2000 and 2007 from a music player ( the iPod ) into a worldchanging device .
Rapid innovation is more effective when you are open to collaboration with those outside your own company ’ s walls . Draw on a broad group of participants , including the organizations that are connected to
106 world monitor