Technology transforms industry. It also transforms life, and just as the first industrial revolution in 18th century England redrew the world map and the second sparked by Henry Ford in Detroit begat consumerism so too is the information technology revolution changing life today.
The 3rd industrial revolution is about the mingling of digital and physical in supply chains everywhere. It applies to everything from drugs to aircraft and it holds the key to our prosperity. Digitization once meant little more than software and entertainment, and as such was a niche interest. By 2015 however, digitization has penetrated nearly everything produced by the global supply chain. Digital manufacturing, smart logistics networks, web connected appliances, vehicles and equipment, plus an increasingly dense and valuable stack of embedded intellectual property in both consumer and industrial products add up to a supply chain tuned for managing information as much as material. The architecture is different, and the potential economic gains are vast.
Leaders able to separate the digital from the physical in their supply chain strategies will be able to gain huge time and cost advantages over those who can’t. Controlling and monetizing “shipments” of information will require different strategies from those built to deliver cases to the retail shelf. The entire notion of “delivery” needs to be redefined according to what is possible and what consumers want. Winning supply chain strategists will be those who figure out how to harness this potential in their business.