Production and IT

In his book The Third Industrial Revolution Jeremy Rifkin describes how society and the economy are transformed by the fact that production and IT are increasingly interrelated. This enables smaller production runs, based on specific client requests.

Orientation

Developments in the so-called Smart Industry take place at an incredible pace. This requires changes in production methods as well as the business model.

Obstacles
  • Fear of making too much information available to the competition and a lack of familiarity with developments elsewhere lead to disappointments.
  • Cooperation should be seen as a virtue in an organization. However, often not enough time is made available for (international) orientation.
Solution
  • One can limit this type of navel-gazing by informing an external specialist who can judge the attractiveness of various initiatives.  
  • Of course first there should be a formalized agreement about which information can be shared publicly.