Manufacturing at a Crossroads, Again - Connected World
Journey back with me 20 years ago. Manufacturing leaders were asking whether automation would fundamentally change the workforce. Today, the conversation has shifted, albeit only slightly. Now, the debate centers on AI (artificial intelligence), robotics, and what many are beginning to call physical AI. And once again, the fear narrative dominates the headlines: Will machines replace people?
But perhaps we are asking the wrong question. The manufacturing industry has always evolved through disruption. Steam power changed labor. Electrification changed productivity. The internet changed connectivity. Industrial IoT (Internet of Things) changed data access. And now AI is changing decision-making itself. Yet every industrial revolution did more than eliminate tasks. Rather, it created entirely new industries, new services, and new opportunities that previously did not exist.
That is the part of the conversation too many are missing today. When Mending Manufacturingwas first published in 2004, the focus was on restoring the...
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