The digitization of manufacturing

When I was younger, I used to think of the classical manufacturing companies as dinosaurs, part of the old economy. For me, they were large and slow lumbering beasts, many of them soon to be extinct, and rendered obsolete by emerging high-tech companies like Nokia, Intel, Microsoft. I was not alone in this feeling. Manufacturing companies built cars, compressors, drilling equipment and all sorts of other products that I rarely encountered in daily life. In my mind, I contrasted these traditional manufacturers with the new economy in which I was working. High-tech and software was cool, innovative and forward looking.… [Continue Reading]