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The Fourth Industrial Revolution Gains MomentumTechnology Briefing |
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TranscriptA decade ago, the Trends editors were among the few forecasters proclaiming the coming of the Fourth Industrial Revolution; we called it the Deployment Phase of the Fifth Techno-Economic Revolution. Today, it seems almost every consulting firm, technology vendor, and think-tank has discovered this new era and is eager to help guide us through it. In fact, the Fourth Industrial Revolution was the main topic discussed by the world's business elite when the World Economic Forum met this year in Davos, Switzerland. CEOs, policy makers, and entrepreneurs increasingly understand that it represents the latest in a series of game-changing "industrial revolutions" centered around improvements in automation and connectivity.
The painful period we've been in since the dot-com bubble burst in 2000 represents a predictable transition. It's like the Great Depression-a period when economic institutions are fundamentally reshaped to meet the demands of the new revolution: Just as the Great Depression had market crashes in 1929 and 1937, the so-called Great Recession had them in 2000 and 2008. As in every prior revolution, the winners of the prior era want to hold onto the security of the past. Much of the political turmoil we see comes from the challenges people face in dealing with the disruption of the current era.
These people are no different than the Luddites who wanted to smash all the job-killing machines, or the Marxists who dreamed of a "workers' paradise." Fortunately, these economic counter-revolutionaries were, for the most part, sidelined by history. The twentieth century experiments that took place in Eastern Europe and elsewhere show what happens when they aren't. On the contrary, as each revolution built upon the previous one, Americans and most inhabitants of the EU have seen their real GDP per capita rise roughly twenty-fold since the late eighteenth century. And unless the process is derailed by irrational forces, we can expect it to rise another 60 percent over the next fifteen to twenty years. Industry 4.0 refers specifically to the transformation of manufacturing taking place within the context of the broader industrial revolution. McKinsey and BCG have been closely tracking Industry 4.0 for several years now and proactively helping firms identify and respond to its threats and opportunities. McKinsey and Company defines Industry 4.0 as the next phase in the digitization of the manufacturing sector, driven by four disruptions:
How will these technologies transform real-world manufacturing? First, consider big data. An African gold mine found ways to capture more data from its sensors. New data showed some unsuspected fluctuations in oxygen levels during leaching, a key process. Fixing this problem increased yield by 3.7 percent, worth up to $20 million annually. Second, consider advanced analytics. Stronger analysis can dramatically improve product development. One automaker uses data from its online configurator together with "purchasing data" to identify options that customers are willing to pay a premium for. With this knowledge, it reduced the possible combination of options on one model to just 13,000-three orders of magnitude fewer than its competitor, which offered 27 million possibilities. Development time and production costs fell dramatically. Most companies could improve gross margin by 30 percent within twenty-four months using this approach. Third, let's talk about human-machine interfaces. Logistics company Knapp AG developed an "order picking technology" using augmented reality. Pickers wear a headset that presents vital information on a see-through display, helping them locate items more quickly and precisely. And with both hands free, they can build stronger and more efficient pallets, with fragile items safeguarded. An integrated camera captures serial and lot ID numbers for real-time stock tracking. Among the many benefits, error rates are down by 40 percent. Finally, take a look at digital- to-physical transfer technologies. A company called Local Motors builds cars almost entirely through 3D printing, with designs crowdsourced from its online community. It can create a new model from scratch in a year, far less than the industry average of six years. Fiat and GM, among others, still bend a lot of metal, but also use 3D printing and rapid prototyping to minimize their time to market. At Davos, Klaus Schwab, Chairman of the World Economic Forum, gave attendees a copy of his new book titled, The Fourth Industrial Revolution. In it, Schwab forecasts 21 events the WEF identifies as tipping points, or milestones, for the revolution that will occur between now and the end of 2025. These milestones are not really new; they were identified previously in Trends. However, the significance of this list is that the WEF provided its own probabilities and timing assessments. More importantly, it positioned these forecasts front-and-center at a conference attended by the world's leading "movers and shakers." This matters because what's on the to-do list of these CEOs and heads of state will soon become "action items" for their subordinates who directly control the world's financial, information, and manpower resources. Given this trend, we offer the following forecasts for your consideration. First, the institutional transformation necessary to unleash the full potential of the Fourth Industrial Revolution will take place at an accelerating pace as one breakthrough leads to another. The collapse of energy prices triggered by the North American Energy Revolution is transferring an average of $2 trillion per year from energy producers to energy consumers. Digital Globalization, as described in the next segment of this issue, is creating enormous value by delivering information where and when it is needed. Ubiquitous networked intelligence, genomics-enabled bio-engineering, and service robotics including autonomous vehicles are poised to dramatically raise standards of living, creating a new global middle class. Even government bureaucracies are adapting to the economic realities of the new digital paradigm as they compete to adapt regulation, taxation, and litigation to the needs of the new economy. Second, policymakers will increasingly have to address the challenges that accompany this new reality. In a recent report, the global financial firm UBS highlighted some of the broader implications of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.6 Consider just four:
Third, many of the winners in this new era don't exist today and many of the winners of the third industrial revolution will be big losers in the decade ahead. Consider these three insights from UBS.
Fourth, the most successful investors will be those who are on the lookout for signs of impending breakouts and failures. Consider just four examples.
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