Summary

The forthcoming changes in manufacturing are centered on dramatic performance improvement goals. Many manufacturers have invested heavily in historical processes that will rapidly become obsolete. Seeing the revolutionary new approaches is sometimes difficult for manufacturers, because they are often myopically focused on existing facilities and operations. Use of Inescapable Data technologies can, however, help them break out of focusing only upon achieving the "local maximum."

Real value can be gained from optimizing the entire product supply organism from end to end. A desire for faster fulfillment will develop among customers that will force the need among suppliers for the transparent tracking of all events occurring in the supply chain. Technologies such as RFID, wireless devices, and digital video are at the heart of the new track-everything-everywhere mentality, and when these technologies and the data they generate are tied to back-end business systems, supply-chain and manufacturing optimizations soar. The increase in data volumes and accelerating need to move these burgeoning data volumes from one end of the value chain to the other will tax the capabilities of existing business systems. However, the technology required to accommodate the new value chain models is now becoming available. In the Inescapable Data world, the need to compress product creation time, reduce line operation costs, tease-out Muda, and increase product personalization combine to create even higher joint value made possible by pervasive networks, data collection, data exchange, and most importantly, a willingness to tear down business walls, to achieve manufacturing in real time.