Manufacturing in the year 2020 will look very different from today's--in fact, in some innovative companies, it will be downright utopian. That's the thesis that Richard Morley, who invented the Programmable Logic Controller back in 1968 and now works for a techno-guru venture-capital firm called the Barn, and co-wonk Patricia Moody put forward in The Technology Machine. Much has changed in the past 30 years--technology, management theories, manufacturing processes--and anyone who hasn't been confused by these changes hasn't been paying attention. But Morley and Moody think the upheavals will have run their course four or five years into the new millennium, and after that there will be more easily graspable standards of excellence in business in general and manufacturing in particular.

The authors see 2020 manufacturing as producing products almost as quickly as a customer can imagine them, with money changing hands just as quickly. Masters of this universe--what the authors dub the Technology Machine--will be the knowledge worker, the man or woman who can perform many functions, who knows enough about multiple areas of the business to be able to cross back and forth between what used to be rigid interdepartmental barriers. Will everyone be a knowledge worker, and will every business run this smoothly? No, the authors don't see that at all. They still see a world with clear winners and losers, but one in which the former will spend less time enjoying the cozy confines of the winner's circle and more time figuring out ways to get in, or back in. It's an exciting world they lay out; and if all goes according to their vision, 2020 will be a fascinating year to be alive. --Lou Schuler


From Booklist
With the burgeoning of the so-called knowledge industry and an ever expanding service economy, little attention has been paid to the future of manufacturing. Moody and Morley, however, are well qualified to offer their views. She is a consultant and the author of Leading Manufacturing Excellence: A Guide to State-of-the-Art Manufacturing (1997) and Breakthrough Partnering: Creating a Collective Enterprise Advantage (1993). He has earned 24 patents, had his hand in starting more than 20 companies, and invented the programmable logic controller--a device that has already changed the face of manufacturing. They suggest that future manufacturing will not be done in factories; products will be made in replication centers. Moody and Morley enthusiastically proclaim the ways in which technology will change manufacturing. They list 127 "wild cards," or technology innovations. They explain how a programmable logic controller works. They describe four breakthrough software "meta-systems," or "big waves." And they show how complexity theory and intelligent systems have already been used for manufacturing applications at a variety of companies. David Rouse


Review
Harry J. Healer, Jr. General Partner, The Venture Capital Fund of New England An insightful and perceptive book...provides very useful signposts against which new developments and visions can be mapped and evaluated.


Book Description
How will autonomous agents, emergent systems, and chaos theory change the way we live and work in the twenty-first century? As today's manufacturing and production systems grow increasingly complex, tomorrow's science of complexity will produce paradoxically simple solutions, argue technology experts Patricia Moody and Richard Morley in this astonishing vision of the year 2020. Containing both cutting-edge insights and simple truths that provide a roadmap to the future of business -- and illustrated by case examples from such companies as Motorola, Honda, GM, Solectron, Intel, Silicon Graphics, Modicon, Flavors, NeXT, Japanese Railway, and Andover Controls -- The Technology Machine challenges readers to understand the spirit and core drivers of growth: technology, knowledge, and individual excellence. By combining rigorous research with their extensive experience with technology advances that have changed industry, Moody and Morley are able to supply simple guidelines for future growth and detail their keen vision of future systems, leaders, and workers. They isolate the three bad business habits at the root of manufacturing problems today -- shortsightedness, restrictive structures, and unbalanced improvement fads -- show how to break them, and supply four infallible predictors of the types of breakthrough technologies that will come to dominate the world of the future. In that world, customers and suppliers are linked by real-time, online systems; business is driven by customer-designed, point-of-consumption replication of product; and a wide gap grows between "The Island of Excellence" organization of the future -- with its holistic approach, including two-year apprenticeships, uniforms, and morning exercises -- and "The Others," the non-elite, sweatshop-like, breakeven companies of the past. The book is eloquent, original, and essential reading for managers in every area of business and industry.


Download Description
Technology will continue to change the way we live and work. Using examples from General Motors, Honda, Intel, Japanese Railway, and others, two business gurus argue persuasively that we must embrace the core drivers of growth (technology, knowledge, and individual excellence) to survive in the future of industry. Based on their own research and experience, Patricia Moody and Richard Morley introduce four breakthrough software meta-systems that will transform manufacturing. In detailing their keen vision of systems, leaders, and workers, they offer simple guidelines for an organization's growth in the next century. With cutting-edge insights and one hundred "wild card" claims, The Technology Machine is both a predictive and a prescriptive guide to the future of manufacturing. No one in business today -- no one who hopes to survive -- should anticipate the future without taking into account Moody and Morley's astonishing vision.


Book Info
Contains insights and simple truths that provide a roadmap to the future of business, and illustrates examples from Motorola, Honda, and other companies. DLC: Production engineering--Technological innovation.


About the Author
Patricia E. Moody is the former editor of AME's Target magazine, where she created breakthrough work on teams, Kaizen, new product development, and supply chain issues. She is a well-known manufacturing management consultant and writer with more than twenty-five years of industry and consulting experience. Her client list includes such industry leaders as Solectron, Motorola, Johnson & Johnson, and Mead Corporation.

FROM THE PUBLISHER