The Technology Machine : How Manufacturing Will Work in the Year 2020

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