Industry 4.0: Apple, Amazon, and Google are Manufacturers

Each month, Tony Uphoff, visionary CEO of Thomasnet.com, joins
Cloud Wars Live for a recurring segment. “Uphoff on Industry”
will explore the innovations, upheavals, and breakthroughs
reshaping the the world of manufacturing and industrial markets.
Join Tony and me as we discuss disruptive new trends in the
digital-industrial world. These include how we design, source and
manufacture products. And also the new ways in which industrial
companies are getting up to speed on marketing, sales and
customer experience.


Episode 10


In this episode: Tony believes that 2020 will be the year where
industry 4.0 really takes off. The increase he says, of products
and services such as robotics, advanced manufacturing systems,
additive manufacturing (a/k/a 3D printing), electronic components
and sensors, have finally converged.


Tony says that 5G will open up packets of information at volumes
we haven’t dreamed of before. He says that 5G connected to
additive manufacturing will put small manufacturing facilities
closer to a company’s customers.


Tony says that Apple, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are all
manufacturers. But in a different era we would have said, “no,
they’re software companies.” But if you actually look at the
business they’re in, he says, enabling technologies are allowing
us to rethink what is a manufacturing company.


He says a Toyota plant in the Midwest did a $1.5 billion upgrade
to every system – including AI and robotics. And here’s the
kicker: It created more than 500 jobs.


Tony says Boeing is struggling to figure out who the company is
in today’s world. He says they made some really, really bad
decisions. And because of that, Boeing’s very large customers are
backing up and saying, “Maybe you aren’t who we thought you
were.”


Tony says when Steve Ballmer was the CEO of Microsoft, it was all
about market share, and about why they were better than the
competition. Fast-forward to Satya Nadella, who is now the CEO,
and he’s talking about customer behavior and customer needs. And
he’s talking about partnering with other corporations like Oracle
and SAP.


Tony’s podcast is on all the major platforms as well as
ThomasNet.com. You can subscribe to Thomas’s daily email
newsletter at thomasnet/insights.





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