|
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.
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.
Richard E. Morley, the CEO of Flavors
Technology, Inc., is the founder or co-founder of more than
ten companies, including Modicon and Andover Controls. A
nationally recognized expert in the fields of computer design
and artificial intelligence, and a leading authority on
the application of chaos theory in manufacturing, Mr. Morley
holds more than twenty patents, including one for the Programmable
Logic Controller, now housed in the Smithsonian Institution.
|
