THE STARTING POINT
What this audience needed.
Help manufacturing software users interpret changes in products, production and demand.
WHAT MADE IT SPECIFIC
The audience shaped the research.
At Macola’s user meeting in Chicago, the story linked connected products, robotics, cloud systems and materials with mass customization and build-to-demand economics. It addressed the environment the audience’s systems had to support.
- Mass customization
- Connected products
- Cloud and robotics
- Build-to-demand economics
HOW THE KEYNOTE CONNECTED THE ISSUES
What made the content specific.
Connect the user meeting to the customer’s future
Manufacturing software users operate amid changes in products, demand and production methods. The keynote explored the environment their systems need to support, creating a business context for the wider event.
Bring mass customization and build-to-demand together
Robotics, cloud systems, rapid prototyping and connected products alter how manufacturers can respond to customers. Their strategic significance becomes clearer when connected to flexible production and changing demand.
Relate innovation to organizational agility
The presentation linked shorter product cycles and new capabilities with a need for rapid experimentation and more responsive processes. The focus was on the organization’s ability to adjust as products, customers and production methods change together.
FROM THE PUBLISHED CASE STUDY
Inside the engagement.
At Macola Software’s annual user meeting in Chicago, futurist Jim Carroll mapped the forces transforming manufacturing: collapsing product lifecycles, mass customization, robotics, cloud systems, connected products, advanced materials, rapid prototyping and build-to-demand economics.
Manufacturers cannot rely on rigid processes and long planning cycles when products, customers, technology and production methods are all changing faster. Jim’s keynote framed the new manufacturing advantage as agility: shorter cycles, flexible systems, rapid experimentation and the ability to build around changing demand.
The factory of the future is faster, connected, flexible and built around continuous reinvention, Jim told the Macola user community.
It’s the message manufacturers running Macola’s ERP systems took straight back into their own production planning. Explore more keynote case studies.
Source: Read Jim’s original case study ↗. This profile describes the keynote’s content and approach; it does not claim business results beyond those documented in the source.
BUILD ON THE INDUSTRY CONTEXT
Smarter factories. Stronger people.
The industrial future is a business and workforce challenge. Research connects technologies on the factory floor to productivity, customer value and investment choices.