Today’s complex global supply chains are poised to be dismantled
Thanks to the growth of 3D printing, intelligent robots, and open-source hardware, tomorrow’s supply chains will be faster, smaller, cheaper, and local.
Nothing exemplifies the exceptional power and scale of today’s highest performing supply chains than the simple phrase: designed in California, assembled In China. Behind that elegant phrase are some of the world’s most sophisticated supply-chain processes, stitching together networks of suppliers, sub-assemblers and logistics companies around the globe.
Supply chains today are big, complex and global. Keeping them humming is an enormous challenge. But does it have to be that way? We think the world is entering the era of small, simple and local supply chains, powered by a new generation of manufacturing technologies such as 3D printing, intelligent assembly robotics and open-source hardware – also known as the Software Defined Supply Chain.
Phi Beta Iota: When True Cost Economics becomes a mainstream app, this will change everything as it will gut those who externalize costs of water, fuel, child labor, and tax avoidance.
