John Denslinger argues Industry 4.0 is a manufacturing supernova on Earth, both for industry and the people enabling its transformation. The fourth industrial revolution was underway long before the pandemic touched every corner of the world. Covid might have limited adoption by those companies at implementation phase, but not among those with ongoing buildouts. Interestingly, had this revolution started earlier, robust digitalisation might have negated much of the Covid impact on manufacturing and their supply chains. If you’re not familiar with the term Industry 4.0 and its competitive implications, perhaps a history lesson is in order. Industry 1.0 applied to…

John Denslinger explores a decade of falling dominoes, each impacting the supply chain and driving manufacturers to explore significant changes to their global strategies. A domino effect is produced when one event sets off a chain of similar events. This is easily understandable if you visualise a falling row of dominoes. Its clear global manufacturing did not escape the domino effect. For more than two decades, manufacturers and their supply partners enjoyed relative stability in their current locations, but a series of events may be threatening that baseline. There are solutions, but first the dominoes. Perhaps the first domino to…