that'll happen when pigs fly how many
times have you heard that in your life I
first heard it when I was a little kid
and I wanted to build a hovercraft from
my mom's vacuum cleaner yeah I still
hear it today from time to time it comes
in different forms now that's not
pragmatic or you get a yeah but yeah but
this that or the other thing
it's what practical people say to
dreamers and they're often right but not
all the time what happens when pigs
really do fly when rules that we've just
generally accepted to be true change
making what once seemed impossible
possible
picture yourself in the 1980s with your
parachute pants and your mullet haircut
maybe even some big hair pick your
poison
what pigs weren't flying then that are
flying today how about things we take
for granted every day like the ability
to have a video chat with your family
right from your cell phone or control
the lights in your house from vacation
these are Back to the Future innovations
that old Marty McFly would have been
proud of but they didn't happen
overnight
they started with an idea that was
nurtured over time by dedicated
individuals who truly believed the pigs
could fly now I've been in the supply
chain industry for over 23 years and
I've spent a lot of time thinking about
the making and movement of stuff which
is the supply chain I got to tell you
the change going on today it feels like
1995 when the internet first began to
transfer from seller to buyer the
greatest source of power since the dawn
time information this birth of the
information superhighway has changed our
lives
think about how it's changed your
purchasing habits it used to be that it
was the car dealer and the retailer with
their point-of-sale information that
controlled all the cards now you're in
the driver's seat now you're in the
driver's seat this increasing access to
information has changed consumer
expectations forever
today we increasingly want what we want
when we want it at the lowest possible
cost and it's getting as close as
possible to this ideal that's the new
competitive advantage for business we're
entering into the next phase of the
information superhighway let's call it
the my way highway while the information
superhighway was about empowering
consumers with information increasing
their expectations the my way highway is
about fulfilling those expectations but
here's the catch how do you get exactly
what you want what traditional
manufacturing is about producing a lot
of the same generic thing and how do you
get an order on demand when
transportation networks were built to
consolidate many orders and oh by the
way how do you do this with the least
possible impact on the environment
these are the new consumer expectations
and this is where a paradigm shift is
occurring rules are beginning to change
let me start with manufacturing
manufacturing has followed the rules of
mass production for decades but what if
you could get exactly what you want a
bobble head with my head a cell phone
case that conforms to the exact
proportions of my hand well that's where
change is occurring industry 4.0 it's a
it's a term that was coined three years
ago to describe the factory of the
future and today we have next-generation
robots that allow for easy set up and
easy moving for shorter production runs
of more customized good getting closer
to that ideal of the my way consumer
you've heard a lot about 3d printing
well 3d printing you could manufacture
in units of one versus thousands and
there's been tremendous advances in
terms of the materials that can be used
in the speed of production there's been
a lot of articles written on that but I
want to talk about something different I
want to talk about the network what if
it's not a prototype of a custom cell
phone case that you want or that you
need but hundreds or thousands around
the world all conforming to the exact
proportion of the MyWay consumer hand
how would you do that one to three
printers regardless of how fast they are
no you need hundreds thousands
intelligently connected in key areas all
around the world creating an elastic
on-demand manufacturing cloud that's
shaking up the snow globe that's the my
way highway think about an Atlanta
entrepreneur they just got funding for
their custom tool on Kickstarter and now
they have orders they need five hundred
in New York they need five hundred in
Shanghai all they would need to do is
upload that information into the on
demand manufacturing cloud and those
tools are printing in minutes if not
seconds two key points it's on demand so
you're not devoting resources to
production until you get an order which
means you're lowering inventory you're
lowering cost you're improving cash
and you're manufacturing
closer to the points of production which
means you're reducing the time cost and
carbon of transportation because you're
producing where people are using the
product
so clearly pigs are beginning to fly in
manufacturing so let's talk about
transportation actually let's take a
ride on the fast lane of the MyWay
highway there are a lot of very cool
concepts in terms of high-speed
transportation I'm going to talk about -
have you heard of the Navy's railgun
project the railgun uses electromagnetic
energy to shoot projectiles over a
hundred miles with pinpoint accuracy
could that be applied to package
delivery between crowded metro areas
landing softly with a parachute my
personal favorite is the Hyperloop have
you heard of this one this is the
concept championed by Elon Musk where
people could travel in a tube in a
capsule on a cushion of air it's
estimated the people could travel
between LA and San Francisco in 35
minutes with less cost more safety than
played trainer on oh if this came to
pass wouldn't this be the default choice
now take this technology and apply that
to transportation and if people could
travel between LA and San Francisco in
35 minutes
certainly packages that don't need to
breathe eat sleep get up sit down go to
the bathroom could go even faster and
the infrastructure built less
expensively so if you're a retailer you
wouldn't need duplicate inventories in
LA in San Francisco to serve the
on-demand I need it now consumer and if
you take high-speed transportation and
couple it with on-demand manufacturing
the implications for inventory become
even more profound and yes I used
inventory and profound in the same
sentence I'm a supply chain guy I'm
sorry if you're in business today you
know this to be true inventory is the
devil its product that you've paid to
manufacturer you paid to transport and
it's sitting somewhere on a shelf
waiting to be purchased the value of
inventory in the United States today is
1.8 trillion dollars every dollar that
we can pull out of inventory due to
on-demand manufacturing or high-speed
transportation is good for the company
it's good for the consumer and it's good
for mother earth now let me give you
another example that's a little closer
to home ha
you promised your daughter a spongebob
pillow pet for 8th birthday problem
number one today's our eighth birthday
and you totally spaced it so panic comes
over and by the way if you don't think
this is a panic situation then you don't
have daughters so so you scour the
internet you find a pillow pet it's in
Los Angeles problem number two you're in
New York problem number three there is
no problem number three this is 2025
we're riding on the my way highway that
pillow pet is picked up in Los Angeles
it's moved to the Hyperloop station it
arrives in New York and a little under
two hours and it's delivered to your
home and that's less than four hours
from inventory to making your little
girl happy
that's the my way highway now the
concepts that I'm talking about today
some are in practice some are in
development some are purely aspirational
but the why behind all this is
indisputable the rising expectations of
can
Zoomers is not going to stop and it's
beginning to clash against Industrial
Age manufacturing and transportation
practices as a result rules are
beginning to change and when rules
change the impossible becomes possible
pigs begin to fly my advice don't be the
only one standing on the ground when
everyone else takes flight thank you