The Future of Work
From the CNBC Series ” The Business Of Innovation“ Rethinking Work:
“Despite enormous advances in technology, our workplaces are not nearly as efficient as they could be: each week, more than 40% of employees use incorrect information to make decisions, thereby wasting time and resources. The third episode of The Business of Innovation explores how “wiser work” can lead businesses and governments to prosper”
While the subject matter meandered off topic to transportation, the program provides a good basis for thinking about the changing nature of work.
There is an imbalance in the use of technology in personal lives vs corporate environments. This imbalance has increased in recent years. Individuals have better information sharing tools at their reach than companies do. Facebook, Twitter, linkedin provide social networking opportunities never seen before. In factories, decisions made years ago still handcuff companies. Old ideas still work as the accountants weigh the cost of new technology vs the incremental savings in costs when they should be measuring the increase in productivity.
If there was a low cost simple way to take existing technology to a new level in factories, companies would benefit from new flexibility without having to dispense with past capital investments.
The current state of the factory is surprisingly backward in comparison. Systems and processes are very much like they were years ago when first implemented. Many solutions are crafted as “work arounds” providing the solution in a second rate way.
