Intelligent Manufacturing € February € 1997 € Vol. 3 € No. 2

The Great Challenge:Turning Technology into Profitability

Many mass-produced products for mass markets will not be competitive in the 21st century. Consumers are increasingly better informed and harder to please. They will buy products that satisfy their own tastes rather than accept whatever stores present. Products in the future will have to be almost as varied as individual customers. This market driver will force companies to be even more consumer-driven in designing and marketing their products. It will also require the sensors, controls and computers to achieve highly flexible manufacturing of customized products.

"The mass production of identical products is being replaced by the flexible production of individualized products," said Stephen Millett, manager of Battelle's Breakthrough Center and leader of Battelle's technology forecasting. "Getting into the head of consumers - really understanding their motivations and behavior patterns rather than just their expressed desires - is the great challenge of consumer product development for the next decade. We see futuring as the way to anticipate customer demand and successful new products. All business leaders are going to have to be futurists."

Battelle (Columbus, Ohio; http://www.battelle.org), a technology R&D organization, has compiled a list of the 10 most important technological challenges facing industry over the next decade (see box).

For instance, by the year 2007 Battelle believes that the automotive industry will have shifted its focus to developing alternative-fuel systems. Further growth in electronics and information services will also require more efficient and mobile energy sources. Companies will need more flexible energy and power, and Battelle expects to see distributed electric generation within 10 years. In addition to alternative fuels, you can also anticipate the development of clean manufacturing processes, which will involve finding ways to increase the productivity of energy production and conversion.

Twenty years ago, the U.S. was by far the world's leader in technological entrepreneurship. Today, though, technology has become a global commodity - developed, traded, sold and marketed in every corner of the world. Never has the world seen as much international trade and competition for global markets. This trend will continue, Battelle predicts.

To achieve business growth in this environment, companies will have to improve and expand their efforts at finding technology, acquiring it, and putting it to work around the world. They must use this new technology to improve efficiency, reduce waste and energy needs, and create new products and services.

"The great challenge will be to use technology for growth and profitability," Millett said. "Controlling technology will be the competitive edge of the future."

Top 10 Technological Trends 1. Affordable Home-Based Health Care 2. Personalized Consumer Products 3. Convergence of Technology in the Home 4. Protecting the Environment and Natural Resources 5. Human Interfaces 6. Nutritional Health 7. Mobile Energy 8. Micro-Security 9. The Renewed Infrastructure 10. Global Business Competition