Each month, Tony Uphoff, visionary CEO of Thomasnet.com, joins Cloud Wars Live for a recurring segment. “Uphoff on Industry” will explore the innovations, upheavals, and breakthroughs reshaping the the world of manufacturing and industrial markets. Join Tony and me as we discuss disruptive new trends in the digital-industrial world. These include how we design, source and manufacture products. And also the new ways in which industrial companies are getting up to speed on marketing, sales and customer experience.

Episode 10

In this episode: Tony believes that 2020 will be the year where industry 4.0 really takes off. The increase he says, of products and services such as robotics, advanced manufacturing systems, additive manufacturing (a/k/a 3D printing), electronic components and sensors, have finally converged.

Tony says that 5G will open up packets of information at volumes we haven’t dreamed of before. He says that 5G connected to additive manufacturing will put small manufacturing facilities closer to a company’s customers.

Tony says that Apple, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are all manufacturers. But in a different era we would have said, “no, they’re software companies.” But if you actually look at the business they’re in, he says, enabling technologies are allowing us to rethink what is a manufacturing company.

He says a Toyota plant in the Midwest did a $1.5 billion upgrade to every system – including AI and robotics. And here’s the kicker: It created more than 500 jobs.

Tony says Boeing is struggling to figure out who the company is in today’s world. He says they made some really, really bad decisions. And because of that, Boeing’s very large customers are backing up and saying, “Maybe you aren’t who we thought you were.”

Tony says when Steve Ballmer was the CEO of Microsoft, it was all about market share, and about why they were better than the competition. Fast-forward to Satya Nadella, who is now the CEO, and he’s talking about customer behavior and customer needs. And he’s talking about partnering with other corporations like Oracle and SAP.

Tony’s podcast is on all the major platforms as well as ThomasNet.com. You can subscribe to Thomas’s daily email newsletter at thomasnet/insights.

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