A tipping point is rare and exciting. You have a system—e.g. an industry, culture, or government—that’s been one way for a long time. Then small factors start affecting it. These factors build steadily until suddenly—the system completely transforms. The Industrial Revolution was such a tipping point. The computer age was another—tipped by the PC. Mobile computing—tipped by the iPhone.

Now, industrial manufacturing is about to tip—thanks to not one, but three major technologies:

• Cloud
• The Internet of Things (IoT)
• 3D Printing

Each has evolved methodically over the last 20 years. But now, they’re all becoming viable, at the same time, thanks to the steady advance of computing power. And the impact on manufacturing will be monumental.

Cloud

Monitoring a factory in real-time is ideal.  It allows all stakeholders in the supply chain to have up-to-date insight into orders, conditions and resources. But for decades, data communication technology couldn’t share information between multiple partners securely and effectively.

The cloud has changed all that. Connecting trading partners in the cloud allows companies to share manufacturing intelligence instantly and easily. Data resides in one stream for everybody. With that comes a number of operational advantages.

First is the ability to read the market. Real-time customer demand data can trigger a boost in production and smarter movement of inventory. Then big data analytics can determine which factory and warehouse can best fulfill the order.

"A tipping point is inevitable. Once something 'tips' there’s no going back."

Second is the ability to coordinate. The basic thing about the cloud is its ability to centralize information. Instead of having to pass information between partners like a football, you have a single place everyone can visit to see what's happening. This allows partners to coordinate better. There's far more accuracy in communication – chunks of data don't get lost - and there's far greater speed. Changes in the cloud get updated in real-time.

Now that such highly advanced levels of monitoring and data sharing are available, it shouldn’t be necessary to rely on manual processes, or the exchanging of information on spreadsheets between supply chain partners.

Manufacturers need information instantly to meet today’s fast pace of change. A cloud network of machines, factories, warehouses, and shipping containers, sending information back and forth continually through the production lifecycle advances the progression of the smart factory.

The Internet of Things

First, people and businesses became connected to the internet. Then cloud networks connected them to each other. Now the race is on to connect "things" in the supply chain to the Internet, people, and businesses. Those "things" include raw materials, components, machines, products, packaging, smart chips, sensors, temperature readers, shipping containers, vehicles, shelves and bins, scanners, bar codes and the list goes on.

But just like connecting people and businesses to the internet was the first step towards full orchestration, connecting things to the Internet is only the first step towards end-to-end value chain orchestration.

As with the cloud, the real potential of the IoT in the supply chain is the data that flows between devices and people. In this case, it’s not just device-specific information that’s valuable. It’s performance data, collected from all the machines in a factory, and all the factories across the world.

Performing analytics on this data would allow businesses to gain a lot of insight into the efficiency of operations, the amount of unplanned downtime, and the critical decision points. The interesting thing about big data analytics, specific to the IoT, is their ability to feed back into machines.

The future looks a bit like this

So not only can the analytics tell you what to optimize, they can enable you to make changes on the ground. Imagine – with a few clicks - being able to increase the production of a t-shirt by observing the workload of all your factories around the world in real time, then adding orders to a factory that can handle it.

This creates huge potential for monitoring progress and taking action on business opportunities. Sales volumes will be understood beyond the retail outlet; delivery schedules will be seen by other stakeholders including logistics providers, and manufacturing progress will be known beyond the plant.

By introducing a big data layer that weaves together all the connected things in the supply chain, the true value of what the IoT can bring to the entire manufacturing supply chain will be realized.

Supply chain experts, no longer needing to check up on progress manually, are freed-up to act on the intelligence; making quick, effective decisions and solving problems.  It starts with smart manufacturing but it doesn’t end there; networking supply chain partners brings the value of smart manufacturing to bear through the entire product and sale lifecycle.

3D Printing

Personal jetpacks, robots that do the housework and a machine that can generate any object. All things your eight-year old self might mention if asked, ‘what will we have in the year 2015?’

The jetpack alas, is not yet the transport of choice and housework remains stoically manual. However, with 3D printing could we be getting somewhere on the object creation bit?

3D printing, or in a larger sense, additive manufacturing, is certainly causing quite a stir. Its science-fiction quality of delivering a fully-formed object from a design and raw materials feels very 21st century indeed. The commercial opportunities are promising - a recent report from MarketsandMarkets reported in Digital Journal suggests the market could grow 23 per cent annually in the seven years 2013 to 2020, at which point it is projected to reach $8.41 billion.

With the potential for businesses and consumers to create products on-site, 3D printing has the potential to shake up supply chains and reshape production. Products that have already been produced in this way include footwear, airplane parts, jewelry, even human body parts.

3D printing too will benefit from real time big data and analytics.  Rapid prototyping, on-demand manufacturing, and sudden order changes will be possible with a few clicks, once 3D printing becomes a fixture of smart factories. This will revolutionize the speed and customization of production.

But on top of that, it will also change business models. As 3D printing costs get lower, they will become more affordable to small firms and individuals.  Manufacturing by “crowdsourcing” will be possible.  Freelance manufacturing will be the next great economic frontier, opening up new business models based more granularly on production time and usage, instead of the flat rates that exist today.

A tipping point is inevitable. Once something “tips” there’s no going back. But often this is a good thing, especially when it comes to technology. In the case of manufacturing, the industry has been in need of a revolution since the one that gave birth to it. With the cloud, the IoT, and 3D printing, that revolution has arrived – and is well suited to handle all the speed, efficiency, and sustainability requirements of manufacturing in the 21st century.