HP Innovation Journal Issue 08: Winter 2017 | Page 28

SPECIAL REPORT
Unlocking the Value of the
Digital Industrial Revolution
by D
 ion Weisler, President and CEO, HP Inc.;
Punit Renjen, CEO of Deloitte Global
W
e are at the dawn of a new global in-
Today, we are at another inflection point as
dustrial revolution. Massive transfor- manufacturers digitize and migrate to 3D pro-
mation is all around us. The digital and duction. This enables companies to design and
physical worlds are converging. Digital factories, produce products with unprecedented speed,
artificial intelligence, advanced robotics, big data, flexibility, and efficiency. Advances in new 3D
the Internet of Things, and 3D
printing are upending entire
industries from automotive to
aerospace to medical technol-
ogy to consumer goods.
For decades, businesses
have invested in new technol-
ogies to become more nimble,
automated, efficient, and inno-
vative. In the late-20 th Century,
information technology led a
shift towards a new economy,
transforming the face of glob-
al industry with advances like Dion Weisler, President and CEO, HP, and Punit Renjen, CEO, Deloitte Global
microcomputers, information
storage, fiber optics, communications satel- printing technologies and materials lead to nev-
lites, and the Internet. This new Information er-before-dreamed-of products, liberated from
Age fueled a surge in economic growth for the the constraints of traditional manufacturing. The
world’s industries, creating entirely new markets, distance from new product inspiration to phys-
a technologically savvy workforce, and much of ical reality will be shortened forever.
the modern world we see today.
Capital-intensive, far-flung factories and
Those changes were seismic, but this new slow, expensive and environmentally unfriend-
digital industrial revolution dwarfs it in propor- ly shipping networks become a vestige of the
tion. The World Economic Forum has estimated past. Digital files can be sent around the world
the combined value of digital transformation in seconds, transformed into physical goods at
across industries at upwards of $100 trillion the precise location where manufacturing speed
over the next 10 years alone. And nowhere and customer satisfaction are greatest, all while
is this change more profound than the digital reducing waste and carbon footprint.
transformation of the $12 trillion global man-
These advances will lead to a new era of
ufacturing industry.
mass personalization, the power of which will
manifest itself on a global scale. Major industries
24 Innovation Journal · Issue 8 · Winter 2017
will be able to utilize flexible manufacturing to
quickly produce and deliver new products — even
customized to the individual consumer level,
driving stronger brand relationships and new
revenue models. Several industry leaders such
as BMW, Johnson & Johnson,
Jabil, Nike and more are al-
ready embarking down this
path today.
This transformation is ush-
ering in an historic new era of
fully digitized supply chains,
mass customization, lowered
production costs, and an erosion
of the line between the next big
idea and finished product. And
someday soon it will obsolete
conventional business models
that have existed for decades.
So, if past is prologue, we
will see the companies who embrace this digital
reinvention gain even more competitive advan-
tage — with the financial returns and share-
holder valuations to match. As we saw with the
transformative force of IT, we will see entirely
new business models, products, and markets
emerge. And we believe that the countries who
understand this future, and enact smart educa-
tion, training, trade and incentives policies will
be poised to lead in our all-digital future.
This fast-approaching digital tomorrow
goes by many names — Industry 4.0, the Fourth
Industrial Revolution, the Digital Manufacturing
Revolution. But it’s not what you call it that mat-
ters, it’s the ability to foresee and embrace its
boundless potential that does. 
