The Pan-Industrial Revolution

July 23, 2018
D’Aveni (Hypercompetition), a professor at Tuck Business School, predicts the widespread adoption of 3-D printing and other kinds of “additive manufacturing” in this persuasive, if shallow, business treatise. He describes how these technologies can be connected with online platforms that leverage artificial intelligence, big data, and machine learning, and thereby “play a transformative role in practically every field of human endeavor.” Acting as a “business detective,” he sifts through a wide array of industry papers on existing innovations to walk the reader through what he believes will be a new era of industry tycoons he terms the “pan-industrials.” D’Aveni asserts these moguls will leverage these technologies to take advantage of the economies of both scale and scope available, thereby mass-producing a wide range of goods and greatly reducing economic competition. D’Aveni largely neglects the downside of the system he foresees, only glancingly mentioning potential societal ills, such as “the huge political influence that the pan-industrials will command.” However, he lays out his economic case with clarity and intelligence, and the average reader will be left with the urge to go buy stock in 3-D printer companies right away.

September 1, 2018

D'Aveni (Tuck Sch. of Business, Dartmouth; Hypercompetition) argues that additive manufacturing (defined as "any kind of production in which materials are built up to create a product rather than cut, ground, drilled, or otherwise reduced into shape") combined with industrial platforms that engage in "information gathering, data analysis, and decision making" will bring about the creation of huge, highly flexible companies he calls pan-industrials. These businesses will be able to produce a greater variety of products and dominate the economy of the future, which will result, he asserts, in radical changes in business strategy and the nature of competition. D'Aveni believes the new economy will be a boon but recognizes possible adverse effects such as increased unemployment. In the final section, the author explains how businesses can adopt additive manufacturing and prepare themselves for the new pan-industrial economy. VERDICT Not for casual readers, this book is both speculative and informative and probably longer than it needs to be. It will interest primarily those involved with operations management.--Shmuel Ben-Gad, Gelman Lib., George Washington Univ., Washington, DC

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2018
How 3-D printing and related technologies will soon "transform the way practically everything is made.""Business will never be the same," writes management strategist D'Aveni (Strategy/Dartmouth Coll.; Strategic Capitalism: The New Economic Strategy for Winning the Capitalist Cold War, 2012, etc.). His readable, well-researched book traces the rise of 3-D printing from its inception in a late-night 1983 experiment to its present applications in manufacturing hearing aids, joint implants, and fighter jets to its quietly evolving role in the rise of giant new businesses he calls pan-industrials, which will "dominate the global economy" within a few decades. As the author explains, 3-D printing is one of many methods known as additive manufacturing, which involves building up materials to make a product. Once AM was deemed useful solely for making customized products in small quantities. Now, it is being used to make "standardized products in mass quantities" by companies like GE and Lockheed Martin, drawn by AM's extraordinary ability to make "almost anything anywhere," with greater flexibility, economies of scope and scale, and "levels of quality and efficiency once thought impossible." Combined with innovative digital tools, writes the author, AM methods will soon replace traditional manufacturing. The resulting pan-industrial firms--"voracious, ever-expanding industrial titans"--will serve as AM-based platforms connecting customers and suppliers in the same manner as Amazon and other consumer platforms. D'Aveni acknowledges that all of this sounds "astounding," but it is real, and he offers vivid accounts of how AM is playing out today at Zara, a Spanish apparel maker, and Jabil, a Florida-based electronics supplier. Focusing on business (as opposed to technical) aspects, the author details the many benefits of AM and its likely social consequences (obsolescence of millions of jobs but also enough new value in the economy to fund a universal basic income). "Virtually every" manufacturer will have to face this revolution, he writes.Essential business reading, with advice on how manufacturers can join the AM bandwagon.

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