Ideas Worth Thinking About
Perspectives on industrial digitalization, OT/IT convergence, and what it actually takes to build a smart factory — from the people doing it.
Why Digitalisation Needs a Bottom-Up Approach
Most industrial digitalisation programmes are designed from the top down — from the C-suite vision, from the enterprise platform, from the vendor's roadmap. Almost all of the value is at the bottom. This contradiction explains more failed programmes than any other single factor.
Why Digitalisation Fails — The Patterns Nobody Admits
Studies put the failure rate of digital transformation programmes at 70–85%. The technology works. The failures are almost never technical. Here are six patterns that account for most of them — and the single root cause that connects them all.
Why OT and IT Must Converge — And Why Most Attempts Fail
Operational Technology and Information Technology grew up in different worlds, with different languages and mutual suspicion. The business case for convergence is now undeniable. The execution remains hard — almost always because it is attempted from one side only.
Open Source as a Counter-Strategy to Corporate Hegemony
The consolidation of global digital infrastructure inside a handful of corporations is not a neutral technical fact — it is a power arrangement. For manufacturers and industrial organisations, open source is not a procurement preference. It is a structural response to a structural problem.
Beyond Industry 4.0 — What Comes Next for Manufacturers
Industry 4.0 automated the machine. Industry 5.0 asks a harder question: given everything a modern factory can now know and do, how should it be designed — and for whom? A look at the three forces reshaping manufacturing beyond efficiency.
Industry 4.0 Is a Journey, Not a Project
Most manufacturers treat Industry 4.0 as a one-time capital project. Those who see lasting returns treat it as an ongoing organisational capability — built in stages, validated by data, and never truly finished.