The Reading Room – What’s the SCOOP?

Now in a regular Friday spot, this is the Reading Room, a weekly roundup of what we’ve been reading, watching and listening to this week. You can see these more regularly if you follow me on LinkedIn or Twitter.

• Following President Trumps ‘order’ to US tech firms to find alternative manufacturing geographies to China, there are numerous articles suggesting and exodus is underway. According to Forbes’ Senior Contributor, Willy Shih, “Companies Are Already Looking For Alternatives To China, But Moving Complex Supply Chains Isn’t Easy”
• Nikkei Asian Review states that “Google to shift Pixel smartphone production from China to Vietnam”. Google is moving aggressively to shift production of its Pixel smartphone from China to Vietnam as it seeks to build a low-cost supply chain in Southeast Asia that will serve as a springboard for its growing hardware ambitions.
• Industry Week report that, “Apple iPhone, Amazon Echo Production Moving From China to India”. Foxconn, Apple’s manufacturing source for China, turns to India as an up-and-coming hub for manufacturing. So, who will win, India, Vietnam, Mexico or will substantial amounts of production find their way back into the US?
• In the world of additive manufacturing, Thomas Insights report that “3D-Printed Medical Device Market to Hit $6 Billion by 2029” according to the latest report from IDTechEx.
• Meanwhile, the Essentium blog asks, “Can Additive Manufacturing Deliver on Ability, Agility and Affordability?” Keep an eye on Essentium, they are producing some really insightful content and seem to be really shaking up the 3D Printing market as it moves towards a viable industrial solution.
• McKinsey Quarterly’s latest edition discusses “Tech for the Greater Good” and asks, can advanced technologies such as AI improve the wellbeing of humans? Only if we more carefully manage its deployment and its effects on human labor.
• A big shout out to my very good friend and co-author, Joanne Moretti, CEO and Founder of JCurve Digital and former CMO of Jabil, who was instrumental in putting together this piece on “Elastic Manufacturing Capacity – What is it and Why do I need it?” Published in The Digital Enterprise.
• If you get the chance you should also read Joanne’s recently published e-book, entitled, “We are Moving to an Experience Economy – Are you Ready?”Featuring a case study on ServicePower who focused their entire business model on the customer experience and enabled everything they do with digital technologies.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK: Robot brains are getting smarter and smarter, but their bodies are often still clunky and unwieldy. Mechanical engineer Christoph Keplinger is designing a new generation of soft, agile robot inspired by a masterpiece of evolution: biological muscle. See these “artificial muscles” expand and contract like the real thing and reach superhuman speeds, and learn how they could power prosthetics that are stronger and more efficient than human limbs. Check out this TED Talk “The artificial muscles that will power robots of the future”

PODCAST OF THE WEEK:Check out the Wall Street Journal’s Tech New Briefing. Wall Street Journal reporters join Tanya Bustos to cover leading companies, new gadgets, consumer trends and cyber issues. From San Francisco to New York to the hottest conferences, WSJ journalists help you stay plugged in.

 

That’s it until next week! For more regular musing connect or follow me on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Read more, watch more, hear more, know more – that’s the SCOOP!