Future trends explored at PEMA annual meeting

Dramatic changes are coming to workforces everywhere, the 2019 PEMA Annual Meeting was recently told. Making the claim in his keynote address to the Process Equipment Manufacturers Association was Jim Carroll, author, columnist, media commentator and consultant, with a focus on linking future trends to opportunities for innovation and creativity.

Carroll has a 25-year track record in providing direct, independent guidance to a diverse global client base, including 12 years with the world’s largest professional services firm. He has worked with a who’s who of global leaders, including the PGA of America, Wall Street Journal, DuPont, Honeywell, NASA, Lockheed Martin, National Australian Bank, CIGNA, Johnson & Johnson, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Microsoft, General Dynamics/Northrup Grumman, Siemens, Burger King, Pfizer, and many more.

Carroll’s “Think Big, Start Small, Scale Fast: Innovating in the Era of Disruption” presentation provided the following key thoughts that manufacturers should be acknowledging now.

There are 65 percent of children in pre-school today that will work in jobs and careers that do not yet exist.

Approximately half of the knowledge received in the first year of science study is obsolete by graduation.

Jim emphasized dramatic change and the need for PEMA members to keep pace with a quote by Rupert Murdoch: “The world is changing very fast. Big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the slow.”

We live in the era of acceleration; everything is speeding up. Customers demand this of their suppliers.

We live in the era of grand challenges. The world is trying to solve the biggest problems of our time including water, climate, healthcare, and similar mega-issues.

Carroll polled the audience, and most (42 percent) of PEMA members in the audience think the powder and bulk solids industry will exist in just about the same form in 10 years as it does today.

The Gartner Hype Cycle tracks productivity over visibility and time — starting with a technology trigger hyping up to a peak of inflated expectations, then the fall to the trough of disillusionment before leveling off. PEMA members must consider how their businesses will manage technology innovations and anticipate the changes that should be made through the cycle.

Every industry becomes a software industry. An auto insurance industry uses GPS software for customers to track driving behaviour and discount premiums accordingly. Your clients are embedding technology into their processes, and so should you. Packaging becomes smart with tracking for the supply chain, integrity management, interaction for optimal use – we are all in the high-tech manufacturing industry.

One-half of the global population is under the age of 25; they are 25 percent of the workforce today but will represent 40 percent in just 10 years.