Thursday, 19 September 2013

The Future of Production Networks

 
Blog Six: The Future of Production Networks
By Sophie Boden



As was proscribed by The Economist (2012), ‘Now a third revolution is under way. Manufacturing is going digital’ (p. 1). This has a range of implications for a number of people and nation states. As manufacturing becomes less of a specialist field, job losses will incur and traditional means of production will fall. This could have negative impacts on the global economy.

However, today we live in a technology dominated paradigm which is also ‘a fundamental enabling force in the globalizing of economic activities’ (Dicken, 2007, p. 138). Thus, whilst complete change from traditional manufacturing to a digital version may have some serious implications regarding employment, technology is crucial to enabling global economic activities for transnational corporations.

A key characteristic in the post-ford era is the ‘borderless, flexible’ nature of production (Kuttainen, 2013). As was discussed previously this is made possible through multinational corporations having access to technology. This is also an inherent quality of social networking sites. A site such as Facebook allows for the crossing of borders and hence enables production on a global level. Facebook through the advertising of products or ‘stuff’ can reach extensive areas of the Earth.

Another impact Facebook has had, is that corporations who are not considered transnational can utilise this network to become popular (Felix, 2012). Thus boosting their production levels.

Thus, today we see a change in the traditional approach to exchange through utilising social networks as a means of communicating to a large and varied group of people. What will happen to future production is purely speculative. Perhaps there will be a complete digital revolution making our current forms of production obsolete.
 
Reference List
Dicken, P. (2007). Winning and losing: An introduction, in Global Shift: Mapping the changing contours of the world economy (pp. 437-453). London, England: Sage.
Felix, S. (2012). The 20 Most-Liked Facebook Companies Ever. Retrieved from: http://www.businessinsider.com.au/the-20-most-liked-companies-on-facebook-2012-8?op=1#18-zara-142-million-likes-3
Kuttainen, V. (2013). BA1002: Our Space: Networks, narratives and the making of place, week 8 notes. [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://learnjcu.edu.au
The Economist. (2012). The third industrial revolution. Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/node/21553017

Image Credits:

Brandon, J. (2012). New Era of Manufacturing. Retrieved from: http://solidsmack.com/culture/social-manufacturing-third-industrial-revolution-is-here/ 

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