In the era of AI to supply chains the role of connecting territories and competences
Made in Italy competitiveness wins with business networks for growth, resilience and shared value. The picture of the 4.Manager Observatory
Key points
- The strength of the Made in Italy supply chain model
- Managerialism and multi-speed digitisation
- The human as well as the technological node
(Il Sole24Ore-Radiocor) - When the American mathematician and meteorologist Edward Lorenz formulated over fifty years ago the famous question that has now become proverbial, "Can the flap of a butterfly's wings in Brazil cause a tornado in Texas?", formulating what is now the chaos theory, he certainly did not have in mind the geopolitical situation of the last five years. Yet, the butterfly effect is precisely what has tested the world economy and the Italian economy. All the more so considering that financial crises, pandemics, wars, trade tensions and technological acceleration have gone far beyond the beating of wings.
The other side of the political and economic shocks is that the parameters have changed, connections have shown their face and the competitiveness of the production system is no longer measured only in value, employment and exports. "In the era of increased knowledge, it is the quality of the connections between companies, territories, skills, technologies and knowledge that makes the difference". This is the key to understanding proposed by the 7th Report of the Osservatorio 4.Manager, dedicated to 'Le filiere produttive nell'era della conoscenza aumentata' (https://www.4manager.org/osservatorio/7-rapporto-dellosservatorio-4-manager/).
"Behind an agri-food product, a piece of clothing, a piece of furniture, a piece of jewellery or an advanced mechanical solution there are not only industrial processes, but gestures, territorial narratives, standards, patents and organisational customs. Elements that are often invisible in balance sheets, but decisive in the construction of value. The challenge is to make this heritage more visible, shareable and transmissible through data, digital platforms and artificial intelligence,' it says. Connections, indeed, that become decisive factors not only for the resilience but also for the relaunch of an economy.
When it comes to connections, the production system in Italia shows an extra gear, because it is permeated by them already in its DNA, from bell towers to districts, up to supply chains that 'become the places where knowledge is produced, exchanged and applied. Alongside the flows of raw materials and products flow technical knowledge, managerial skills, data, organisational practices and tacit knowledge. It is here that Made in Italy expresses one of its most distinctive characteristics: incorporating material and immaterial culture into goods and services recognised worldwide for their quality, identity and non-replicability'.
Italy's export figures themselves speak for themselves, which, albeit with distinctions between sector and sector, have weathered the storms and show numbers in many cases above expectations. One of the keys could be right here: the Observatory 4.Manager's report shows that Italian production chains are the place where the industrial system's ability to deal not only with transitions, but with real paradigm shifts, is measured. The national production structure is still articulated: large, technology-intensive companies coexist with a network of SMEs that form the backbone of Italian manufacturing. The solidity of this network depends on the ability to transform interdependencies into levers of resilience, innovation and shared growth.
