In the age of AI in supply chains, the role of connecting regions and skills
The competitiveness of ‘Made in Italy’ thrives through business networks that foster growth, resilience and shared value. A snapshot from the 4.Manager Observatory
Key points
- The strength of the ‘Made in Italy’ supply chain model
- Management and multi-speed digitalisation
- The human aspect, as well as the technological one
(Il Sole24Ore-Radiocor) – When the American mathematician and meteorologist Edward Lorenz posed, over fifty years ago, the famous question that has since become proverbial, “Can the flutter of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil cause a tornado in Texas?”, thereby formulating what is known as chaos theory, he certainly did not have the geopolitical situation of the last five years in mind. Yet it is precisely the butterfly effect that has put the global and Italian economies to the test. All the more so given that financial crises, the pandemic, wars, trade tensions and rapid technological change have gone far beyond a mere flutter of wings.
The other side of political and economic shocks is that the parameters have changed; it is precisely these connections that have come to the fore, and the competitiveness of the production system is no longer measured solely in terms of value, employment and exports. ‘In the era of augmented knowledge, what makes the difference is the quality of the connections between businesses, regions, skills, technologies and knowledge.’ This is the key insight put forward by the 7th Report of the 4.Manager Observatory, dedicated to ‘Production chains in the era of augmented knowledge’ (https://www.4manager.org/osservatorio/7-rapporto-dellosservatorio-4-manager/).
‘Behind an agri-food product, a garment, a piece of furniture, a piece of jewellery or an advanced mechanical solution lie not only industrial processes, but also actions, local narratives, standards, patents and organisational practices. These elements are often invisible in financial statements, yet they are crucial to the creation of value. ‘The challenge is to make this heritage more visible, shareable and transmissible through data, digital platforms and artificial intelligence,’ it states. These connections, in fact, become decisive factors not only for the resilience but also for the revival of an economy.”
When it comes to connections, the Italian manufacturing system has an edge, because this is already ingrained in its very DNA – from local communities to industrial districts, right through to supply chains, which ‘become the places where knowledge is produced, exchanged and applied’. Alongside the flows of raw materials and products, technical know-how, managerial skills, data, organisational practices and tacit knowledge also flow. It is here that ‘Made in Italy’ expresses one of its most distinctive characteristics: incorporating tangible and intangible culture into goods and services recognised worldwide for their quality, identity and irreplicability’.
The figures for Italian exports speak for themselves: although there are differences from sector to sector, they have weathered the storms and, in many cases, exceeded expectations. One of the keys may lie precisely here: the report by the 4.Manager Observatory shows that Italian production chains are where the industrial system’s ability to tackle not only transitions but genuine paradigm shifts is put to the test. The national production structure remains diverse: large, technology-intensive firms coexist alongside a network of SMEs that forms the backbone of ‘Made in Italy’. The strength of this network depends on the ability to transform interdependencies into drivers of resilience, innovation and shared growth.
