Millennium Challenges

The future ­ will you be ready?

After 40 years of being a journalist, I have learned my lesson. If Tom Watson, IBM chairman in 1943, saw a world market of only five computers and Western Union couldn't decipher the writing on the wall in 1876 when the telephone came along, I'm not about to "crystal ball"--they are found in the land of Quicksand where only fools dare to tread--metalworking's future, except to suggest that if you marvel, as I do, at the advancements made in the past century, you ain't seen nothing yet!

What we have done, however, in this one-of-a-kind special edition of Tooling & Production is ask some leading thinkers who make a habit of living in the future what they see in their world. These are not dreamers; they are prognosticators. They study what is happening today and then blaze a trail to where today's leading-edge developments will logically lead. Invariably, the timeline may be skewed, but you can bet it will happen. When it comes to timelines, history shows we tend to overestimate the short term but underestimate the impact of long-term change.

Some of what you will read inside this issue is couched in fiction today. It will be fact tomorrow. Some is relatively heavy, most is easy reading. All of it is interesting. You'll find few, if any, answers but much that'll stimulate your thinking. If you find it difficult to believe that some of what you read relates to you, your job, or your company, rest assured it will impact a supplier, customer, competitor, or your marketplace. Somehow the changes will hit you. You better be ready to hit back.

This special issue will help you do just that. Peter Drucker, the father of modern management, tells each of us what it takes to be a "Change Leader." Several builders talk about the machine tools they'll be building in the future--their structure, the implications of higher-rpm spindles, open architecture controls, and faster axis travel via linear motors. You'll gain insight on tomorrow's cars, how they'll be built, the materials they'll use. You'll read of advances in automation and robotics. How companies will operate and make decisions in the future. Manufacturing in space. The promise of nanotechnology--computers rivaling today's fastest, but of microscopic size.

What you'll read may not give you the answers you are looking for. But it will start you thinking. It may even get you dreaming on how you can profit from, rather than stumble over, all the change that's ahead.

By Stanley J Modic
Editor-in-Chief

Originally published in the April 2000 issue
of Tooling & Production.
Please Note: some pictures or diagrams are only available through the printed media.