We’ve just moved into our new offices here at CFE Media, and we find ourselves creating new habits in our new surroundings. One big thing is the location of the coffee. It is essential to have a clear path to the coffee, and this is especially true for me before 8 a.m. If I do not have a clear path to coffee before 8 a.m., the day will not go well for me, or for anyone brave enough to interact with me.

A lot of this move involves putting things in the right place, getting used to new chairs, and adjusting the workspace to meet your specific needs. The essential tools haven’t changed, but we’re using them in a different environment, and new ways of working together must be formed. How will the new conference room enhance our use of technology, for example? And then there’s the whole issue of learning new street addresses and phone numbers and extensions—all of which we have for you within this issue, so please update your phone lists.

Moving into a new office hasn’t always gone smoothly, and there have been a lot of things we needed to adapt to and a lot of organizational decisions that had to be made. So why bother? In the end, it came down to one basic issue:

We needed to change.

Change is messy. Change is inconvenient. Change requires courage, and it also requires capital. Change is not an end it itself; it is the means to a greater end. It involves analyzing your current situation and concluding that the mess, and inconvenience, and uncertainty, and cost will be worth it in the end.

I think that’s the part many manufacturers overlook today. Changing to a digital manufacturing plant certainly has all the pitfalls I cited above, and quite a few more. Changing your process is a hard thing to contemplate, especially if things generally are going pretty well. Given the recent data about manufacturing, it would seem things are going pretty well.

But there are plenty of arguments for change, not the least of which is that change also is inevitable. Not too many manufacturing companies want to be out on the bleeding edge of technological innovation—although my experience is that most of the better manufacturers are. Those who already have adopted digital manufacturing see the benefits, and this will give them a decided edge in a very competitive marketplace.

Those still on the sidelines must decide to change. The ability to carve away costs and improve efficiencies in your operations and in your supply chain make the digital plant the way we will be manufacturing well into the rest of this century. You can call it an the Industrial Revolution or you can call it an the Industrial Internet, but adopting the available technologies and strategies are essential to manufacturing reaching its full potential in this global marketplace.

Two other important points about change: First, change it is not a straight line. Very few messy, inconvenient things are. What is required is the will to change, followed by the will to see that change through to its planned conclusion. That will require your team to embrace the change, and that also can be messy and inconvenient. Your team will look to you to lead the team through this change.

But change also does not have to come all at once. It can be a process of testing and trying and failing and trying and succeeding and replicating success. We toss words like “continuous improvement” around a lot, but that because that is the mindset in any good organization. Change is different. Changing means deviating from the path of continuous improvement and looking for something more.

There is not enough change in manufacturing today, and change is needed. If U.S. manufacturing falters, it won’t be because regulations are too stringent or taxes are too high or tariffs are unfair. Manufacturers of all sizes can see the clear benefit of the technological changes available today. They must act for one simple reason:

Change is not good; change is better.   

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