It's good to look across industry
boundaries for insights and case studies. This is one of the best ways of
innovating in your own business. I also sometimes find people in sectors very
different than insurance saying things I can imagine being said by insurance
people.
Here's a great example from the world of
machine tools. There's a data standard enabling devices from different
manufacturers to talk to each other, so that factory managers can monitor and
optimize performance. The quote is: “So why is Mazak—a machine tool maker that
itself has proprietary software—adopting this open, brand-neutral communication
standard? During a trade press breakfast, Mazak Corp. President Brian
Papke put it this way: 'I would like to dream that everybody would buy Mazak
machines, but that isn't the reality. But we feel it’s good for manufacturing,
to improve machine utilization. From here, we asked ourselves, What about our
own factory?'”
Dream, reality – and then what's good for
the industry. This is a vendor who is embracing the future willingly. Also,
Mazak is not just adopting standards, but seeking to benefit by exploiting them
in its own plant. That's real vision, real commitment – and real smart.
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