For many year's, the analysts at Gartner have produced what they call "hype cycles" for technologies in various areas, including from time to time the supply chain.
But this week, we are going to look at the recently released hype cycle for what Garter calls emerging technologies.
A hype cycle traces a sort of lifecycle curve for various technologies
that track their journeys from market introduction through
high levels of over-hype, which leads to to major disappointments before eventual value is achieved.
The most infamous of the five stages of the lifecycle portrayed in each hype cycle curve is the "Trough of Disillusionment," in which interest in a technology wanes following peak hype, as early experiments and implementations fail to deliver. Producers of the technology then shake out or fail as buyers dry up. Investments continue only if the surviving providers improve their products to the satisfaction of early adopters.
With that brief intro, below is the 2016 Gartner Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologes:
SCDigest confesses that we don't know what most of these technologies are, and we suspect most readers don't either. We may look them all up some day soon and publish a summary in a new article. Just what is 4D printing, by the way?
But of those we do know, we were a bit suprised to see machine learning - used now in a growing number of supply chain software applications - near the top of the hype cycle, ready for a fall. We thought the technology was already delivering real value in many applications.
Autonomous vehicles are heading down the trough of disillusionment, Gartner believes (not going to solve that truck driver shortage any time soon?), while Gartner sees augmented reality - such as displaying order picking locations through smart glasses - as about the move up to the "slope of enlightenment." We think in the supply chain at least that is quite a bit premature.
Anyway, see how many of these coming technologies you know, and if they are in the right place on the hype curve in your estimation.
Any Feedback on our Supply Chain Graphic of the Week? Let us know your thoughts at the Feedback section below.
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