The Reading Room – What’s The SCOOP?

In a regular Friday spot, this is the Reading Room, a weekly roundup of what we’ve been reading, watching and listening to. You can see these updates even more regularly if you follow me on LinkedIn or Twitter.

This week’s media has been dominated by a few things, of course of them is all the cool takeaways from last week’s CES, another is all the predictions related to 2020 and what this year, and even this decade, will deliver.

• More mind-blowing technology in the news today, as “Biological Robots are Built for the First Time Ever”. Scientists have created the first-ever biological robots out of frog cells.
• According to IndustryWeek, the feedback on the Phase One Trade deal ranges “From ‘Disappointed’ to ‘Indisputable Win’”. President Trump signed the Phase One trade deal on January 15th, prompting differing reactions from manufacturing associations.
• Following his CES 2020 predications last week, Dave Evans, Fictiv CEO, added his “Six Takeaways From CES 2020” to Forbes this week, with a particular focus on innovation and manufacturing.
• Forbes also suggest that the trade wars are having some unintended consequences. “Trade War Update: U.S. Companies Not Coming Home, But Many Are Leaving China”. According to Kenneth Rapoza, even though the trade war is showing no signs of bringing U.S. manufacturing firms home, it is taking its toll on Chinese manufacturing with an increasing number of them losing out to other Asian countries.
• Thomas gave us “7 Industrial IoT Startups You Should Watch in 2020”. Congratulations to Bright Machines for making it to the top of this list. They look set to shake up the industry in 2020.
• Slated as a major disruptor for the twenties is AI. This article in Supply Chain Dive tells us “How artificial intelligence is disrupting manufacturing”. For traditional manufacturers, integrating AI across day-to-day processes and equipment is no small task. Firms can keep up or risk becoming obsolete.
• Now that the fireworks are over and New Year’s resolutions are set, it’s time to prepare for global shipping in 2020. And that means looking at ongoing trends and changing regulations. For the supply chain geeks out there, Global Trade has “Global Shipping Trends: What to Expect in 2020”.

PODCAST OF THE WEEK: And for the final word on CES 2020, check out what the team at WIRED did in “Everything We Saw, Ate, Rode, Poked, and Played With at CES”.

MORE FROM PRODUCTRONICA: With APEX just around the corner we’re busy closing out the last few videos from Productronica, check out the Productronica 2019 playlist on our YouTube channel.

That’s it until next week! For more regular musing connect or follow me on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Read more, watch more, hear more, know more – that’s the SCOOP!