Operations in the Time of Industry 4.0

We all know the stereotypical tech company: highly educated young people in Silicon Valley perform magic that ends up in creating a powerful new product on your smartphone. However, there is a workforce too, carrying parcels up stairs, driving trains, and mowing the lawns. The majority of these people are neither in their twenties nor are they multi-lingual computer science graduates. It may seem that the world of work will increasingly be divided into a small group of digital sorcerers and a large group of muggles taking care of the grunt work. Is that inevitable? Is operations doomed to a future of being a meaningless sidekick to the digital world? The exact opposite is true. However, in order to leverage digital solutions in operational processes, we need to change our ways - quickly and dramatically. This book holds some good advice on how to do it.

Stefan Tontsch - born in 1974 - is living in Berlin, the heart of the European start-up scene and is currently VP Operations at FlixBus. As a mathematician he started his career in IT, working on tools like the Deutsche Bahn yield management system. His Operations Mantra - a tech-based approach to operational processes - became the starting point for this book.