OM of manufacturing: exploring futuristic manufacturing perspectives

Purpose – Technology is fast transforming how we supply both services and products. With virtual reality technology rapidly becoming available and much user friendlier and affordable than before, the next challenge is to supply not just products but also dreams. The purpose here is to explore the possibilities in manufacturing the dreams of customers. Design/methodology/approach – Instead of literature from psychology, the paper taps on deep Indian philosophy to explore the unconscious. For the unconscious is the source of dreams. The ancient, Indian OM is widely accepted in spiritual circles as the primordial sound of the universe. Using this OM symbol as a metaphor, the paper suggests that deep dimensions of competition – and roots for future excellence – may lie in creating products that are the dreams of customers. Findings – The paper then explores from the ancient Indian conceptualization of dreams to the current practices in supplying products to customers. It finds large corporations are more members of a supply or rather, innovation driven chain. That is despite being in an age of knowledge‐driven economy. Perhaps, the chain is too rigid, sequential a word. A better metaphor may be as part of a molecular structure, one that interconnects one organization with several other firms globally. Research limitations/implications – The community of global manufacturers has yet to realize that the key driver behind the customers' relentless pursuit of quality and low prices – and as is argued here, increasingly, their dreams – may lie deeply hidden within the realms of their unconscious. Practical implications – What is emerging is a triangulated polarization in terms of organizing of functions: conceptualization of product in the USA, with services (soft but labor intensive aspects) in India and the hard, implementation and manufacturing as well as production routed to China. The full impact of what is raised in this paper will be realized later as and when global manufacturers seek to conceptualize products not just for the US markets but also for the swelling demand in China and India. Originality/value – With the rapid rise of both Indian and Chinese economies with enormous impact on global management, it is essential for scholars to integrate ancient philosophy. Given the tremendous pressures to meet demand of the future, interactions‐oriented, internet‐based customers, manufacturing organizations may have to design newer, technology‐enabling forms for the organizing of the dreams of customers.