Cheap revolution

The quotation above refers to the effect of the cheap revolution envisioned by the consulting firm McKinsey. The three trends cited in the quotation will increase the topple rate at which today s leading enterprises are pushed aside by competitive forces. SCM has a role to play in improving chances for survival. 

One development that has affected bakery equipment is the microprocessor revolution. The availability of cheap computing power has seen mechanical controls superseded by electromechanical controls to be replaced by electronic controls. It is now possible for an entire bakery to be controlled by one ruggedised microcomputer. This is a considerable cost reduction compared with the mini computer that would have been required previously. 

The Industrial Revolution, which was natural resource- and cheap labor-dependent, was ignited in the midst of an ongoing scientific revolution, which started over two centuries earlier with Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543), Galileo Galilei (1564—1642), Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), Rene Descartes (1596-1650) and many others, all the way to Isaac Newton (1642-1727) and his great Principia published in 1687, and beyond—a revolution that continues unabated to these very days. 

The industrial revolution provided us with the phenomenal power to create energy, advanced materials and processes, which improved our everyday lives. In a sense, we attribute most of our daily comforts to the industrial revolution. However, we have learned that nothing in this world is free and every thing comes with a cost. Until present day crude oil has been the major source of energy. This is because crude oil has always been cheap and plentiful, but this is no longer the case. As indicated by many monitoring organizations, we have limited supply of oil, coal and gas. Thus, there is a need to use our most valuable asset wisely or other wise we could be faced with serious repercussions. 

Isolation of water soluble materials from an aqueous solution is very costly and much problematic in an industrial scale. The isolation of ethanol from an aqueous solution obtained by the fermentation of biomass is one of the most important problems relating to a cheap energy source which may take the place of oU in future. If the crystal inclusion method can be appHed to such an isolation process cheap ethanol is available which might cause a revolution in the utilization of energy. This Section deals with the isolation of ethanol and some other alcohols from aqueous solution. 

The many synthetic polymers or flexible macromolecules ate practically all new molecules on earth, and as with any new substance, there may be a hazard to the environment on its introduction in large volume. Fortunately, as soon as one becomes aware of problems with a specific polymer, a remedy can be found by altering the polymer produced because of the multitude of available macromolecules, as described in Chap. 3. The enormous usefulness of the materials by far outweighs any of the temporary problems that have been created and will arise in the future. The use of polymers has changed technology on a similar scale as the availability of cheap iron some 200 years ago, which was the major root of the industrial revolution (1750-1900). 

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