Charlie and the Connected Factory…
It doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, does it? Paying homage to one of the greatest British children’s authors of our time and imagining some of his world through IoE/IoT lenses. Not entirely sure I like what I see from a children’s literature perspective mind you, but really quite exciting for everything else!
Roald Dahl Day is celebrated on 13th September – his birthday. Mr Dahl was born in Wales in 1916 to Norwegian parents. A true visionary, (or ‘disrupter’ as we like to call it!) not content with the strict rules and enforced conformity of the various boarding schools of his childhood, Dahl decided against a funded course of study at Oxford or Cambridge in favour of a job that would send him to ‘wonderful faraway places like Africa and China!’. True to his dreams, Dahl took a job with Shell Oil in Tanzania before joining the RAF in 1939 where he went on to become a WW2 fighter pilot! (Talk about multi-talented.)
His first story for children was The Gremlins, which was written for Walt Disney in 1942. Unfortunately it wasn’t the screaming success that he had anticipated. It wasn’t until the 60’s that he really came into his own, penning crackers like James and The Giant Peach (1961) and Charlie and The Chocolate Factory (1964). Followed not long after by the rest of his magical, whizzpopping, twinkly stories for children (and proper sparky grown-ups).
“Yeah, yeah, lovely to meet you Mr Wonka, what’s the factory WiFi password??”
Can you imagine if classics such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory were written post Internet or during the current digital revolution? How different those stories might sound? Whilst I’m all for technology moving forward and the world becoming connected in every which way, I’d like to say I’m really quite glad they weren’t…
Firstly, I’ve no doubt that the increased efficiency in Wonka’s factory would mean a large portion of the Oompa Loompa’s would be made redundant, with the rest under much stricter working regulations, (i.e. less fannying around singing wise ditties all day long). Great news for Wonka though, with a Cisco Connected Factory Solution installed, covering Factory Automation, Wireless and Security, his business would benefit beyond even his wildest dreams. With machines that talk to each other, have preventative maintenance capabilities and the ability to collect this data from across his whole factory, he’d be able to significantly increase production and decrease downtime. Wonka’s profits would soar, and his reputation for churning out world famous chocolates and other goodies would be solidified further. The remaining workforce of Oompa Loompa’s could be monitored during work time via wearables or sensors, so we’d always be able to find out who left the lights on in The Fudge Room.
Why stop there? The Great Glass Elevator would be fitted with a state of the art satellite navigation system that would automatically update routes and journeys with live traffic notifications and warnings.
“Stop licking the walls. Health and safety says ‘No’.”
You get the picture. It’s amazing to think what the ‘fourth industrial revolution’ is capable of doing for manufacturing and services. What would Roald Dahl have made of it? I know not. But I know I’d never give anyone my Ever-Lasting Gobstopper to find out.
4 Comments
Fun post! I’m a big fan of anything that mentions IoE/IoT+chocolate or candy in the same sentence. As Roald Dahl wrote, “We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of the dreams.” – can’t imagine what he’d think today of technology and how the amazing possibilities!
Great blog Farah – bringin our IoT offer to live with the benefit of magical story telling – made me want to share straight away – and also go back to the Roald Dahl books again.
Love the blog Farah – as much as we’ll benefit from connectivity, there’s always room for human creativity and the Wonka’s of the world which no machine can match just yet…
Thanks, Amy! I couldn’t agree with you more 🙂