Technology Driven Innovation Bridge

Just-in-time manufacturing, LEAN manufacturing, Kanban, Zero-Setup Time, Cross-Functional Teams, and Group Technology are just few concepts that originated from Manufacturing Industry and inspired the techniques we currently use in software industry such as LEAN software delivery, Agile development, Microservices, and Cloud Computing.

Also, proven manufacturing practices and disciplines such as Factory Automation and Flexible Manufacturing Systems continue to inspire and advance emerging software engineering concepts such as "flexible software systems that are modular, responsive and agile", "container based software deployment automation for elastic on-demand scaling of microservices" and more recently "IoT (Internet of Things) enabled software innovations" (like FitBit, AppleWatch, Drones, Self-Driving Cars, etc.).

In the context of Factory Automation and Flexible Manufacturing Systems, "sensors" drive actions and decisions of People, Machines (Metal-Cutting and Transforming Machines, Robots, Automated Guided Vehicles, etc.), and Software to produce a finished product from raw materials. 

How can we innovate "manufacturing of software based solutions" by leveraging and applying the knowledge and data collected by "sensors" around us? 

One of the answers:  Manufacturing techniques (we have been using for decades) based on the application of "sensors" to run "manufacturing shop-floor" should generate new innovation streams flowing from Manufacturing Industry to Software Industry to solve other real-world problems in other industries such as Healthcare, Insurance, Financial Services, Transportation, Telecommunications.

If we respect and leverage "humans" as invaluable sensors generating limitless data, we can generate many innovative solutions by applying the "sensor-driven" knowledge and engineering techniques we have been using in the manufacturing industry.

What other proven practices from Manufacturing Industry that we can apply to inspire the Software Industry?

Even better: How can we dream of a software-driven innovation bridge to promote innovation collaboration across the verticals?  That's where IoT comes in handy as the game changer. Some of the other building blocks for creating this innovation bridge are, Social, Mobile, Analytics, Cloud, Microservices, Containers, Blockchain, etc.  

• What additional technology building blocks (either hardware or software) that we can think of and invent to build this innovation bridge?
• What additional ideas/innovations/examples from one industry vertical can we learn from and apply in other industry verticals?  
• What additional hardware inventions along with software inventions help building this innovation bridge?
• Did we miss showing any other industry vertical in the picture?