How to Capitalize Quickly to Address Hyperconnected Industrial Demand

This is the second in a blog series of four that reviews discussion that occurred during ARC Advisory Group’s 2026 Industry Leadership Forum. Specifically, it details a keynote conversation held with senior executives from Rolls-Royce, BTX Precision, and MxD. Read the full four-part series here: Connected Manufacturing Networks and the New Supply Chain – Logistics Viewpoints

Pillar 1: The Market Signal

During my opening keynote at the 30th annual ARC Industry Leadership Forum in Orlando, I led the audience through a simple exercise. I handed a production order to a group representing a traditional, linear supply chain and watched as the information slowly, painfully made its way to the manufacturers. Intentionally, I jokingly noted the awkward silence that filled the room as the lag time compounded was palpable. Then, I demonstrated the alternative: broadcasting a transparent market signal directly to the entire ecosystem, instantly aligning everyone to the same objective.

That stark contrast in approach represents the growing competitive gap for those companies unable to align with the first pillar of the new industrial reality: The Market Signal. Too often, industrial enterprises today continue to mistake their own internal projections for market signals. They look at historical data, pass a forecast over the wall from sales to production, and call it a strategy. In today’s hyperconnected reality, market signals can change quickly and dramatically. In that environment, speed and accuracy in responsiveness are the metrics of value. 

A Catalyst is Not an Order

Let’s be clear, the fundamentals of supply and demand are still in place. People want products, and manufacturers still need to build them. What has changed is the hyperconnectivity of the world and the radically compressed time to both value and volatility.

In the past, industrial enterprises had some operational elasticity to absorb market shifts, allowing information to work its way through siloed departments. In the past, a demand signal was, effectively, a purchase or a commitment to purchase. Today, it’s a complex reflection of inputs across an entire value chain. The market signal defines the “what” and the “when,” and it does so continuously over time, shaping what success and risk look like in real-time.

Today, the speed of responsiveness is absolutely crucial to value. As I discussed with the panel, this compression no longer stops at the procurement. Instead, it ripples all the way down into production, demanding agility directly on the shop floor.

Defining Value, Risk, and Success

During our panel discussion, Berardino Baratta, CEO of MxD, perfectly illustrated how this reshaping of market signals is playing out in the defense sector. Traditionally, the Department of Defense would launch a platform with a 30-to-40-year lifespan, guaranteeing massive, predictable quantities. Now, the acquisition process is modernizing, shifting toward buying in smaller, dynamic slices. A manufacturer might receive an initial order of just 100 parts but must invest in the capacity to build 10,000, all without the safety net of massive, guaranteed long-term orders. Add to this the recent rollout of stringent, audited cybersecurity requirements with relatively fast compliance timelines, and the market signal fundamentally changes what risk and success look like.

True digital transformation leaders deeply understand this reality. They always begin by looking at external market signals rather than internal technology desires. If an enterprise focuses solely on internal efficiency and margins, it will inevitably be surpassed by a competitor who is laser-focused on reading and reacting to competitive market signals.

Bringing the Market Signal to the Shop Floor

Greg Davidson of Rolls-Royce shared that his organization is moving away from traditional, static purchase orders. Instead, they provide their supply chain with access to a digital marketplace based on an Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) model. Rolls-Royce now trades secure 3D design models rather than traditional drawings, allowing manufacturing partners in its ecosystem to instantly see how demand is shifting at any point in time or over time.

Chief Revenue Officer, Jamie Goettler, of BTX Precision highlighted how this manufacturing agility looks from the supplier side. BTX’s top aerospace customers are now using AI-driven “should cost” systems. Customers upload a design model, run it against BTX’s pre-shared operational parameters (like overhead and cycle times), and instantly generate a highly accurate price and capacity check. This radically shortens the supply chain and allows BTX to respond to the market signal in real-time without the traditional friction. It’s a stripped-to-the-essence view of value. If BTX can continuously and proactively align its business with the market signal, it wins.

Investment that Increases Clarity and Reduces Latency

While the strategic vision is clear, a significant portion of industrial companies in the US are resource challenged in executing to it. Baratta noted that 75 percent of US manufacturers have fewer than 20 employees. Many of them are critical lower-tier suppliers, but they lack IT departments, CISOs, or even basic ERP systems, still relying on paper and spreadsheets. Realigning to this vision requires step-change thinking. 

Regardless of size, an enterprise cannot simply mandate digital agility by assuming it can rely on technology as an outcome to pass a hyper-fast market signal down a supply chain that lacks the infrastructure to receive it. To capitalize on modern market signals, verticality and context are important. Industry leaders must actively invest in the technological uplift and cybersecurity readiness of their smaller partners. Without addressing this reality, the entire ecosystem remains blind and unresponsive.

The market signal is the ultimate arbiter of value and risk. To truly harness it, participants of all sizes must strive to define VOI (Value on Investment), not just ROI. The goal of deploying technology here is to create clarity so that latency is removed from your decision, thus removing artificial barriers to value. If an enterprise cannot sense and respond to the signal proactively through a digitally integrated supply chain, no amount of internal efficiency will save it from obsolescence.

Next up in Part 3, I’ll outline the most visible and active change agent, the Demand Architect, closing the gap on production and supply chain. The blog will outline how companies like Rolls-Royce have shown leadership by structurally reorganizing their ecosystem to continuously align with these new market signals.