Centralized versus decentralized control in manufacturing: lessons from social insects

In our increasingly competitive world, companies must become more flexible, adaptive and responsive. However, this can be difficult in the face of complexities and uncertainties such as worker absenteeism, machine breakdown, and variation in customer behavior. One group of economies that exhibits such flexibility, even in highly unpredictable environments, is social insects: colonies of ants, bees, wasps, and termites. Because insect societies 1) exhibit the flexible and adaptive behavior desired by industry, 2) achieve this flexibility without any central planning or management, and 3) must coordinate many workers, we posit that they may be an important model system for industrial logistics. We explore some of the strong parallels that exist between industrial and social insect operation supporting our claims with case studies from both areas. We highlight issues and insights from our knowledge of insect society operation that may have real practical implications in industrial logistical operation.