In 1914, Henry Ford introduced the concept of three eight-hour shifts to achieve round-the-clock assembly in an automobile factory. Today we are witnessing the advent of 24-hour knowledge factories.

Spreading out across the globe with clusters of three or four facilities, each six to eight hours apart, was an idea first limited to 24-hour call centers and support staff for global communications networks. Now, thanks to more robust information technology and a growing acceptance of offshoring, the concept is feasible for a much broader range of work.

In fact, while offshoring today is done primarily to reduce costs, the author believes that over time, growth in offshoring will also be fueled by the potential to achieve drastic reductions in turnaround times for major endeavors. Another asset of the 24-hour knowledge factory: the ability to tap highly talented designers who would otherwise have to move to a different country, or work at odd hours of the night.

The result is that whereas once a big time-zone gap was seen as a hindrance by companies with far-flung operations, now it is increasingly seen as an asset.

Software developers using the model, for example, have reported completing projects in far less time than when personnel were based in one site, regardless of the location. The main productivity boosts come from focusing more — and continuous — brainpower on a task, as well as allowing necessary approvals and testing to take place overnight, so that the developers can pick up the next morning where they left off.

Making such a 24-hour knowledge factory work to its full potential, however, still poses formidable challenges. Among them: designing IT systems that deliver reliable and close-to-uniform service to teams around the world; organizing work so that teams in different locations, and different shifts, can share the same task with minimum interaction; and finding ways to adapt the model for more industries and complex working environments. What follows is a