That is one piece of the story: the democratization of access to industrial grade manufacturing at scales available to amateurs and hobbyists (democratized innovation). Part two is extending the actual design of products to customers (mass customization and crowdsourcing). Somewhat along the lines of the Open Source Car project, which I wrote about previously, Local Motors sought to solicit ideas and designs from members (of which they have 5,000). They are producing a pretty wicked looking car designed by contributor Sangho Kim that will be built in distributed building centers. Similar to the ubiquitous Threadless, which inspired Local Motors to some extent, users submit designs and it is voted up until a car reaches a certain popularity after which it will be produced in limited runs. This fills in the market with specialized, small run cars and meet needs that would not be possible with the large auto firms.

Local Motor's first car

“Thus the new industrial organizational model. It’s built around small pieces, loosely joined. Companies are small, virtual, and informal. Most participants are not employees. They form and re-form on the fly, driven by ability and need rather than affiliation and obligation. It doesn’t matter who the best people work for; if the project is interesting enough, the best people will find it.”

Each step of conceiving, designing, prototyping, manufacturing, and selling are within reach of just about anyone with a surprisingly small amount of capital. Couple that with bringing in the crowd at any point to help fund or vet ideas and the current situation becomes that much more interesting.

The Next Industrial Revolution is a post from: co>innovative

Level 1: Mass customization.
Mass customization puts a certain level of choice in the hands of the customer starting with a base, unchanging object. It allows you to customize a mass produced product to your specification along certain pre-defined configurations. Anyone can do this. There are thousands of examples of it and most people have experienced this in one form or another. Buying a Dell. Uploading an image for a product on CafePress. Designing a Nike shoe. Even your own tea.

Level 2: 2D and 3D printing.
Ponoko is, in my opinion, one of the best examples of personal manufacturing in the 2D realm. Users can upload image files (whether that be CAD or scanned in free-hand drawing), specify any of a number of flat materials, and Ponoko will input it into their magic laser cutters and send you the result. It doesn’t stop there: you can also sell your resulting products through the site. Ponoko has been improving and releasing new features at an impressive clip over the last 2 years or so. Keep an eye on them. Manufacturing as a service.

Going from 2D to 3D: While Ponoko seems farthest along in democratizing 2D printing of objects, Shapeways seems to have the best, most user friendly, option for 3D printing and distribution of objects.

Confused about the various 2D and 3D printing technologies available? Check out this great compendium of videos on much of the tech.

Level 3: Home Fabbing
For the power-geek: home fabbing (with self-replicating machines, of course) you too can build a CNC machine that creates 3D objects or cuts flat materials. Just download the design and let your machine have at it.

Of course, the current adoption of these various technologies stand at about the same level as personal computers in the late 70s: expensive, geared towards geeks, inconvenient, and a small market.

Bringing this all together you have a decoupling of the design, manufacturing, assembly, and marketing of physical objects down to the individual level. As this evolves further the options expand incredibly; here’s a scenario (And Shapeways comes pretty close to this today). I post a design, then there are many paths:

- I can then order a copy for myself.
- Someone else orders the physical object which is printed in a one-off run.
- Another person licenses the design for the right to produce the object for personal use and downloads it to their home-fabber where they can tweak the design and actually create it.
- Someone licenses the design for 100 copies and sells them locally after having them produced at their local personal manufacturing facility.
- A large retailer licenses the design for distribution in their stores.

Pretty rad, right?

Resources and examples:
Level 1:
Mass Customization and Open Innovation News by Frank Piller
Configurator database
Design a Tea
Dell
List of mass customization providers

Level 2:
Ponoko
Design Democracy ’08
List of Personal Manufacturing providers
FigurePrints (print out avatars in 3D)
That’s My Face
Fabjectory: Virtual Objects in Real Life
Shapeways
ZapFab
Design My Idea
eMachineShop

Level 3:
Some Rights Reserved
Fab@Home
TechShop
Breaking the mould
Fab: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop–from Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication

Update 1/7/09:An interesting addition to the field: Automake which provides an online 3D modeling tool in the hopes of “combining generative systems with craft knowledge and digital production technologies to create a new way of designing and making objects that blurs the boundaries between maker and consumer, craft and industrial production.”

Part 5: The evolution of mass customization and personal manufacturing is a post from: co>innovative