The factory of the future is online—and on your doorstep
Distributed manufacturing turns on its head the way we make and deliver products. In traditional manufacturing raw materials are brought together, assembled and fabricated in large centralized factories into identical finished products that are then sent to the customer. In distributed manufacturing the raw materials and methods of fabrication are decentralized and the final product is manufactured very close to the final customer.
In essence, the idea is to replace as much of the material supply chain as possible with digital information. To manufacture a chair, for example, rather than sourcing wood and fabricating it into chairs in a central factory, digital plans for cutting the parts of a chair can be distributed to local manufacturing hubs using computerized cutting tools known as CNC routers. Parts can then be assembled by the consumer or by local fabrication workshops that can turn them into finished products. One company already using this model is the U.S. furniture company AtFAB.
Current uses of distributed manufacturing rely heavily on the DIY Maker movement, in which enthusiasts use their own local 3-D printers and make products out of local materials. There are elements of open-source thinking here, in that consumers can customize products to their own needs and preferences. Instead of being centrally driven, the creative design element can be more crowdsourced; products may take on an evolutionary character as more people get involved in visualizing and producing them.
Distributed manufacturing is expected to enable a more efficient use of resources, with less wasted capacity in centralized factories. It also lowers the barriers to market entry by reducing the amount of capital required to build the first prototypes and products. Importantly, it should reduce the overall environmental impact of manufacturing: digital information is conveyed over the Web rather than physical products via road, rail or water; and raw materials are sourced locally, further reducing the amount of energy required for transportation.
If it becomes more widespread, distributed manufacturing will disrupt traditional labor markets and the economics of traditional manufacturing. It does pose risks; it may be more difficult to regulate and control remotely manufactured medical devices, for example, whereas products such as weapons may be illegal or dangerous. Not everything can be made via distributed manufacturing and traditional manufacturing and supply chains will still have to be maintained for many of the most important and complex consumer goods.
Distributed manufacturing may encourage broader diversity in objects that are today standardized, such as smartphones and automobiles. Scale is no object: one U.K. company, Facit Homes, uses personalized designs and 3-D printing to create customized houses to suit the consumer. Product features will evolve to serve different markets and geographies and there will be a rapid proliferation of goods and services to regions of the world not currently well served by traditional manufacturing.
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