Manufacture on demand

2 August, 2008
Posted by James

The Sunday Times recently ran an article on a new approach to book retail to be introduced to the UK. Blackwell are set to be the first retailer to install the Espresso Book Machine, nicknamed the Book ATM this device is capable of rapidly printing, binding and trimming books from a database of 1 million titles. The paperback books are printed on demand, are available just 7 minutes after order at a price matching that of an off the shelf equivalent. Ondemandbooks, who manufacture the Espresso Book Machine proudly, if not rather ambitiously, claim on their website that:

“What Gutenberg’s press did for Europe in the 15th century digitization and the Espresso Book Machine will do for the world tomorrow.”

Whether or not you agree with the extent to which the ATM for books will change the course of history, it is evident that the introduction of rapid manufacturing technologies coupled with the increasing consumer demand for customisation will result in exciting new ways to buy. Trendwatching.com has labelled the new(ish) breed of amateur web content generators “Generation C”, but why should these creative non-professionals be limited to creating virtual content? With rapid manufacturing techniques such as stereo lithography, CNC tooling and 3d printing, combined with easy to use 3d software such as Google’s SketchUp it will soon be as easy and common to create a physical artifact as a webpage, you-tube clip or myspace profile. How long will it be until design/manufacture can be crowd-sourced, shared, mashed and modded just like online images, video and music?

The implications of widespread mass customisation and on demand manufacture are both widespread and fundamental. Imagine being able to ship ideas rather than products, instead of a centralised manufacturing hub shipping thousands of tons of products across the globe your customers can log on to your website, customise your products online, then have the model data sent to their local CAM workshop where their personalised product is machined while they wait. The reduction in cost and CO2 emissions possible when you replace container ships with email would be huge, but perhaps even more importantly would be the feeling of true ownership created when your customers are a part of the design/creation process. This sense of ownership will be vital to reaching towards a goal of greater sustainability. Ownership is what makes users value a product and products that are valued are not thrown away the next time a new model is released. For example, take mobile phones, if you lost your mobile and it was replaced the next day with the same model, how much would you care? Probably not a lot, you might lose some text messages, photos and contacts, perhaps the sticker that was on the back, but the loss of your phone as a physical object would be more or less meaningless. Phone companies rely on this lack of value, alongside the perceived constant need for the latest model to keep customers locked into contracts, offering free upgrades if you sign for another year. The result is the disposal of millions of perfectly functional, but nevertheless superseded phones going to landfill every year. Compare that to an engraved iPod, a relatively minor customisation compared to what could be possible, nevertheless it is instantly apparent that the engraving has added that sense of ownership, and so value to the product. When my engraved iPod ceases to work I will search for someone to repair it, and once it is beyond repair I will hold onto it, because it means something to me. The thought and the time that I, or someone else, put into modifying an object has an intrinsic value and it is this value that is passed on to the object. We need to move towards a culture where users are compelled to value their products enough to keep them out of the ground.

Of course moving away from a low value – high volume design/manufacture/sales model is a risky thing for a large company to do, but the combination of economic climate and environmental awareness makes now, or at least very soon the best time to move towards a low volume – high value model.

The low volume model requires a completely different approach, customer loyalty and brand equity become even more important as customers must identify with the product they are buying into. Additional revenue streams involving repair, user support and add-ins/ons become more profitable when the customer isn’t continually tempted to dispose and replace. The mass customisation model fits nicely in here when costs can be cut by transporting light data as opposed to heavy materials/components/products.

So its time to brush up on your product design skills and start taking creative control over the products you own.

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Some interesting implementations of mass-customisation: