Customized manufacturing

Is that age of mass production really over? Is customized production ready to sweep away the last remaining remnants of the industrial age? Well, maybe yes and maybe no. Last year, many of us received emails from SN World Foundation marketing a "mini-plant" manufacturing solution from the SCINet Corporation. These plants are 40 ft mobile containers for over 700 types of production:

Bakeries, Water purification, Dehydrated food elaboration, Steel Nails, Welding Electrodes, Tire Retreading, Reinforcement Bar Bending for Construction Framework, Sheeting for Roofing, Ceilings and Façades, Plated Drums, Aluminum Buckets, Injected Polypropylene Housewares, Pressed Melamine Items (Glasses, Cups Plates, Mugs, etc.), Mufflers, Construction Electrically Welded Mesh Plastic Bags and Packaging, Medical assistance mobile units, Sanitary Material (Hypodermic Syringes, Hemostatic Clamps, etc)

This sounds good -- but I don't know how widespread these systems are. And it appears that they are design to be part of larger factory layout -- similar to a plant laid out in work modules.

Now comes a story in the The Economist that describes a "fab lab" developed at MIT

a collection of commercially available machines that, while not yet able to put things together from their component atoms, can, according to its inventor, be used to make just about anything with features bigger than those of a computer chip. Among other tools it includes a laser cutter that makes two-dimensional and three-dimensional structures, a device that uses a computer-controlled knife to carve antennas and flexible electrical connections, a miniature milling machine that manoeuvres a cutting tool in three dimensions to make circuit boards and other precision parts, a set of software for programming cheap computer chips known as microcontrollers, and a jigsaw (a narrow-bladed cutting device, not a picture puzzle).

The story notes that these are really for rapid prototyping of new inventions, especially in developing countries. While not yet ready for prime-time manufacturing, these mini-production systems are being used for low-volume localized needs. For example:

In Norway, Sami animal herders-who are among Europe's last nomads-are using fab labs to make radio collars and wireless networks to track their charges.

I'm not sure that these two examples herald the end of mass production. But, they are clear illustrations of the direction that things may be headed. While we may always have a demand for standardized, high volume products, there are lots of products that can best be created in a customized, lower-volume production process. This information-intensive customized production process may no longer be confined to the realm of science fiction - but may be the next wave of the industrial revolution.