“If someone was making those, I’d buy a bunch of ‘em.†Ever had that thought? You might have been working out in the garage or on your house, maybe at work, when you come up short because you can’t find what you need for sale anywhere. I know I’ve run into the situation over the years and I’m betting you have, too. The difference is, now it’s possible to do something about it.
Lots of guys tinkering in their shop have had dreams of coming up with that one big idea, creating a product, putting it into production and raking in royalties as smiling people everywhere rush to place their order. Hitting the big time, life would be good, … except, it isn’t quite that easy. Filing patent paperwork, coming up with the money to build a prototype, finding a manufacturer who will produce it, negotiating contracts and if you clear those hurdles, hoping people will somehow find it and buy it. The all too common outcome in years past was money lost and dashed dreams. Fast forward to today, though, and you’ll find times have changed, a lot, and Makers: the New Industrial Revolution by Chris Anderson, takes you through the new and rapidly changing environment where small batch manufacturing is now possible.
In the same way online training is eliminating barriers to knowledge, access to high quality design software, automated tools and global markets have made manufacturing real, tangible products in small quantities a reality. It’s a revolution happening right now and many, maybe most, people haven’t noticed. Whether taking advantage of free software and tools or the increasing array of professional resources at ever lower cost, the creative and ambitious person today can become a global manufacturer and some even start right at home.
The change, as Anderson points out, is the maker movement is moving from bits to atoms, instead of using computers to create digital goods, computers are now helping us make physical goods and it’s this change that enables you and I to do what was almost impossible even as little as ten years ago.
Professional level CAD software, 3D scanners, laser cutters, 3D printers, CNC machines and factories around the world willing to bid on small jobs with fast turnaround times and low cost, mean all of those impossible hurdles from before become far more manageable and you keep control of the process instead of hoping the big company taking your idea will offer you a return that makes all of the trouble worthwhile. Many examples show crowdfunding can replace banks or venture capitalists, you can source the parts you need online for prices almost as low as the big guys, it really is a whole new world of opportunity.
Anderson tells the stories of our previous industrial revolutions and the new one now under way, giving the details of many companies going from nothing but an idea to millions of dollars in sales, including his own. It’s enlightening and motivating for anyone who has the itch to build. Some keep complaining about “big business†or “big banks†preventing the “little guy†from making it, while the opportunity to build a new business is right there in front of them. The barriers are gone yet they still act like it’s 1950.
But, … there’s always a but, none of this happens on its own. It takes effort, determination and persistence to be sure, but some folks will tell you it simply can’t be done and that’s really unfortunate, because they haven’t caught on yet that the world has dramatically changed. The old excuses no longer apply. In the same way that today, if you want to learn, you can learn, it also holds true that if you want to build, you can build. It certainly takes ambition and you need an idea, but no permission is necessary. You don’t have to humbly approach the gatekeepers who will decide if you’re worthy, but you do have to confidently face the world and show everyone what you’re capable of. Success is not guaranteed, but opportunities are everywhere. Maybe it’s time to grab one and go for it. This book shows how some have done it already, perhaps the next one to do it will be you.
fast Eddie says
just like my cell phone jambing device less than 3 dollars to make . The best part is
you can sell it to everyone for ten dollars and make a killing . but wait there’s more . You can
pick the people that want you sell it to . boy , “if we only had some mint jelly”
been raining in New england for a week . Can you tell Ride safe FE
Mean Monkey says
To Fast Eddie:
Be sure to add a feature that causes the phone to blow-up in the hands of teenage drivers.
Had a girl chase me out of a crosswalk (and she ran the red light, too!) yesterday because she was too busy texting. I’m still ticked about it today.
To Kneeslider:
With technology changing the process of building almost everything, the US Patent Office also needs a good swift kick in the pants to adapt to the new environment.
Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" says
Patents do need a reexamination. When the patent system originated it was both a way to protect the inventor and enable him to profit for a period of time from his invention, but at the same time, publicly publishing the details so it could begin bubbling in the cauldron of known ideas leading to further innovation.
Anderson addresses the patent system in the book and it’s an area that needs to come up to speed, especially in light of the trend to “open” architecture and design as well as the all too frequent patent trolls who buy up patents for the express purpose of suing others for infringement.
Doug says
When you need a break from making your products, I’ve got a durable & stylish, stainless steel bottle opener for you to open that beverage.
http://www.DriveTheWheelsOff.com
Cheers!
B*A*M*F says
I’m going to have to put this on my reading list. My background is industrial design, and I work for a company that does both design and fabrication. We mostly build museum exhibits, and very unique architectural items. Our current project involves making 2 wall panel sculptures from walnut wood. One is 4′ x 8′, the other 8′ x 8′. Both are curvaceous and come out from the wall about 12″ at some points, and down to about 1″ in other places. We’re using a CNC router to cut the pieces of this item, and then assemble them into a whole.
As far as firms go, we’re quite small, and while I love the positive attitude here, I’ll throw in my $.02 that custom fabrication is a pretty rough industry. There really is a threshold at which a project either loses money or doesn’t. When a project is too small, the administration work of turning a design into an object, coordinating with clients and other people in the chain, dealing with accounting, etc. all become a huge percentage of the project.
While new tools are making things more affordable, I’m not so sure it’s a revolution. There are other shops in my city that can do some of the work we’re asked to do. Much of it doesn’t need CNC machines, and using a jigsaw or hand router is still fast, cost effective, and gets the job done. Additionally, we get people asking us to do things with our CNC machine that don’t need it (cutting rectangles), or that are simply uninspired. I very much believe that everyone is a designer, on some level. That’s the nature of being human. However, putting CNC tools at the disposal of people with bad ideas just yields bad ideas produced more precisely and faster.
The real revolution will come when people learn how to use these tools effectively, and for purposes that are interesting. Outside of engineers and designers, the only place I’m seeing people effectively using these new processes is in the world of fine arts. Those folks are really getting into it.
Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" says
The work you describe seems to be custom projects designed and built as a one off for a specific client. Anderson is more focused on what is called “small batch” production, becoming a manufacturer in runs of hundreds or a thousand or more units, too small for the big guys, but previously out of easy reach of an individual. It’s a kind of sweet spot where demand exists, though no one was responding.
B*A*M*F says
Cool. Like I said, this is now on my reading list. Small batch manufacturing is now becoming more of a reality than ever before.
I went to an event put on by the local IDSA (Industrial Designers Society of America) chapter a week ago. It was about how a design firm came up with a concept on a tangent to a project they were doing, then used Kickstarter to fund the project. The vendors used by this design firm to create the parts sound like some that are described in this book.
Paulinator says
I think that I’ll get this book, too.
Good point about cutting blocks on a CNC router. I talked to a very intelligent man who owned and ran a high-tech FRP production facility. He also imparted his knowlege on a part-time basis, as an instructor at a community college level. He told me that he handed out new pencils to a visiting class, then asked the students to sharpen them for an exercise. (Note: 1/ there was no pencil-sharpener in the facility. 2/ sharpening the pencils WAS the exercise.) He documented 22 alternate methods at the students’ disposal…none completed the task.
I’m guessing that the adaptation of new technology into the “fine-arts” is because artists are by definition free-thinkers – unconstrained by what they haven’t been taught yet.
Wave says
CNC machine time is still pretty expensive, but there are a lot of areas where cheaper technology is letting people mass-produce things.
Vinyl cutting is a great example. Decent CNC vinyl cutters are now easily within reach of individual traders and even dedicated hobbyists. If you can come up with a popular and saleable sticker, it’s easy for someone working from home to produce a batch run of stickers on a vinyl cutter and sell them over the internet. If a one-off job pays enough to spend a few hours laying it out, then you can also easily do custom signs and graphics. You can set up an entire signwriting business at home as a cottage industry, without ever meeting your customers in person! Laser cutting of thin soft materials like wood and plastic can also work the same way.
I’m sure as the prices of other technology comes down, more people will start doing this, however I don’t think it will become a significant source of manufacturing industry and employment. At the end of the day, mass produced imported goods are just too cheap for the little guy to compete, so it will only ever be a very small niche industry.
Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" says
Manufacturing output and manufacturing employment are two separate issues. If you replace a person with a very adaptable and programmable robot arm, you can produce far more, faster and with greater precision with no extra or even fewer employees. It’s a real issue, but anyone who wants a job in manufacturing has to raise his skill level, which I have strongly encouraged for many years. A lot of old manufacturing jobs are gone because technology has replaced them. If what you do is basic and repetitious, robots do it better. Check out KUKA to see what I mean.
As happened with my review of So Good They Can’t Ignore You, I can’t answer all of these points in the comments when the author wrote a whole book to explain his ideas. I can say, many observers still have opinions based on the old manufacturing model and should take another look at what is happening today. It is simply amazing.
Paulinator says
I am personally excited by what is unfolding and believe that it holds the hope for a resurgence North American in manufacturing…because the limitless customization and quick reaction cycles that these technologies offer will drive many commodities into the realm of Niche fulfillment. I think the key benefit is increased flexibility (via much better ratios of ROI) rather than increased yield. Afterall, there were millions of model T’s produced a hundred years ago…but they only came in black.
Honyock says
I had the enlightening experience of using a 2.5 axis CNC vertical mill about 20 years ago, cutting graphite into EDM electrodes for injection mold building. It was one of the first CNC machines in a small shop in my area, so we were pioneering the “new” technologies referred to in this discussion. I learned very quickly that without a background in traditional machining practice, the new technology was only capable of turning an incredibly expensive piece of stock into worthless scrap much faster than even the most clueless noob could aspire to. Simple shapes can be sketched and cut out of flat stock very easily and cheaply, but designing and building real products that actually do interesting and worthwhile things still requires significant education and experience. There are still a few of us who know how to fabricate parts out of raw materials, and to assemble machines from parts, but so much of these practices have been shipped overseas that it is questionable whether real manufacturing can be done in the USA for much longer. I fear that we will be reduced to cutting out stickers from stock made in China, using machines built in China. Sad times.
John says
Where I work we have a 4.5 axis CNC mill, some CNC lathes and a CNC plasma/oxy cutter which workers can use after hours for their own projects. Most of what is dreamt up to me made is pretty rubbish and most could have been easliy made using manual tools. Using the CNC machines just seems to speed up the production of rubbish.
However there are a couple of guys who do some really amazing work on these machines that would take forever manually and so probably would be achivable for the time they can spend after hours.
I know this doesn’t have anything to do with production runs but it is just my thoughts on cool tools for the masses.
Rob says
http://torrentfreak.com/3d-printer-drm-patent-to-stop-people-downloading-a-car-121012/
Gene says
I think what a lot of people are missing is a place with all the tools and someone to teach them how to use them. A place where people can be with other “makers” and create whatever they want. I’m trying to solve both problems:
http://www.vocademy.com
Oh, and I’ll have 3 motorcycle lifts too.
Jar says
I’m moving to live over by Gene. Well done sir, and good luck!
I went to Amazon and read a bit of the text of “Makers”, and found the tone quite similar to articles in Forbes and like similar business mags my dad has sent me, see (http://www.forbes.com/search/?q=rapid+prototyping).
I find the excitement around such tech a bit annoying. It isn’t new, perhaps applied differently, and it isn’t cheap (everything is relative, nach). So, what’s changed (in the last 15 years)?
What’s the point? That’s it’s easier to make “something” today than it was yesterday? That’s not new, that’s the nature of the beast – or at least evolution in manufacturing (not revolution). The fact that it is easier to make a one off, or even a handful, doesn’t eliminate many of the “hurdles” in the path of an aspiring entrepreneur.
The questions and resources to pursue a thought to a salable product are still immense, 3D printers and CNCs do nothing to address funding, development cost, time, protection, liability, marketing, physical space, supply chain, distribution channels….and on and on.
So, you have yourself a better prototype (perhaps CNC’d or SLA or FDM or laser sintered), a more refined design thought (the ability to iterate in 3D CAD systems vs. hard parts), and it may have cost less in time and funding than by more conventional means – but now what? A singular step in a long process becoming slightly more achievable to more people aware of the technology, hardly heralds a “manufacturing revolution”.
And yes, I use all such technologies on a daily basis.
Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" says
But, evidently, not annoying enough to read the book and find out how all of your concerns are answered. Reading a bit of the text, as you say you did, is a poor substitute. Perhaps, instead of being annoyed, you could place your questions in the “I wonder what he means?” or “I wonder how these issues are dealt with?” category and withhold judgement until doing further research, even something as simple as, you know, reading the book.
For instance, addressing just the last of your questions about distribution, there are lots of options, a simple one is to use Amazon. They will stock your product, then pick, pack and ship it to anyone, anywhere. You send a supply to them, they do the rest.
Marketing? Since you are dealing with a niche product, a website focusing on that interested group of people, perhaps a forum or blog where you’re in constant contact with them, enables you to zero in on their needs, raising the chances of success and making it easier to introduce the product to the people interested in buying.
Funding? How about Kickstarter? Many companies have used it to raise capital for initial materials and production. No banks, no venture capitalists, and since you’re not selling an investment in a company, no SEC regulations to deal with. Often, a Kickstarter project is a way of preselling your initial production so you know you have sales before you build any.
If you’re really interested and want to do it, it’s easy to see how this works and yes, it’s a lot easier today than it was a very short while ago. If you, instead, focus on the hurdles and think they’re huge and can’t be cleared, then for you, you’re right.
Jar says
Never said I wouldn’t read it – I read things that annoy me all the time – the newspaper for one.
The authors point seems to be that entrepreneurship has become more accessible, by virtue of web based tools. I can agree, to some extent on this point. I would also say he should make more of an effort that such a perspective comes across in his Amazon posting – your response to my note educated me far beyond what was available for preview at Amazon.
The Kickstarter website seems to be a really interesting tool – a bit difficult to navigate, and a bit “manufacturing” deficient in representation – unless you’re looking for a low cost 3D printer, of which there are some 34 projects listed. Some of the robot stuff is neat, waaayyyy to much Iphone crap, and I would think any musician/writer/movie maker would be absolutely overjoyed that such a site exists. The “crowdfunding” concept is interesting, and it will be interesting to see if it holds.
So, in the end, has entrepreneurship become “easier”? In as much as a car ride for the first 20miles of your cross country walk makes the journey “easier”.
The audience may have been expanded and the ability to reach more with less effort may be as near as your home pc, but challenges yet remain on the entrepreneurial path. Note, I never said such obstacles were “huge” or couldn’t be “cleared”, only that the truth of the matter is that building your own company, to build your own product, is much larger more complex challenge than having a webpage, using a crowdsourcing funding site, and building a 3D printed prototype. You’re not done, you’re not close to done, and in fact your car ride was probably closer to 5 miles on that walk….
Evolution, not revolution, it’s not new.
That said, I’ll take all the help I can get.
pete @ occhiolungo says
Like Jar, I use a wide variety of rapid prototyping methods in my day job. I’m lucky in that I get paid to invent things, CAD them, prototype and send them off to production. I won’t bother to mention how many of my clients go bankrupt vs how many hit the big time.
CNC’s are interesting, as are FDM, SLA, SLS or other machines. There are also some neat applications to use scanning and rapid proto machines to make patterns for old-tech like castings. These tools have become cheaper to buy and to use in the last 10 years. And that is great. But making 100 or 1000 units isn’t going to pay off somebody’s apartment rent for a year, nor a home mortgage or the bills to buy that good equipment. Even if you make $10-20 profit per piece, you’ll need to sell a boat-load of them. An interesting similarity (that I’m sure that is apparent to the author Chris Anderson) is between the modern ease of building trinkets and publishing books. But if the goal isn’t to make a living, but instead to make a new toy for people who ride motorcycles, that can be done. And it is easier than it was 20 years ago. Have fun, it is easy to live well in 2012.
rohorn says
What I dearly love about this subject is how it annoys those with absolutely nothing new of their own to produce.
The “1 Star” reviews of this book at Amazon say a lot about the reviewers and nothing about the book.
matt says
i read the book. love the concept but the book is really a drawn out magazine article. here’s a summary: there are decent, affordable 3d printers out there.
Paul Crowe says
You may want to read a little slower, you seem to have missed most of it.