Chris Anderson, the author of “Free” and “The Long Tail“, and editor at Wired, has produced another great book to help us understand what is happening today: “Makers“. A must read for your holidays!
“The past ten years have been about discovering new ways to create, invent and work together on the Web. The next ten years will be about applying those lessons to the real world”
Chris Anderson makes the case of manufacturing coming into the age of collaboration with 3D printing and other manufacturing techniques allowing to produce economically small series of objects (a few to a few thousands). This will change the face of manufacturing. Exactly like ‘Print on Demand’ is changing the publishing industry, ‘Produce on Demand’ starts to change manufacturing.
Chris Anderson makes the case that because the logic of large commodities production is becoming less prevalent, manufacturing will return closed to where the consumer are. In any case, distances are abolished as your 3D plans can be sent to any suppliers to be produced in any quantities. Design is important, manufacturing in any quantity becomes a commodity.
Welcome to the Collaborative Age of tangible things. Read this book to understand the seismic wave that is changing manufacturing forever, right now under our eyes. It might take a decade to bring our industry upside down, but it will certainly transform it completely. The old Industrial Age manufacturing is obsolete.
