Industrial Revolution. Part 4. How to build your dream

The following is a translation of a new part of the fascinating article "In the Next Industrial Revolution, Atoms Are the New Bits" of Wired . Last time I talked about the Rally Fighter , virtual mini-factories and a 3D printer for $ 1000 ; and today you will learn how to transform your great idea into a great product, in other words, how to build your dream!

To see how innovations were created in the 20th century, watch the film “Flash of Genius” ( “Flash of Genius” ). The film, based on real events, begins in the sixties, and tells the sad story of the invention of car windshield wipers, working with a pause. Inventor, Professor Bob Kearns , - closes in his workshop until he receives a working prototype. Instead of selling technology to auto giants, Kearns decides to set up his own company in order to independently produce wipers. Ford signs a contract to install its invention on one of the new models. This means that Kearns needs a factory! He rents a huge building and fills it with assembly lines, loaders, and other heavy equipment - a classic scene of the industrial age.

As Kearns approaches the launch of his plant, Ford suddenly exits the deal. With no prospects for profit, the factory closes, without releasing a single wiper.

Eighteen months later, Kearns, returning home in the rain, suddenly sees a new Ford Mustang turning the corner. The wiper passes through the glass, then freezes, then passes again. His brilliant idea was simply stolen! Kearns is depressed and will soon go crazy, and so on until the end of the film (in fact, the “real” Kearns sued Ford and Chrysler for copyright infringement and, after several years of litigation, sued about $ 30 million).
Today Kearns would do otherwise. As before, he would build the first prototype himself. But, instead of building a factory, he would have ordered a case in one company, and an electronic filling in another. After that, he would have paid the Chinese manufacturer for bringing it all together. Wipers would be delivered directly to customers - car companies, and the whole process of setting up production would take several months, not years. Kearns would be able to fulfill his dream and create a company without fighting windmills.
')
To see how this model is already working in the real world, go to the TechShop website for the do-it-yourself network of work sites, where you can use the most advanced rapid prototyping tools for as little as $ 100 a month.

More recently, at the plant in Menlo Park, California, we saw Michael Pineo , the former head of a company producing artificial diamonds, designed a special chamber for the production of colorless diamonds. And in the corner stands the base of the landing module for the rocket, developed by a team that is competing for Google Lunar X Prize. At another table, Stefan Weiss, vice-president of Interoptix , together with one of his colleagues, assemble circuit boards for managing power grids. They produce batches of 50 units in size, which, according to Weiss, “is still not enough for the factory, but not enough to be called a garage”. On devices is a sign of ABB - a giant engineering company. Customers may never know that their devices were made by hand at a common production site.

This is an atomic age incubator. When the founder of TechShop, Jim Newton , was looking for a director for his company, he quickly decided that Mark Hetch , the former Kinko executive, would be the best fit for this position. Similar to Kinko, which has made printing more accessible by creating a national network of service centers, TechShop wants to make production more accessible. Now TechShop already has two additional production sites: in Durham, North Carolina and Bevearton, Oregon, and there are hundreds more in the plans. One of the sites is located in San Francisco, in a building that previously occupied the largest edition of the San Francisco Chronicle, which significantly reduced its size. The irony is that the grains of the industry of the future grow on the ashes of the industry of the past.

After lunch, Hatch makes an excursion into the history of production. In the era of industrialism, Karl Marx feared that, with the advent of factories, the craftsman could no longer afford the tools to do his job. The economy of mass production supplanted individual production. The advantage of this approach are lower prices and quality products, and the disadvantage is their homogeneity. Together with large retail chains, the market began to dominate the fruits of mass production - products created for everyone.

However, today the means of production are becoming so cheap that many people can afford them. For example, modern machines, which used to cost $ 150,000, can now be bought for $ 4,000, thanks to Chinese copies. Any garage is now potentially a high-tech factory. Marx would be pleased.

Blogger Jason Kottke wondered how to name this new class of entrepreneurs. “Boutique” is too defiant, and “indie” is not quite right. As Kottke notes, the following terms have now been proposed: “master, artisan, studio, studio, dojo, temple, and disco business”. But it seems no one got the point.

Therefore, he proposed the term “small batch”, which is most often used for bourbon. This term may mean a business for which the quality of products is more important than the size of the market. Rather, they will do what they like, than start mass production.

To take a look at an example of such an approach, let's go to the neighborhood of Seattle, where you can meet Villa Chapman from BrickArms . Taking a small patch, BrickArms fills in the gaps in the Lego product line, doing something that dares not produce the toy giant: weapons , starting with the AK-47 and ending with grenades that look as if they were taken directly from Halo 3. Despite that they are more complex than the regular Lego component, their quality remains at the level of other Lego components. BrickArms products are sold online for thousands of fans, both children and adults, who want to create scenes more interesting than standard sets allow.

Lego manufactures products on an industrial scale with a development team working in a secret building in Billund, Denmark. Initially, engineers produce prototypes that are supplied to certain stores. Then, after approval, they are put into mass production.

Chapman works on a different scale. He designs toys using SolidWorks , which can create the design of a part that is the reverse of the one used to make molds. He sends the file to a mini-machine Taig 2018 , which costs less than $ 1,000. The machine grinds the mold from aluminum blanks. Then he puts it in the casting machine, melts some resin balls and fills the mold. A few minutes later, it turns out the finished prototype. If fans like the prototype, Chapman contacts a local manufacturer to reproduce the steel mold and the company that will make a batch of several thousand toys.

Why not make ready-made toys right in China? Chapman says it could be done, but it would lead to "time delays and worse quality material." Moreover, as he says, “if your molds are in China, who knows what can happen to them if you don’t use them?” They can be used, for example, for the production of toys, which will then be sold on the secondary market, which you will not even suspect. ”

Chapman's three sons are packing toys, which he then sells directly to customers. Today, BrickArms has intermediaries in the UK, Australia, Sweden, Canada and Germany. The business began to grow so quickly that in 2008, Chapman left his 17-year career as a software engineer. Now he quietly provides his family, consisting of five people, exclusively through the sale of toy weapons. "Now I earn a lot more thanks to BrickArms than when I worked as a programmer." Life is Beautiful!

To be continued…