The Everything Factory – Manufacturing in the Reimagined Community

As I sit here writing this, I am surrounded by manufactured things. There is furniture that combines wood, fabric, and cushion. There is a rug. Books and ceramics adorn shelves. And a TV, my computer, and my phone sit ready to use. Plastic and electronics comprise the remote control. A stainless steel mug for coffee and tea is on a wooden tray table in front of me. By a fireplace are metal tools.

Some of these items are simply made. Some, like my computer and smartphone have complicated electronics and advanced chips. Most everything was sourced from a multitude of sites around the world, assembled in other sites, distributed from yet another, and at long last ended up in my hands or at least in my surroundings.

While many of us wish for fewer things and I, personally, am not into owning things for themselves, manufactured items make our lives easier, more comfortable, and more productive. If our reimagined community is to be modern, comfortable, productive, and happy, we need manufacturing to make us also self-sufficient. In addition to our community providing shelter, food, power, water, and recycling, we need to make stuff.

But in manufacturing, as in all the other critical needs we have for our community, technology has reached an important point. Historically, we first learned how to make things by hand. Then we found ways to automate making those things. But for our automation to be cost effective, we had to make thousands of the same thing all at once in large factories and distribute them as widely as possible to find a large enough market to justify the factory. As technology and automation has become smarter, however, we have developed capabilities for one machine to make a wide variety of things with the same automation and cost-effectiveness as these large factories. Today, this advanced customization reaches its peak with 3D printers.

3D printers, or additive manufacturing (AM), have evolved rapidly over the past few years. Where the original machines could make cheap plastic components in a single color and with severe limitations on design, current 3D printers can make an amazing array of goods. AM capabilities exist to make good from metals, plastics, textiles, ceramics, concrete, wood, and food. And within these categories there are a wide variety of specialized materials that are suited for almost all applications. Very tiny printers can print computer chips. Gigantic printers can print buildings. And AM capabilities exist at all scales in between.

AM will continue to evolve rapidly because improvements can be made at the speed of software rather than the speed of hardware. And as techniques like artificial intelligence are applied to deconstructing goods in order to design them to be built with 3D printers, this evolution will only accelerate. In the usual factory, specially designed machines and tools are used to make many of a single product. If the product changes, the factory must be retooled – at great expense. In an AM environment, to make something new, you just change the input file. In fact, one 3D printer can make multiple objects at the same time, as long as there is space within its building environment and the software is properly tuned to guide the printing.

In our reimagined community of, say, 10,000 people, how many toasters will we need in a week? We certainly don’t need thousands. But we might need five. Even then, those five could be different models based on the needs and preferences of the individual residents. Trying to guess which models of which toasters we need to make is foolish in this case. We are better off waiting for a request and building the toaster to order.

In our community, then we envision an additive manufacturing fulfillment center (AMFC). Think of this as an analog to an Amazon fulfillment center. At the Amazon center, goods are stored for last mile delivery locally. It must anticipate what goods are likely to be needed, but it greatly speeds delivery times. At our AMFC, we have numerous types and sizes of 3D printers. Upon order, the printers manufacture the components, and they are assembled for last mile delivery locally. Instead of storing manufactured goods, the center stores the raw materials and creates the goods as needed. The AMFC also can rapidly create replacement parts for anything it manufactures (or anything manufactured elsewhere if the part can be scanned and accurately specified).

This AMFC is an ‘Everything Factory’. It can make a wide, and ever growing, catalog of goods for the community. And when multiple communities collaborate, every new design from any community can immediately be available at all the other communities since all that must be transferred is a file. Royalties should accrue to the designer, of course, but this network effect will accelerate the number and quality of goods that can be delivered locally.

And the AM capabilities can custom fit what they build. Today, AM has largely taken over the construction of medical devices and dental implants because these must be sized specifically to the measurements of the person receiving them. As AM approaches are applied to more goods, our Everything Factory can print clothing that perfectly fits. (I have to admit that I am really looking forward to this. I am 6’8” tall and can rarely find any clothing that actually fits me.) Furniture can be printed to the measurements of a space and cabinets to perfectly fit a wall. Monograms, embossing, and other personal touches could also be included in the manufactured goods for virtually no additional effort.

We are certainly a long way from being able to manufacture everything. But hundreds of everyday items can already be created. As the need arises to build toasters, appliances, car parts, implements, clothing, and furniture, having a factory that can build almost anything becomes a reality.

And in our reimagined community, when geopolitical stresses shut down supply chains and products are no longer on the shelves, our community can maintain a modern and advanced standard of living. And we can do it without creating thousands of toasters that we don’t need.