This HK creativity thing

From: Ian Gibson (University of Hong Kong)
To: RP-ML
Date: Tuesday, February 28, 1995
Subject: This HK creativity thing
Marshall (and everybody else for that matter)
Dont get me wrong. I dont mean to suggest that HK product designers dont 
have the ability to be creative.

HK product designers are not creative because they dont need to be 
creative. One of the largest manufacturers in HK makes injection moulding 
machines. They make more machines in a year than the entire machine tool 
industry in the USA and Europe combined (something like 8000 per month). 
They export nearly all their machines. Where to? China, and they cant make 
them quick enough. I asked them 'have you got a 10 year plan?'. Yes, when 
they have finished with China they will export to South America. These guys 
have a drawing office with 10 people in it using AutoCAD, mainly in 2D. 
They have hardly changed their designs in 10 years. Are they worried about 
competition from higher tech machines? No. By the way, they tell me that 
they make 18% per annum after tax. Stock holders are doing just that - 
holding stock.

However, a friend of mine is a designer for a company that manufactures 5 
million radios for China each year. He is worried about competition and has 
been evaluating 3D CAD systems for the past year. The shapes he is 
interested in are quite spectacular in their complexity and his market is 
getting increasingly sophisticated. His company also wants to export out of 
China. So far he is still undecided as to which system he is to go with and 
he hasnt even addressed the RP question. I intend to document his case. I 
wonder if people might be interested?

Incidently I have just had a thought - they dont happen very often so I 
will share it with you - do you think people will start using the 
abbreviation RP rather than the full term Rapid Prototyping in future? The 
abbreviation starts to introduce the ambiguity that some of us are striving 
to obtain whilst maintaining the historical and traditional perspective. My 
precedent is PC. Whilst originally it meant a Personal, single user, 
Computer, it has now come to take on a range of meanings. you now have PC 
based, multiuser workstations, PC servers, networked PCs. Personally Im fed 
up with this name debate and guess most of you are too. I hope you wont 
curse me too much for airing the skeletons.

Ian Gibson