RE: FW: !! Wanted Home Product Assemblers !!

From: Murphy, Matt (matt.murphy@pera.com)
Date: Mon Nov 30 1998 - 15:31:20 EET


TRASH???????

Unusual response Travis!

I would like to reply to it in 2 ways. Firstly I will give you my opinion
on the function of the rp-ml, and secondly will try to illustrate why it is
unfair to give so little consideration to my posting.

In my view the RP-ML performs 2 main functions.

Firstly, it provides a forum for the trans-national exchange of expertise in
all aspects of additive fabrication and associated manufacturing technology.
In an infant field such as this the free exchange of information is highly
important, and I know of few mechanisms better than the RP-ML in stimulating
such exchange.

Most subscribers to the list work with this technology every day and are
therefore primarily concerned with the capabilities/applications of the
technology as it exists now, and also with imminent technical developments
in the short term. The vast majority of postings to the list address these
issues.

I have worked exclusively in rapid manufacturing for just over 7 years now,
and I am very pleased to say that almost every person I have met in the
industry is genuinely excited by the technology and particularly its
development in the long term. I have had many interesting discussions with
people from varied industry sectors / academic institutions on the future
direction of the technology, but unfortunately there are only a few events
each year where we get the chance to actually sit down with each other.

The RP-ML's second important function is to allow those of us with a real
interest in tomorrow's technology to exchange views on a regular basis. For
those people who are already expert in today's technology these 'blue sky'
discussions are often the most interesting material on the list, but no
exchange of views will ever occur unless someone starts the ball rolling.

Which is exactly what I tried to do with my recent posting. It was, as
Travis rightly points out, email marketing - something that annoys us all
equally. However, it does illustrate the fact that manufacturers are
already devolving product assembly functions to smaller community based
operations. I imagine the business motive behind this is to lower overhead
costs, and if product assembly requires no specialist know-how or apparatus
then it must be feasible to have people do it from home.

I simply suggested that this may be a first step towards localised community
manufacturing. As Marshall Burns pointed out, before the industrial
revolution nearly all products were manufactured by local craftspeople and
sold to their own communities. The culture of centralised, mass
manufacturing then evolved for many reasons but 2 important ones must be:

a) economies of scale
b) the development of highly specific product design / manufacture expertise
by certain organisations

If we take an optimistic look at the future perhaps we can imagine the time
when additive fabrication systems exist that are capable of building in a
wide variety of engineering materials, and that are sold for a lot less
than today's systems. Some may say this will never happen, and they may
well be right, but we must accept that it is not totally out of the question
- even if we have to wait 30 yrs.

Manufacturers are already beginning to focus toward a culture of mass
customisation and manufacturing products to precise customer specifications.
If we assume that the ultimate in mass customisation is manufacturing with a
batch size of 1 then existing mass production techniques (injection
moulding, die casting) will not be applicable, and the economy of scale
issue also disappears. Instead the inherently flexible, multi material
fabricator will become the tool of choice. Perhaps organisations will
install fleets of fabricators and keep manufacturing centralised but
flexible.......

......or perhaps people will have their own fabricators locally (if not
actually at home) and make their own products as and when required. As
Steven Pollack points out the vast majority of people are not creative or
technically oriented, and would therefore not be motivated to design their
own products. This is true today, but perhaps this is because there is no
point designing your own custom product unless you have a means to make it.
RP/NC has been a significant motivating factor in many sales of CAD systems
in industry and if community fabricators become feasible then perhaps CAD
tools/design skills will be as common in the home as word processing (Home-E
rather than Pro-E as suggested by Brock Hinzmann). At that point we would
see an increase in individual creativity.

However it is far more likely that the community fabricator will be driven
by CAD models of products which are held in central libraries and accessed
over the internet. These could be downloaded for a fee and either built as
they are , or used as the basis for evolutionary design change to personal
specification. Through the use of library CAD models the product design
expertise that currently exists in centralised manufacturing will also be
devolved to community manufacturers.

Of course this treatment of the long term development of our field is in
many ways superficial and is so long term as to be considered somewhat
irrelevant today, but surely it provides some food for thought and is
therefore a legitimate contribution to this list.

Finally I would like to apologise to all those who, like Travis, find this
type of material troublesome.

Matt

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Travis Behara [SMTP:allenray_design@yahoo.com]
> Sent: 29 November 1998 00:55
> To: Murphy, Matt; rp-ml
> Subject: Re: FW: !! Wanted Home Product Assemblers !!
>
>
>
> Is this what the RP-ML is for. I get enough of this trash as it
> is!!!!!!!!!
>
>
> ---"Murphy, Matt" <matt.murphy@pera.com> wrote:
> >
> > The first step on the way to home fabricators?
> >
> > Dr Matt Murph [Murphy, Matt]
> > Head of Practice - Rapid Manufacturing
> > Pera Group
> > Nottingham Rd, Melton Mowbray
> > Leicestershire, LE13 0PB
> > UK
> >
> > Tel: + 44 (0)1664 501 501
> > Fax: + 44 (0)1664 501 589
> > Mob: 0402 745 278
> > email: matt.murphy@pera.com
> >
> >
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Athena7868@aol.com [SMTP:Athena7868@aol.com]
> > > Sent: 26 November 1998 19:16
> > > Subject: !! Wanted Home Product Assemblers !!
> > >
> > > *****This is a one time Mailing. You will not receive mail from us
> > > again.*****
> > >
> > > Looking for Home Product Assemblers!! How would you like to
> Assemble
> > > Products
> > > at Home & get Paid! Choose your own Hours! Be your own Boss!
> Easy Work!
> > > Excellent Pay! Earn Hundreds of Dollars Weekly! Here are just a
> few
> > > examples
> > > of the work you will have to choose from:
> > >
> > > Wooden Products - up to $220.00 Weekly!
> > > Hair Accessories - up to $320.00 Weekly!
> > > Holiday Crafts - up to $270.00 Weekly!
> > > Beaded Accessories - up to $350.00 Weekly!
> > >
> > > ........Plus many others. There are over 75 Companies to choose
> from!
> > > Why
> > > not enjoy the Benefits and Freedom of Home Assembly Work! To find
> out
> > > more
> > > Call.....Toll Free (24 Hour Recording) 1-888-289-9708.
> > >
> > > U.S. Publishing Co.
> > > P.O. Box 633
> > > Rocky Mount NC 27802
> > >
> > > Name
> > >
> > > ___________________________________________
> > >
> > > Address
> > >
> > > ___________________________________________
> > >
> > > City & State
> > >
> > > ___________________________________________
> >
> > For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/
> >
>
>
> _________________________________________________________
> DO YOU YAHOO!?
> Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com

For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Tue Jun 05 2001 - 22:47:26 EEST