5 Manufacturing Trends Shaping The

Future Of Small Businesses

Mon, 11/04/2013 - 11:17am
Rich Thomas, Line/Shape/Space
So you want to start a small product-design business? Heres the good news. The playing field is more level than its ever been,
and sophisticated social media and digital marketing tools allow for a more intimate connection to your consumer.

If youre one of the few with that million-dollar idea, here are five key manufacturing trends you should know about to help bring
your product to market faster, cheaper, and more efficiently.

1. Crowdfunding. Why borrow money from a friend when you can borrow from a thousand friends? More and more
entrepreneurs are looking to harness the power of the crowd to acquire capital, and theres lots of money to be had. Globally,
the crowdfunding industry is projected to raise a staggering $5 billion in 2013. The largest and most well known of the
crowdfunding engines is Kickstarter, but smaller sites such as Indiegogo orappbackr target specific communities with niche
needs. Though donation-based funding does occur, investment is the buzzword for small businesses and their consumer base.

View: Kickstarter of the Week: Mobile 3D-Scanner Raises More than $1.1M on Kickstarter

Its a new currency of remuneration, says Jordan Brandt, Technology Futurist at Autodesk. Finding ways to incentivize people,
give them exposure, and make them feel like they helped in bringing a product to market carries a lot of weight.

Whichever crowdfunding site you choose, your page is the first place to introduce your product to the masses. Dont
underestimate the quality of a compelling and well-edited video and coherent messaging. But remember, a Kickstarter page is
not a business plan. The road to a successful crowdfunding campaign is littered with stalled or broken-down initiatives that
began with a great idea, but fizzled due to a lack of long-term planning.

2. Reshoring. Call it what you want: reshoring, onshoring, distributive manufacturing. With the increased cost and
environmental impact of shipping goods overseas, a decreasing wage disparity, and cheaper domestic energy, many
businesses are bringing their manufacturing closer to the consumer. All those aforementioned financial factorscoupled with an
increased desire for product personalization and a decreased tolerance for waiting aroundhas resulted in a trend toward local
manufacturing.

In the past, small businesses had to latch onto a larger supply chain or team up with other small businesses to get their order
numbers high enough for overseas manufacturing. Now that its proving more cost-effective to bring everything back home,
another phenomenon is occurring: a resurgence of the Industrial Commons.

As easy example would be Detroit in its heyday, Brandt explains. Not only did you have the auto designers and the large car
companies, but you had the supply chains making the parts for them. Then you had all the logistics organizations making sure
everybody got the right part at the right time.

With big business reshoring, smaller businesses can take advantage of those newly created local ecosystems and thrive
domestically. They also get PR points for putting those manufacturing dollars back into U.S. pockets.

3. Additive Manufacturing. As opposed to subtractive manufacturing, which involves cutting or drilling, additive manufacturing
is the creation of a three- dimensional object by adding layers. Though the technology has been around since the mid-80s, its
affordability as of late has been one of the biggest factors in helping small businesses control more of their manufacturing.
Brandt references the origami-inspired Oru Kayak, a double-layered polyethylene vessel, as a perfect marriage of advanced
automation, crowdfunding, and collaborative design software such as Autodesks Fusion 360.

Attendance numbers for RAPID 2013, the countrys premiere additive manufacturing conference, doubled from its 2012 totals,
and the growth isnt relegated to more traditional manufacturing sectors. Everyone from opticians to aerospace engineers has
used additive manufacturing for parts and products, but the biotech and medical communities are parlaying the technology into
exciting new ventures.

[Autodesks] bio-nano team is building an open hardware bio research kit that heavily leverages 3D printing to enable garage
biologists and inventors around the world to do cellular and molecular scale research at a fraction of the cost traditionally
required, Brandt says.

4. Open-Source Hardware. The universal access and redistribution of information is nothing new to software developers, but
with a new community of DIY makers flooding the Internet with unique products, sharing valuable knowledge has become much
more commonplace. But as with any close-knit group built around a specific activity or interest, theres an underlying code of
conduct that should be followed.

Taking without giving back is generally frowned upon, as are people who come in looking for catchall solutions to their problems.
The use of open-source hardware isnt meant to be a replacement for domain knowledge; it should merely improve your ability
to function in your given field. Further, the community will be much more supportive of your endeavors if they see you as an
expert in your field.

Adafruit Industries, founded by MIT engineer and Wiredmagazine cover girl Limor Fried, is an open-source epicenter for small
businesses, selling hundreds of electronic kits designed to serve as well as inspire the community. Arizona-based Local Motors
promote themselves as a company rooted in open-source principles, employing crowdsourced design and technology to
produce one-of-a-kind vehicles.

I think that the risk in crowdsourcing is burning out the contributors, Brandt says. Theyve contributed on 25 different
campaigns and designs, and at the end of the day, they just dont get any return for it. Local Motors is dealing with
crowdsourcing aspects of the design of their vehicles and rewarding the people who contribute those designs so that they
continue to do so.

5. Advanced Automation. Sensor networks, vision systems, artificial intelligence: These are just a few ways of turning serially
programmed, basic automation into advanced automation, and they arent as costly as youd think. Smartphones with built-in
features like GPS, compass, and accelerometers can even be an input device for advanced automation.

Small businesses that say Robots are for the big companies, automation is for high-capital expenditure, Im not gonna know
how to use it. Now is the time to rethink that, reasons Brandt.

Advanced, after all, is a relative term, and doesnt necessarily translate to expensive. An ammunition reloader, for example,
could hook up a sensor that measures the humidity in the room and adjusts how hard the reloader tamps the gunpowder into
the shell. The result? A more accurate load. A thermometer installed inside the steamer of an espresso machine that measures
the temperature of the milk can mean the difference between a good cappuccino and a great cappuccino. With so much tech
available at a reasonable (or even negligible) cost and so many open forums ready to point you in the right direction, its no
surprise that the small business community is experiencing a renaissance.

Source: http://www.manufacturing.net/

Finland points the Way to the Future of Urban Transportation

Posted June 18, 2014

Finland
has set itself a target of becoming a model for sustainable transport by 2020 by using a system which will allow people to
choose the most optimum means of travel for each particular journey which they hope will become a viable alternative to buying
a private car.
It is expected that the share of public transport and carpooling in densely populated urban areas will increase in most cities as
overall efficiency and ease of use become the principles governing transit operations. By 2020 an increasing number of new
cars will run on renewable energy.
In Finland itself it is expected that up to 15% of new car sales will be taken up by electric cars with rechargeable hybrids
particularly popular. In Helsinki metropolitan area, the electrification of bus traffic has already begun, and by 2020 there should
be over 100 electric buses in operation.
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT)s Research Professor and TransSmart Programme Manager Nils-Olof Nylund
have issued a mission plan arguing that: Fine-tuning vehicles or developing renewable fuels will simply not be enough in the
long run. The entire system needs revamping. You won't make the world a better place by filling Helsinki with electric cars, for
example. They take up just as much room as conventional cars running on petrol or diesel. The ways to achieve change will be
through increasing the share of public transport, and rethinking mobility and logistics services to include the views of the people
who need the services.
The whole project relies upon intelligent transport services, which, as a sector, are growing at a rate of 20% per year
according to VTT. They rely upon in-vehicle communication systems linked to a city-wide network. One early example of an ITS
service offered by public authorities improving traffic safety is the eCall in-vehicle emergency call service, based on the
European emergency number 112. The service will be introduced in EU Member States no later than 2017, when it will become
compulsory for all new car and van models. In the event of a road accident, in-vehicle sensors detect the accident, the eCall
system opens an emergency call from the vehicle to the nearest emergency response centre (ERC) and sends the minimum set

of data including the vehicles exact geographic location. After transmitting the minimum set of data, the in-vehicle system opens
a voice connection between the vehicle and the emergency response centre.
After safety, logistics is the second area of immediate growth. Requirements for just-in-time deliveries and the need to fill
otherwise empty trucks and vans returning to base is driving this development. Also, Local Authority Intelligent Transport
Systems use them to tell people when buses will arrive and give buses priority at traffic lights.
VTT, as a major partner in the Finnish project, sees the future as containing a mix of technologies, a combination of electric
propulsion and renewable fuels, not in competition but rather complementing each other.
Senior Scientist Raine Hautala, leader of the TransSmart programme's Transport Services theme, explains: Smart transport
solutions create more efficient travel- and logistics chains and an overview of the status of the transport system in real-time. The
idea is that the travellers will be able to select several service options and to easily combine them into suitable travel chains:
private car, on foot, bicycle, bus, taxi, demand responsive transport, carpooling, car and transport joint use, tram, metro, train or
aeroplane. This would lead to a reduced need for car ownership or for the construction of parking spaces and streets. The crux
of the idea is to achieve an increase in the fluency, ease of use and accessibility of travel chains. Service accessibility also
covers safe and trouble-free payment.
There are three keys to decarbonizing transport:
1.

reducing the need to travel,

2.

reducing the energy consumption of travel by a modal shift to a different form of transport such as cycling or walking,
and

3.

reducing the carbon intensity of the remaining power transport through use of renewable energy.

The diagram below shows the distance travelled on one litre of fuel. Public transport will take you much further than
motorised personal transport, while cycling and walking to not require any fuel.

Using electric vehicles alone is not a guarantee of low carbon emissions and depends upon decarbonization of the grid; for
example an electric car powered by coal-based electricity creates more carbon dioxide emissions than a conventional petrol or
diesel-fuelled car.
The chart below shows the fuel cycle (well-to-wheel) greenhouse gas emissions for different passenger car technologies. It
should be noted that not all biofuels are equal: third generation biofuels will be more sustainable.

The concept of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is gaining traction. People are becoming used to using their smart phones to
order taxis and even book bicycles. as well as plan their journeys. It's easy to see how this can develop into a coordinated
transport policy, with cities offering apps that offer citizens the chance to plan their journey based on the optimum transport
mode, and book or rent a cycle, taxi or take public transport, or use a carpool or hire a car. Emissions and congestion should be
reduced as a result.
Hopefully it should also be cheaper for travellers. It's been estimated that on average in 2005, US households spend
approximately one fifth of their income, $8300, on transportation (approximately 95% of this on self-provided transportation).
In European terms this is equivalent to 6000. This is a huge amount of money compared with, for example, what people spend
on communication expenses.
If people can be persuaded that not having a private vehicle and spending less than this per year on other transport services
provides good value for them for the same level of service, then transport providers can see their way to a revenue stream.

Chariot e-bus
One strong contender for public transit buses might be the Chariot e-bus currently being trialled in Sofia, Bulgaria. This bus
uses ultra-capacitor technology which enables it to capture energy from braking and use it to propel the bus forward to reach
previously unachievable ranges for electric buses.
Such buses have been used in Shanghai for over seven years but are only just beginning to be used in Europe.
Zwika Zimmerman, Chairman of the Board of Chariot Motors, said: This is the first electric bus on European streets that does
not require traditional battery charging and can cover its whole route on a single charge requiring just a few minutes. Cities
across Europe face increased demand for public transportation at the same time as facing increased concerns over air pollution.
Electric buses can both meet that demand and address those concerns.
The new bus has the autonomy and payload of a regular bus and is running a 23km round-trip route on a single, few minutes
charge each time upon returning to its terminal. Its average daily energy consumption has been already test-proven in Sofia to
be about 0.95kWh/km. The manufacturers say that it is 2.5 times less energy intensive in terms of kWh/km than diesel buses
and three times less intensive than compressed natural gas (LPG) buses.
Source: http://sustainablecitiescollective.com/
Author: David Thorpe