{"id":43735,"date":"2023-10-20T15:30:45","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/the-four-key-things-disrupting-manufacturing-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:30:45","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:30:45","slug":"the-four-key-things-disrupting-manufacturing-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/the-four-key-things-disrupting-manufacturing-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"The four key things disrupting manufacturing – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Software vendor Autodesk\u2019s San Francisco headquarters are home to custom car models, a foldable kayak and a basketball that generates electricity among other things.<\/p>\n

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What these items all have in common, besides being created using Autodesk\u2019s technology, is the lessons they convey about where manufacturing is heading.<\/p>\n

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Andrew Anagnost, senior vice president at Autodesk, says there are \u201cbig disruptions\u201d in the world of making things.<\/p>\n

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He says this shift is particularly pronounced in SMEs.<\/p>\n

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\u201cSmall companies usually illustrate the big shifts faster than the larger companies,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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One example Anagnost gives is of Briggs Automotive Corporation, a small British custom car company.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere\u2019s nothing new about small companies building custom cars, what\u2019s new is there are more and more companies doing this in more and more interesting ways,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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Anagnost says custom cars can now be built in a matter of months versus years.<\/p>\n

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The model is designed digitally, tested digitally and fabricated using new types of material and production methods.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe are seeing these types of disruptions everywhere,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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Anagnost says there are four major disruptions occurring in manufacturing.<\/p>\n

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People<\/strong><\/h3>\n


<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to Anagnost, disruption is occurring firstly in the way people are designing products.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe are seeing\u2026 the rise of a new generation of people,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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This generation have a \u201ccomplete and utter comfort\u201d in coming together to work on something temporarily and possibly never physically meeting.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey are much more open to virtual collaboration,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThese are people who have hundreds of friends they have never actually met.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Anagnost says the rise of cloud computing has allowed us to put a super computer behind every designer\u2019s screen giving them capabilities they have never had before.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn a world of generative design the computer can actually participate in the design process,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe designer gets a chance to explore options they may never have explored before.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Production<\/strong><\/h3>\n


<\/strong><\/p>\n

Historically if you wanted to build something you had to invest in capital resources but Anagnost says the rise of crowdfunding has changed the game.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBefore people had to pitch their idea to a larger manufacturer or a venture capital firm, now they can pitch it to anyone,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cA lot of bad ideas get made but a lot of good ideas get made.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Anganost says not only is the means of getting funding changing, how people are physically building things is also changing.<\/p>\n

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In particular, Anganost points to the rise of micro factories.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThese factories are small, robotic and configurable so they don\u2019t have to be offshore,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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Combined with the growing popularity of 3D printing, Anagnost says this is a \u201cparadigm shift\u201d which will benefit SMEs.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhen it gets cheaper and cheaper to deliver a complex product the field gets leveled,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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One example of this democratization of manufacturing can be seen in the Oru Kayak on display at Autodesk.<\/p>\n

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The Oru Kayak is a seaworthy kayak which folds down into a large rectangle shape.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The creator came up with the idea as he was a kayaker who lives in a small San Francisco apartment.<\/p>\n

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He used the new manufacturing technology to make 25 prototypes and from this has created a saleable item that is not mass market but can be produced at the scale needed for a niche product.<\/p>\n

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<\/strong><\/p>\n

Demand<\/strong><\/h3>\n


<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anagnost says the new generation of consumers has a different take from the \u201cme generation\u201d of baby boomers.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe new generation is the make-it-for-me generation,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey have this expectation that the product will be more about them and there will be more choices and options for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Anagnost says this make-it-for-me generation cares about how things are made, where they are made and how humanely they are made.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey are willing to pay more for something that will last longer,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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One example is the New York-based business Normal which makes custom 3D printed earphones which are shaped to fit an individual ear.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt taps into the desire that customers want to have something made for them, Anangnost says.<\/p>\n

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Product<\/strong><\/h3>\n


<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even what constitutes a product is changing according to Anagnost.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOne of the things that is changing is this notion of connectivity,\u201d he says<\/p>\n

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For example, US small business Uncharted Play created a soccer ball with a pendulum mechanism inside which generates electricity.<\/p>\n

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Children in the developing world can play with ball for 30 minutes and after that plug in an LED light to the ball and get enough energy for four hours of light.<\/p>\n

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With these more advanced products come more advanced customer expectations.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhen they are connected the customer has another expectation, they expect the product to get better and better over time,\u201d Anagnost says.<\/p>\n

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He says there are \u201cpretty profound changes\u201d that will play out over the next few years.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe way things are going to be made five, six ,seven years from now is going to be radically different.\u201d<\/p>\n

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SmartCompany travelled to San Francisco and visited Autodesk as a guest of SalesForce.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This article was originally published on SmartCompany.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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