This article looks at how innovation in manufacturing and technology will create a more democratic business space. The process of continuous improvement in processes, systems and technology as a whole means that prices are coming down, and that these manufacturing methods and processes can be shared across the globe.
The more dependable the processes and the systems for either production, logistics or business as a whole, and the more they have been innovated, the more widespread they have become. This article looks at how the process of improving manufacturing, engineering and computing processes through innovation has made these processes available to more people in more places around the world. As a result, the act of starting and maintaining a business itself is now based on the available technology and processes that have been made available across the globe.
Being able to use others’ research
One of the most obvious means of democratizing the manufacturing sector has been the ability to use the research and development of others. Open-source information and openly developed manufacturing processes that have been developed over time by the bigger players are now, more than any other time in the history of manufacturing, more freely available. The costs that are thus saved by the smaller producers as these technologies and innovations are essentially shared.
The internet and e-commerce
The rise of the internet and e-commerce as a global marketplace and platform for training and the development of skills has seen the spread of both manufacturing and engineering machinery as well as the knowledge to run and operate such machinery. The internet has been the main source of innovation, which has also opened up the knowledge around manufacturing and processes and products.
The global supply chain
Innovation and the spread of knowledge have led to a democratization of the means and mode of production. Machines, supplies and raw materials can be bought from anywhere and then used to make products that are then re-shipped and transported across the globe. Machines from cdocast.com can be used to smelt precious metals in Ghana to make bespoke jewelry that is then sold on the fashionable high streets of Paris and Milan.
The cloud
The ability to hold vast amounts of data and share the use of such data, as well as being able to then access and work with this data from anywhere in the world means that as information spreads, so too must the knowledge to process and monetize this information or data. Access to the cloud and the ability of cloud computing means that knowledge is more readily available, and with this knowledge, comes power.
Without start-ups and the spread of knowledge as discussed above, there would be lower jobs growth and it is this jobs growth that ensures the viability of the global economy. It is thus through the democratization or global spread of information, technology and predominantly manufacturing processes that the economy will see further growth and develop. Sharing is indeed caring and the more manufacturing innovations are shared, the easier it will be to build and develop peripheral economies.
