The Third Industrial Revolution is NOW!

Manufacturing is going digital, social and global/local. The Economist has recently published a special report on the The Third Industrial Revolution by Paul Markillie that included an article entitled All Together Now: The advantages of crowdsourcing that feature Shapeways and Quirky among others.

The article begins discussing how New York City was once the capital of manufacturing in America, how it has been in constant decline since 1950.  The new kids on the block Quirky and Shapeways are bringing design and manufacturing through creative communities bringing products to market in innovative ways.

The article on Making The Future looks at how robots and people now team up to manufacture things in new ways, from ‘light’s out’ manufacturing to manufacturing that goes unattended for weeks at a time.  Here it expands on what is already emerging on Shapeways:

“Millions of small and medium-sized firms will benefit from new materials, cheaper robots, smarter software, an abundance of online services and 3D printers…there will be countless entrepreneurs in little workshops, homes and, no doubt, garages who will be able to do things they could never have done before.

Take a look at the special report online or pick up a copy of the print edition of the Economist to see what is a really good follow up to the special they published on 3D printing only last year..

Illustration by Ian Whadcock taken from the Economist