Monday, February 01, 2010
Wired foresees a “New Industrial Revolution”
The most recent issue of Wired Magazine (Feb 2010) has a cover article entitled “Atoms are the New Bits” written by Chris Anderson. The article outlines an industrial seismic shift in how the manufacturing world is changing to reflect the Internet and the world of open source computer software development.
Because of the lowering cost of expensive manufacturing equipment, smaller companies can now get involved in producing their own goods for special and unique products. Because of the Internet, there is a global market to reach when the product might only appeal to a very small sliver of the population. Bring these two things together and you have new industrial revolution where people can actually build a sustainable businesses by manufacturing niche products in their garage.
As the general manager of an online shop that sells connectors and fittings, this article was invigorating and inspiring. Back in 2006 when we first got started, one of our first big jobs was to provide tables for O’Reilly Media’s Maker Faire. They loved the “tinker toy” of building with Kee Klamp fittings. These components can be used to build just about any tubular structure simply and easily. We loved the faire and even met some of the folks who were featured in Chris Anderson’s article (namely Jim from TechShop). The faire was an exciting time, and while people groaned at the price, they loved the concept.
The New Industrial Revolution and the future of Simplified Building Concepts
Simplified Building Concepts has been a work in progress from the beginning. We’re not one of those companies that started off with a crystal clear vision. Over time we shifted this way and that to respond to the market. More recently our focus has turned to the development and sale of safety products which ultimately led us to produce a new web site exclusively focused on safety: Simplified Safety.
With the creation of the new site, Simplified Building Concepts is rediscovering its roots in the sale of simple connectors and fittings. After reading this article I hope we can become an online resource for the growing number of folks involved in manufacturing out of their garage; providing them with quality parts and pieces that can be used to produce great OEM products.
Every age has its amount of “interesting things” that are happening. I enjoyed hearing about this new wave of garage styled industrial entrepreneurs and hope that our business can help them bring their products to market quicker and easier.
Making it Easier with Google SketchUp
One of the ways that we are trying to make it easier for industrial entrepreneurs is by providing SkechUp models of our components. This allows product developers to model their product before they build. Take a look at our SketchUp component library to view both components and projects.
Connectors • Customer Ingenuity • DIY • Industrial Design • Inspiration • Permalink
