"The market is poised to take off"

"Mass customization.
This model takes product variation to the extreme. It entails creating one-off products that are precisely adjusted to the needs or whims of individual buyers—adjustments that can be carried out by simply uploading each customer’s digital file into a 3-D printer. Thanks to the efficiency and precision of digital technology, these products cost less than conventionally manufactured items but fit individuals’ specifications more exactly.
.
Mass customization is suitable for any large market in which customers are dissatisfied with standardized, conventionally produced offerings and it’s easy to collect customer information. ...
This model can rapidly and significantly affect an entire industry. With hearing aids the shift happened in a year and a half, forcing some manufacturers into bankruptcy.
.
The main competitive challenge is to reduce the cost of acquiring individual customers’ information. Hearing-aid companies first needed a scanning device that audiologists could easily use. In this case, customers were willing to go to an audiologist to be measured. In contrast, buyers of custom orthotics and insoles didn’t want to visit an expensive podiatrist to be measured. That’s why SOLS Systems, which innovated in this area, couldn’t make it on its own; it was acquired in 2017 by another footwear company, Aetrex Worldwide. But the development of smartphone apps that allow people to measure their own feet is overcoming the information-collection obstacle. And HP Inc. has devised a 3-D scanning solution, FitStation, that can be placed in stores. The market is poised to take off."

Trecho retirado de "The 3-D Printing Playbook"

Beyond Lean

Há anos que escrevo aqui sobre o advento de Mongo e o consequente impacte na dança entre produção e consumo:

• mais tribos;
• mais nichos;
• séries mais pequenas;
• mais flexibilidade;
• mais rapidez; 
• mais variedade;
• mais diferenciação;

Em paralelo há anos que se lê com cada vez mais frequência sobre a automatização da produção.

Em Mongo, a produção é muito diferente da do paradigma do século XX com séries longas e planeamento da produção feito com muita antecedência. Em Mongo o planeamento da produção é feito cada vez mais em cima e é mais volátil. Como é que a automatização e as organizações-cidade lidam com Mongo?

"With improvements in living standards and a transformation in people’s ideas of consumption, much of the current electronics manufacturing industry is confronted with market demands characterized by variety and volume fluctuation. Manufacturing system flexibility is useful to address such fluctuated market demands.
...
Seru production has been called beyond lean in Japan and can be considered to be an ideal manufacturing mode to realize mass customization
...
seru production relies on low-cost automation and has little automation. When reconfiguring a conveyor assembly line into serus, expensive large automated equipment is substituted with simple-structure equipment with similar functions. The reconstructed equipment can be easily duplicated and modified at a low cost, so as to avoid equipment-sharing conflicts among multiple serus and reduce investment in equipment.
...
Factories that produce multiple electronics product types in small-lot batches tend to adopt seru production. Compared to mass production, which displays its superiority in the case of a narrow range of product types with high product volumes, seru production would be affected by low efficiency and high cost in such an environment.
...
Using highly automated production systems, mass production factories can attain high production efficiency. However, they usually achieve low production flexibility. As both the variety and volume fluctuations of market demands increase, mass production factories may need to reconfigure their traditional conveyor assembly lines for their survival and development.
...
Seru production is human-centered manufacturing. Multiskilled operators are important resources to implement seru production, more important than in mass production. The equipment used in seru production is simple and not automated. The effect and influence of equipment on the performance of seru production systems is less than that on mass production systems. Accordingly, a practical production planning system for seru production should consider multiskilled operators more than equipment. In a dynamically changing manufacturing environment, a dynamic production planning system is needed"

Anónimo da província mas muito à frente:

• Um mesmo processo automatizado é demasiado rígido para Mongo
• Mongo e a automatização... pois!
• "mas o essencial é que o mercado de massas desapareceu"

Cuidado com os media, desconfie sempre!

Trechos retirados de "An implementation framework for seru production" publicado por Intl. Trans. in Op. Res. 00 (2013) 1–19

Um cheirinho de futuro

Mais um exemplo, mais um cheiro do futuro que Mongo vai trazer: "You Can Now Design Your Own Custom Swatch"

Sente-se o ranger das placas tectónicas...

"If you follow the state of retail at all, you know things aren't looking good for brick and mortar. At a glance, all signs point to an ongoing retailpocalypse..
Estimates suggest that 15-30 percent of shopping malls will close in the coming years. This isn't a surprise, since foot traffic dropped 50 percent from 2010 to 2013. CNN Money reports that a record 8,600-plus stores are estimated to close in the U.S. this year.
...
The retailpocalypse isn't necessarily a clear indicator of the state of retail at-large. What's happening isn't gloom and doom, but rather, a powerful change in this space. It's a real opportunity for smart retail leaders who can recognize and capitalize on one of the single most important shifts in the market in years."

Trechos retirados de "The Retailpocalypse Is Finally Here--and It's a Great Opportunity for Entrepreneurs"

"Sears Holdings continued its steady drip of store closures Friday with the announcement that it would close 35 more Kmart locations and eight Sears stores.
...
J.C. Penney has said it will shutter 138 locations, roughly 14% of its stores, and give buyouts to 6,000 employees. Macy’s plans to shut 68 stores. Radio Shack, which has sought bankruptcy protection twice in two years, has closed more than 1,000 locations since Memorial Day weekend. And one-time mall favorites Bebe, The Limited, and Wet Seal have closed or are in the process of shuttering all of their storefronts."

Trechos retirados de "SLOW DEATH: Sears, Kmart to close 43 more stores as retail crisis continues"

"So the key to survival has less to do with mindless debates about “digital vs. brick and mortar” than it does about putting customers at the center and building out operations that can service them effectively.
...
That’s how you get disrupted. You become a square-peg business in a round-hole world. Clearly, this is what most retailers are facing today. They act as if they are still operating in an environment where the function of a physical store is to drive transactions, rather than to provide an immersive physical experience, build personal relationships and upsell.
.
The good news is that the opportunities are endless. Apparel retailers can become style guides. Toy stores can become playrooms. Electronic retailers can demo the newest gadgets and help even the most tech averse customers adopt technology that will enrich their lives. The best part is that these strategies can also reduce inventory and rental costs while at the same time expand reach to smaller urban locations and pop up shops."

Trechos retirados de "Retail Isn’t Dead, But It Does Need To Adapt"

"They are sharp retailers operating in a tough, competitive environment. They have used customer service as a strategy to build customer loyalty, as their competitors have. But in addition, they have gracefully moved into the digital age, exploiting data and technology to create a better customer experience.
...
Create killer experiences that resonate with customers, especially customers who like to take advantage of technology"

Trechos retirados de "Walgreens: At The Corner Of Technology And A Better Customer Experience (CX)"

O mundo económico a mudar, sente-se o ranger das placas tectónicas...

.

O reshoring a mudar o ponto de produção por um lado, a evolução do retalho a mudar as prateleiras do outro e a evolução dos consumidores a entrar também na dança "Klaus Huneke (Euratex): “La relocalización será una realidad con la personalización masiva y los plazos cortos”"

Mongo e a customização dos carros (parte II)

Parte I.

Este surto de automatização "Businesses Ordered More Robots Last Year Than Ever Before" tem duas leituras:

• Por um lado, o atraso americano a entrar nesta onda;
• Por outro, um sintoma da continuação da paixão americana pelo preço, (Ver "Para recordar..."), quando alemães e japoneses já estão noutra fase.

"North American businesses ordered 35,000 robots in 2016, a 10% increase from 2015, according to a report on Tuesday by trade organization Robotic Industries Association."

"It was just what the 20th century was about: mass production"

 Daqui "Сhristos Passas (Zaha Hadid Architects): It is interesting to work in Russia, but the approval process is complicated here" sublinho este trecho que parece retirado aqui do blogue:

"we do not have any ready-made solutions. We do not believe in mass produced architecture. We believe in mass customization, making everything unique, not making everything the same. Of course, the idea of repetition has something to do with the mode of production we had at the beginning of the 20th century, with machines that would repetitively do the same job, so that you got standard, high-quality products — but it was the same from one to the other. It was just what the 20th century was about: mass production — and if you wanted to have something individualized, you could change the colour, or, say, the buttons.
.
Christos Passas: “We do not believe in mass produced architecture. We believe in mass customization, making everything unique, not making everything the same”
Nowadays, I think, the mode of production is changing. It is very important, because the machines we are using today for fabrication, for construction, are so agile that they can produce unique objects in every case."

Recordar:

• Magnitograd versus Mongo
• O século XX começou há  100 anos
• A marca do século XXI

Um tema que tem tudo a ver com "Budweiser's Battle for Beer Market Dominance Hinges on the U.S.":

"“Small brewers have been growing in market share since the late ’70s and early ’80s, but for a long time they were too tiny to pose any threat to the bigger brands,” he says. “Only in the past 10 years have they really made themselves known, with more than 20 percent of the market in dollar sales.” By volume, their share also is going up, with craft beers representing 12.2 percent of the U.S. market in 2015, he says, and they will likely hit a peak this year.
.
Craft concoctions can do many things the big beers can’t, like offer greater variety, fuller flavor and snappier names (Pepperation H, Apocalypse Cow and Citra Ass Down) or humorous mottos appealing to locals and tourists, like Utah’s Polygamy Pale Ale (“Try one and you’ll want another, and another, and another...”). Watson says craft brewers also tend to be deeply involved with their communities and are highly philanthropic, bolstering brand loyalty in a way the monster beer makers cannot."

O fecho de um ciclo

Há cerca de um mês coloquei a seguinte questão aos gerentes de uma fábrica de calçado.

- Não receiam que um dia um par de sapatos possa ser feito e vendido por um trabalhador a partir de casa? 

A resposta foi não porque serão precisas máquinas que eles não poderão comprar.
.
Não forcei o diálogo sobre o tema mas fiquei a pensar se não há alternativas para quem só faz uma dúzia de pares por mês. Até que ponto um dia teremos makerspaces com essas máquinas e que possam ser alugadas ao dia ou hora. Ou até compradas em regime de crowdfunding.
.
Voltei a lembrar-me da pergunta por causa de:

"A hundred years ago, though, customized clothing was the norm. Manhattan was sprinkled with little shops where middle-class families could have trousers sewn from scratch or bags hand-stitched by expert artisans. It wasn't until clothing companies moved toward more efficient and less expensive mass-manufacturing models that these workshops began to disappear.[Moi ici: A mass production não é uma resposta a uma necessidade humana, a mass production foi algo que foi imposto à natureza humana]
.
And now, a Manhattan-based startup called 1Atelier is redefining bespoke fashion for the digital age, combining old-fashioned craftsmanship and modern technology in ways that could signal the future of customization."

E por causa de adulto de cidade do interior que calça 35 me ter dito, esta semana, que várias sapatarias já se ofereceram para lhe fazer sapatos à medida.

"In the past, a client would need to visit a workshop to order a customized bag, but at 1Atelier, she can do everything online. The company's website allows customers to pick a style, then play with different colors and textures until they've dreamed up their perfect sack. The end product costs between $295 and $8,400, which puts the brand at the lower end of the luxury bag spectrum. But unlike Chanel or Céline, which requires six months or longer to ship a bespoke order, 1Atelier products are delivered to the customer in 21 days."

Assim como a disrupção clássica começa pelos overserved, julgo que podemos ver a produção do futuro, a produção de Mongo, a começar a disrupção da herança da Revolução Industrial, a herança de Magnitograd, pelos underserved.

"Offering a more complete customization experience, where the customer has a hand in the entire design process, presents a logistical challenge for big brands, whose supply chain and manufacturing networks usually span multiple countries. In 2011, for instance, Burberry offered a bespoke service that allowed customers to alter every aspect of its iconic trench coat, from the cut to the fabric to the color, for between $1,800 and $8,800. But when the service failed to be profitable, Burberry quietly shut it down in 2015 and launched a simpler alternative, the Scarf Bar, where shoppers can monogram their initials onto scarves for $475 to $995." 

Trechos retirados de "The Luxury Bag Brand That's Reinventing Made-To-Order"

Tendências

Tendências há muito pressentidas e divulgadas neste blogue:

"the Post Mass Production Paradigm (PMPP) as a system of economic activity, capable of encouraging and sustaining economic growth without depending on mass production and mass consumption of artefacts. PMPP may be seen as a way of decoupling economical growth from resource /energy consumption and waste creation thus pursuing global sustainability.
...
The markets changed from mass production to a higher variety and diversity towards customisation. Shorter life time, shorter time-to-market and higher functionalities are consequences of the technical development of products and market requirements. Mass production followed the migration to regions with lower costs of manufacturing. The structural change of manufacturing industries – driven by competition and technical innovations – is still going on.
...
The manufacturing industries in Europe are fighting for competition because of high wages and costs of resources. Companies learned to concentrate operations towards customisation and niches of higher profitability. Taking into account the high skill of workers and engineers customisation changes the structure of manufacturing:
• increasing variants and customer specific products,
• lower batches and resulting costs for transformation,
• increasing complexity of products,
• increasing costs of product development.
The transformation from mass production to customised production is the new challenge of manufacturing."

O que é que há de novo nos últimos dois anos?
.
A par desta evolução que se mantém e acentua, cresce em paralelo o retorno de produções de preço da Ásia para a Europa.

Trechos retirados de "The ManuFuture Road Towards Competitive and Sustainable High-Adding-Value Manufacturing" de Francesco Jovane, Engelbert Westkämper e David Williams.

Um momento Janus

Recomendo vivamente a leitura deste texto "Remaking Make in India".
.
Num curto espaço, um resumo interessante do que aconteceu com a globalização:

"It makes little sense today to play catch-up with a Chinese model that may have worked well in its own time and place, but one which the next wave of the digital technology looks set to steam-roll into oblivion."

O que conhecemos e resultou nos anos 60 e 80 em Portugal está morto e enterrado, o mundo muda, o contexto e as soluções têm de ser outras:

"The end of the last century heralded the third wave of industrialisation that led to the globalization of manufacturing. Rapid advances in information technology and global connectivity made for the seamless integration of design, the sourcing of raw materials, labour, capital and manufactured components across multiple locations. The rapidly evolving ecosystem created networked global supply chains located wherever comparative advantages made them most cost effective. The world shrank. Emerging economies betting on low labour costs became the world’s sweat shops, but prosperity also spread. So did entrepreneurship. Asia became the centrepiece of this boom and China the world’s factory. From a 5% share of the world’s manufacturing in 1995, by 2011 China’s share had climbed to 27%.[Moi ici: STOP! Voltar a ler este sublinhado e deixar assentar a ideia do impacte que isto terá tido nas PME de Portugal... esqueça o euro]
...
In the forthcoming wave now, information technology is once again set to disrupt the way products are manufactured, shipped, and sold. Notably, this disruption is happening not just by way of moving manufacturing jobs back to the developed world.[Moi ici: O mainstream acredita que o futuro passa por automatizar a produção e remover o último humano das fábricas]
...
As both manufacturing and services more and more integrate robotics, 3D printing, the internet of things comes into its own – the need to outsource to regions with low cost labour is off set by the far lower supply chain risks of local manufacturing. Economies of scale lose their relevance. Future manufacturing sees greater advantage in decentralization which places it closer to the consumer. Robotics aided additive manufacturing can customize products to individual needs at costs only marginally higher than mass produced batches, and the cost difference is shrinking. The smart manufacturing facility of the future provides flexible assembly lines that can be re-programmed. [Moi ici: "The smart manufacturing facility of the future" não vai ter linhas de montagem! Recordar a Canon há 10 anos] The age of mass production, yields to mass customization. In the new automated factory of the future the manufacturing itself becomes a service.[Moi ici: Até se remover o factor "mass" e a democratizção da produção fazer desaparecer o paradigma da fábrica do século XX e o paradigma do emprego do século XX]

Tudo coisas que já escrevemos por aqui há anos e que ainda não chegaram em toda a sua plenitude aos media porque isso seria reconhecer o fim do modelo que as suporta a elas ou aos seus financiadores.

Mongo e a customização dos carros

"Gone are the days when Ford’s factories would turn out cookie-cutter copies of a particular model, truck after truck after truck. The River Rouge Complex here can produce 600,000 variations of the F-150, giving a distinct, made-to-order touch to many of the 1,300 vehicles that roll off its assembly lines daily.
.
That kind of variety helps keep demand high for the F-150 — the best-selling truck in the United States for four decades — and that sort of innovation, some think, could help revive American manufacturing.
...
Even as automation has bolstered productivity, it has taken a toll on American autoworkers, whose wages flat-lined as their employers shed jobs. Since 2000, U.S. carmakers have trimmed by 30 percent the number of employees in parts and manufacturing, according to federal data.[Moi ici: Quem estará mais avançado, a Ford ou a Mercedes? A Ford ou a Toyota?]
...
The flexibility made possible by smarter manufacturing also improves the buying experience for customers, analysts say. Mass customization is the future,
...
With that level of specificity, customers have more control over the details in products they buy.
.
“A vehicle is really becoming a part of an individual,” Dearborn plant manager Brad Huff said. “So we’ve seen it go from, in this particular vehicle line, being just a tool for work to being a family vehicle. I see that going even further: people putting their own stamp on it.”[Moi ici: Quanto mais investimento pessoal, mais tribos, mais oportunidades para projectos alternativos para micro produções]
.
And if carmakers can do it, other manufacturers can, too. Think about custom textiles or electronics, manufacturing analysts say. Companies in scalable industries — those that can generally step up production without sacrificing performance — probably can afford, and benefit from, investment in technology to optimize mass customization."

Trechos retirados de "Is that a robot in the driver’s seat at Ford’s F-150 plant?"

Exemplo de "exploration" em busca de subida na escala do valor

No livro "Confessions of the Pricing Man How Price Affects Everything" de Hermann Simon encontrei esta figura:

"How would the profits of selected companies from the Global Fortune 500 change, if they raised their prices by 2 %? Figure 5.2 shows the changes in profits for 25 companies, based on data for their 2012 financial years."

Pela posição que a Hitachi ocupa percebe-se que compete muito pelo preço. Por isso, faz todo o sentido esta evolução estratégica:

"Mass production is out, customization is in. For the century-old conglomerate and engineering behemoth Hitachi Ltd, “customization” and “collaboration” are the new trends in business, particularly in the area of social innovation—the business of solving the world’s most pressing problems.
.
“Commodity, mass production, mass consumption, these are no longer for the era that we live in. Now it is mass customization,” Hiroaki Nakanishi, Hitachi’s chair and CEO, said in an opening speech during the recent two-day Social Innovation Forum 2015 here.
.
“We want a product that will truly suit yourself. That is the direction we would like to pursue,” Nakanishi said."

Trecho retirado de "‘Mass customization’ new name of the game"

Prioridades da customização

"“if you were consulting with a company that was going to begin offering custom products, what would be the five things they’d need to do in order to succeed?” Here’s what he had to say:
.
1) Focus on adding customer value!
...
2) Get your customizable options right. It’s less about unlimited options and more about offering exactly the options where customers want choice.
.
3) Customize your customization. Get a configurator that adapts automatically to different customer profiles and any background information you have about a customer.
,
4) Don’t underestimate the challenges of scalability. Delivering a few custom products is easy; fulfilling a high volume of custom orders in a limited time frame can be very hard.
...
5) View customization as a journey. Flexibility and the ability to rapidly adapt and change your product offerings are some of the key advantages of mass customization."

"The 5 Keys of Customization with Professor Frank Piller"

Mongo e a vantagem das PME

Bem na linha daquilo que defendemos há vários anos.
.
Admitindo a hipótese de nos estarmos a entranhar num mundo económico a que chamo, metaforicamente, de Mongo, a vantagem vai para as PME.

"Mass customization is a trend that many businesses of varying size and scale have dabbled in. In today’s consumer-driven marketplace, it’s a smart idea to create custom offerings that meet the specific demands of customers. However, not every organization is able to capitalize on this phenomenon the way they would like to.
...
With so many options for how they can tailor their offerings to satisfy customers, why haven’t all companies taken advantage of mass customization? One reason is that the profits generated from mass customization are considered “small” for many corporate giants. However, SMBs are more willing to craft offerings that appeal to niche markets and not just to the masses.
...
SMBs have an advantage over corporate giants in regards to mass customization because of their ability to gratify niche markets while still making a profit. Businesses should choose a customization approach that aligns with their goals and satisfies consumers’ requests."

Trechos retirados de "How Mass Customization Can Work for Small Businesses"

Optimizar a customização

A propósito deste postal, "Subir na escala de valor - customização", pensei para comigo como esta abordagem da customização no calçado é difícil.
.
PME habituadas a outro modelo de produção, a outro modelo de negócio, torcem-se todas ao tentar enveredar pela customização.
.
Ao ler "Contextual variety, Internet-of-Things and the choice of tailoring over platform: Mass customisation strategy in supply chain management" de Irene Ng, Kimberley Scharf, Ganna Pogrebna e RogerMaull, publicado por Int. J. Production Economics 159 (2015) 76–87, percebe-se o quanto há por estudar pelas PME para optimizar esta actividade:

Mais um exemplo

Mais um exemplo da força crescente da customização, da personalização, em "Customisation takes off as Hem launches online service in US":

"Design brand Hem is to launch its online furniture customisation service in the USA, amid signs that mass customisation is becoming big business.
.
"It's just the start," said Hem founder and CEO Jason Goldberg, who said over half of the brand's revenues in Europe now come from customers who are designing their own furniture via Hem's online tools.
.
"The internet is starting to fulfil the promise of mass customisation and mass personalisation," Goldberg told Dezeen. "It's about half of our revenue in Europe. We have thousands of orders.""

A marca do século XXI

Tantas ideias que tenho em mente para este postal que, sem disciplina, daria para um longo capítulo de um livro sobre Mongo.

.

O material começou a ser recolhido na passada quinta-feira, durante uma viagem de comboio ao princípio da noite, com a leitura de "Protecting IP from 3D Printing: What Companies Need to Know".

.

O autor parte do exemplo de como a indústria musical não se soube proteger do digital, para dar conselhos às empresas grandes sobre como protegerem a sua propriedade intelectual, num mundo em que os bits comandam a adição de átomos, através das impressoras 3D.

.

Quando li o texto no Cabinet, escrevi:

Então, perante o advento das impressoras 3D em cada casa, em cada bairro, em cada Staples, em cada Worten, o autor só pensa em copiar, só pensa que as pessoas vão copiar!?!?!?! Come on! Copiar é burrice, a produção numa impressora 3D é mais cara que a produção em massa.

.

Depois, sexta ao fim da tarde, no Twitter, descobri este gráfico:

Em 1875 existiam nos Estado Unidos mais de 3500 produtores independentes de cerveja. Depois, o comboio, a Revolução Industrial, a produção em massa, o marketing de massas, e a consolidação eficientista começaram a concentrar a produção em cada vez menos produtores, cada vez maiores e mais eficientes. Então, o presidente James Carter, nos anos 70 do século passado, publica uma lei que liberaliza a produção, permitindo que pequenas unidades independentes possam produzir e comercializar cerveja. E foi um Big Bang!!! 

.

Agora, em 2015, o número de produtores de cerveja volta ao nível de 1875 e os produtores independentes já representam 11% do mercado.

.

Apesar do poder do marketing, apesar da eficiência, cada vez mais gente opta por beber cerveja artesanal. E a cerveja artesanal, copia os sabores dos produtores grandes?

.

Não! A sua força está na variedade, na experimentação, no sabor.

.

Ainda ontem à tarde, durante uma caminhada, encontrei este artigo sobre as impressoras 3D em África, "The 3D printing revolution":

"In February, a young Togolese entrepreneur, Afate Gnikou, stunned the world by winning first prize at the 10th International Conference of Barcelona’s Fabrication Laboratory. The winning technology was a 3D printer. The design did not come from one of Africa’s top universities or research institutes. Gnikou and his team assembled their prize-winning printer from electronic waste collected in dumpsites around the Togolese capital of Lomé.
...
The technology turns traditional manufacturing upside down. Instead of centres of mass production, it makes possible decentralised production by the masses.[Moi ici: Voltar atrás e reler este parágrafo]
...
The potential for printing other household products is only limited by people’s imagination and the size of the printer.
...
The power of 3D printing lies in tapping into local needs and inspiring creativity. It does not require formal structures to do this, and everyone can participate in the technology. For example, 3D printing can enable rural women to rapidly prototype agricultural tools adapted to their culture, cropping systems and environments."

Em "We Are All Weird - Um manifesto sobre Mongo" sublinho, com as palavras de Seth Godin, algo que escapa a muita gente.:

"The mass market — which made average products for average people  was invented by organizations that needed to keep their factories and systems running efficiently.
.
Stop for a second and think about the backwards nature of that sentence.
.
The factory came first. It led to the mass market. Not the other way around."

Com as impressoras 3D, com a cultura DIY, com a IoT ou IoE, com a democratização da produção, com a criatividade em acção, por que haverão as pessoas de copiar o que as empresas grandes vão oferecer? Os prosumers vão ignorar a oferta da massa, como os consumidores de cerveja artesanal fogem do "lowest common denominator"
.
Esta é a revolução que vai marcar o século XXI, o fim da massa:

"mass market. About mass politics, mass production, mass retailing, and even mass education.
.
The defining idea of the twentieth century, more than any other, was mass.
...
Mass gave us efficiency and productivity,
...
And now mass is dying.
.
We see it fighting back, clawing to control conversations and commerce and politics. But it will fail; it must. The tide has turned, and mass as the engine of our culture is gone forever."

Não vai ser fácil, muita gente que trabalha no mercado de massas, que vive do mercado de massas, que imposta o mercado de massas, vai rebelar-se contra a possibilidade de uma liberalização económica anárquica, local, relacional, co-criativa.
.
Seria interessante ter um POTUS libertário... nesta altura chave do processo.

"porque há-de continuar a existir "produção em massa"?"

O que pensar disto?

"On Wednesday, General Electric announced the launch of FirstBuild, a "microfactory" and open community for students, engineers, and innovators on the University of Louisville campus in Louisville, Kentucky. The company wants to create a new business model for the manufacturing industry by harnessing open innovation, the maker movement, and community involvement to build a revolutionary new wave of smart appliances.
...
The company already has microfactories in Chandler, Arizona, Knoxville, Tennessee, Las Vegas, and Germany, and plans to open 100 microfactories around the world in the next 10 years.
...
FirstBuild is meant to be a community of engineers, designers, hardware hackers, and anyone who is passionate about innovation in the appliance space.
.
"It's about producing small batches of products and getting them into consumers' hands very fast," Tepper said. "We'll have rapid iterations on those products, by working with consumers, community engineers, and designers. Once we work on the project for a while, we can start mass producing."

Sem tirar nem pôr, a materialização do modelo de Mongo que desenvolvemos neste blogue há anos, os tais centros de produção artesanal local que permitem o diálogo entre fazedores e utilizadores.
.
O último sublinhado, está a uma cor diferente porque ilustra uma outra vertente de reflexão, Mongo não é só o triunfo da "inovação aberta", havendo este contacto directo entre utilizadores e produtores, havendo o triunfo das tribos, porque há-de continuar a existir "produção em massa"?

"GE launches 'microfactory' to co-create the future of manufacturing"

"from mass production into mass customisation"

"We are now at the start of a new industrial shift, from mass production into mass customisation – a central driver behind what some have dubbed the “third industrial revolution”.
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At Techdept we think that this third industrial revolution will be greater facilitated by the trends we see online; of connected devices, frictionless sharing, and collaborative co-creation between brands, entrepreneurs and their consumers."

Trecho retirado de "Welcome to the 3rd Industrial Revolution"

Produção de sapatos na hora

Em alinhamento total com a orientação geral deste blogue, para fugir ao negócio do preço mais baixo (um negócio perfeitamente honesto, mas que não é para quem quer), este artigo do Centro Tecnológico do Calcado Português, "Solução inovadora para produção de calçado personalizado HighSpeedShoeFactory":

"A modernização das linhas de montagem, tornando-as mais flexíveis e preparadas para vários tipos de construção de calçado em simultâneo, e com uma velocidade de produção ainda mais ajustada à dinâmica excecional do setor do calçado foi o mote para o desenvolvimento do projeto HighSpeedShoeFactory.
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Trata-se de um novo modelo de fábrica de calçado para resposta ágil em 24 horas (1-2 dias) orientado para a produção unitária, par a par, capaz de responder sem stocks, às vendas pela internet, às pequenas encomendas e reposições de produtos em loja e, ao fabrico rápido das amostras e testes de novos produtos para as novas coleções.
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Concebido numa lógica de “secção única” de total flexibilidade e total polivalência, este novo modelo organizacional em fluxo único de produção, vem assim, substituindo as tradicionais secções de corte, costura, montagem e acabamento por sistemas de distribuição automatizada integrados com sistemas de corte automatizado e controlo automatizado online dos fluxos dos produtos e processo."

Estou a recordar-me de "Mais uma sugestão para um modelo de negócio" e a pensar num espaço deste tipo a poder ser partilhado/alugado por várias empresas independentes...

Acerca do Estranhistão e a cegueira do mainstream

O Estranhistão segundo Plantes em "Business-to-individual business models will win out in the Connected Customer Era"

"you must redesign your business models, processes, systems and even culture to serve each customer as a market of one – an individual that you know versus a member of a uniform target market described by its averages. (Moi ici: Recordar o que escrevemos sobre os fantasmas estatísticos e o olhar olhos nos olhos. Enfim, sobre a miudagem)
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Customers have always preferred personalization, but it was too expensive. Their desire for personalization is finally realistic because software solutions enable organizations to know each customer as an individual, and software and manufacturing technologies enable us to customize the offering and experience at every customer touch point. Just as companies that stuck with poor quality and historic business models in earlier eras got disrupted, companies that continue to treat a customer as a non-differentiated member of a uniform target market will be disrupted in the new era.
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value promises must be tailored to the customer’s unique needs and revenue models and value chains individualized to maximize customer value at every customer touch point, leading to loyalty-building customer experiences.
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The cultural demands of the Connected Customer Era will be great. Each employee and customer becomes a vital component in personalized value chains, demanding far more collaboration internally and with customers than in years past. (Moi ici: Aqui está o potencial para uma grande vantagem competitiva para as PMEs, a facilidade no tratamento individualizado, personalizado, pessoal) All employees, not just the sales and marketing department, are now part of the marketing message. Furthermore, with customers having more of a window into companies, and the ability to share positive and negative reviews with others through social media, a company’s culture must authentically align with its brand promise.
The need to become a B2I – Business to Individual ­– company holds true even if, as a B2B company, you have a small customer base. You must engage in two-way conversations with a larger set of decision makers, influencers and users in your target market about broader topics, (Moi ici: O ecossistema da procura) surfacing fresh ideas about unmet needs and opportunities. You prevent disruption by designing individualized value propositions and value chains that maximize value at every touch point."

 Isto é um festival para a batota da concorrência imperfeita.
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Infelizmente, o mainstream continua a querer combater as batalhas do século XX... eficientismo, escala:

"companies that continue to treat a customer as a non-differentiated member of a uniform target market"

Recordo "O gozo do puto anónimo de província" e "Mas claro, eu só sou um anónimo engenheiro da província"