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November 12, 2006
Personal Fabrication: The End of Channels As We Know Them?
A favorite topic of mine is "adding value in the channel." From auto dealers to insurance brokers to industrial wholesalers, I am continually reminding clients to think about "how you add value to the customer transaction?"
A few days ago, there was an interesting post in MIT's Advertising Lab blog, a very forward-thinking location for discussion space on the future of advertising. The AdverLab's post discussed an article in Fortune magazine about MIT professor Neil Gershenfeld and his Center for Bits and Atoms.
Before you go running screaming into the hills, this is not just about pie-in-the-sky futuristic thinking. Both the MIT post and the original Fortune article bring an interesting perspective to the future of personal manufacturing and how the concept is being put to test today in $40,000 "fab labs" sprinkled around the world. The AdverLab post carries the conversation into the future of advertising where the implications are obvious. I am fascinated by the implications to distribution and sales.
Unlike the disintermediation craze of the Internet-fueled late 90s, this technology really does "eliminate the middleman." In fact, it eliminates mass manufacturers in many industries as well. Yes, the concept is some number of decades from reality, but take a moment to think how fast technology advances arrive today. As the article points out, the music and video industry is being recast by consumer-created content. But this is "consumer creation" taken to a new level.
Think it is all "geek speak"?? Check out these real-world rapid prototyping and fabrication companies, like Z Corporation with their Z Printers, that are reforming the world of manufacturing:
- Z Corporation
- The Ennex Companies
- Geomagic, Inc.
- 3D Systems, Inc.
- Stratasys, Inc.
It opens fascinating thinking about how today's channels will be reformed in the new age of digital manufacturing. I, for one, don't see this as "armageddon" but rather as a reminder that "how you add value" will continue to evolve.
Posted by jcioban at November 12, 2006 10:05 AM
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