The Future is Mixed Material Kits

This is a challenge, because I haven’t yet set up a system that will allow you to actually  sell your designs (and mailable parts to complete).

But here’s the general idea:

The world needs a place where people can log-in, go shopping for kits they want to build, and get what they need in an online process.

Imagine a revolution in Making.

Say you need a phone.

• You go to Amazon – pick out something you like.
• In addition to your receipt, though, you also get an email.
• That email contains a .STL file that you “slice” (preparing for your printer) and load it in.
• Over the next couple of hours, your phone’s plastic shell (front and back) materialized.
• Next day, the dial pad and display appear in the mail along with a battery.
• You put the circuit board and pad into the shell…
• Insert the four screws to hold it all… and plug it in.
• Ready for use!

See what happened?

No phone job in China.  No ocean container.  No 9-thousand mile supply chain.  You got your phone.

Suddenly the World Changes!

The reason it changes is simple:  We can get off the ‘corporate-run treadmill.’

Right now, humans are almost ‘held hostage’ by big companies.  They make all the money for their owners at the top.  But what IF…

• Anyone could download, print and assemble a product?
• Anyone could add – or take out product features?
• Nothing really became ‘obsolete ‘ you could print up a fresh phone shell, or put in upgraded boards that require no planned obsolesence and no marketing channels.

In short, people would get what they want instead of the artificial demand which is exploited by corporations intend on one thing only:  Maximizing their share of money – the world, the climate, the resources, the human rights, the destruction of parenting time, the paying off lawmakers to keep their lock on things be damned!

Most Physical Goods Can Be “Kitted”

Specifically each kit could include:

• Printable plastic parts.  .STL files.  Resin of filament prints.
• Metal parts (when metal printer prices come down)
• Millable parts.  CNC files .DXF files
• Mailable Supplies.  Screws and small hardware
• Bigger Components.  Electronic keypads, displays, plugs, speakers…
• Assembly guides and troubleshooters.  As .PDF files

That’s the stuff of which an Ultra-Make kit will spring from.

The Challenges?

Figuring out what people will pay for and which will use the minimum number of machine and hand processes for the best result, is one starting point.

Another is finding the vendors that will be the electronics or the small machined parts vendors.  Especially if you don’t want to kit parts for the rest of your life – that’s “robot work…”

You do know Amazon is way out front of everyone else in terms of supply chain robotics, right?