U.S. Manufacturer Hires Customers

Here is a view of the future, and a very unique way to connect with customers. The folks at MakerBot are very savvy and very connected to their customers. One look at their site telegraphs that message right away. Blogs, wikis, forums, Twitter, Facebook - plenty of social media, and community building. It's not just fluff. They encourage customers to modify and contribute to the product. And recently they hired their customers to make components for them.

That is perhaps a little less outlandish when you understand what they do. MakerBot designs and builds 3D printers (pictured at left) that connects to a personal computer. It's a desktop device that costs around $950 as a kit. It works just like your ordinary printer prints a page, except int their case what comes out is not a piece of paper it's an actual object: a cup, a spoon, or even a machine part "printed" out of plastic. That's where hiring their customers came in. With several hundred people and companies owning these machines, this manufacturer said "here's the part file, print the parts on your MakerBot, send them to us, and we will pay you for them."

Certainly MakerBot did not invent 3D printing. But they figured out how to get it down to a size, and cost, small enough to put it within reach of just about anyone. The implications are just tremendous.

• It puts a "factory" literally inside your home or business
• Manufacturing can be decentralized and spread across many "makers"

It alters the relationships between:

• Designers and manufacturers
• Manufacturers and distributors
• Distributors and retailers
• Retailers and the final consumer
• And all the workers at all those firms

I don't think for a minute that all products will be made "where used." At first this technology will be used as 3D printing has been until now: for prototyping by designers and artists. But the breakthrough in size and cost puts this very powerful technology in a lot of people's hands. As we have seen, unexpected things can happen when people have access to powerful technology.

I've seen it, it works. It's not yet the "replicator" you saw on Star Trek, but it's an awfully big step in that direction. Yes, I would like one. Very much.