A Vision for a Highly Automated Digital Local Manufacturing Network: Solutions and Challenges

Abstract

There is a lot of evidence of the manufacturing strategy shift from mass production to the individual and decentralized micro-production, which in essence means a shift from low-cost country production to production at the place of consumption. This paper presents a vision for a highly automated digital urban manufacturing network, based on a central market mechanism for matching designers, customers, and producers operating digital-manufacturing machinery. The mechanism proposed automatically clears the market by matching supply and demand, based on pre-given or auction-based bids with an optimal allocation. Contracting, profit-sharing and settlement are automated according to pre-specified market rules. Network participant profiles are used and updated to establish reputation and trust that are used in the allocation optimization. This paper presents the elements and logic of an automated digital urban manufacturing network on a technical level and discusses some of the benefits reached by shifting centralized production to decentralized urban networks in a wider perspective. Practical implications to the real-world industries, where the presented vision is relevant are shortly discussed.