The digital fabrication revolution is happening. Hundreds of thousand people, companies and organizations worldwide are beginning to print complete objects or replacement parts. This is a major risk for the intellectual property of the designers, and there are bigger risks with other scenarios.
There is more... There are ongoing projects worldwide to create the repair shops of the future. A perfect example would be an auto repair needing a part that is not in production anymore. Similar situations happen with almost any other type of repair or rebuild shop, being vehicles, electro-domestic devices, and any other man-made object or machine. The 3D printing revolution may trigger a comeback or a new flavor of professional repair and refit services.
The above-described scenario becomes a business case with high risk for object creators and original equipment manufacturers (OEM). Examples are if such a shop is installed on offshore operations, or in a car repair shop or simply in the case someone fabricates a new contraption from existing objects. The same criteria can be applied to many other analog scenarios.
This global transformation of the production or fabrication methods include and is not limited to the intellectual right of the original designer or creator of the object; the disruption of the business model of the OEM’s; and even liability for the end user using parts without the correct physical and chemical properties.
One of the projects I directed for innovation in the polymer/material industry, aimed at using this problematic situation in an opportunistic way that protects the intellectual rights, enable new service models, replacing old business models and assuring the right material to print objects with the correct functional features.
Some traditional rules need to be changed. Key enablers may include open source software development (API), cloud-based parts and material catalogs, linked in such a way to promote a “pay-per-print” service similar to the “pay-per-play” of the music industry. That is itself requires dedicated attention and may trigger new spin-off opportunities. The monitoring and administering such a licensing service should be nonprofit, relying on open source technology built by the alliance of public bodies, private companies and OEM’s worldwide.
HEPHESTOS.io is a consortium proposal. The goal is to set up a transparently governed organization to work on a shared and open set of standards and protocols to connect the dots of design, specifications, hackers, repairers, manufacturers, to unbind in the material world the same kind of transformation that the World Wide Web brought to the information ecosystem. The approach is based on the success stories of other initiatives like the World Wide Web consortium and LINUX, among others.
The Hephestos concept proposes new manufacturing technologies and inclusive business models, made possible by the nexus of digital innovation (cloud, IoT, Blockchain) and new fabrication technologies (3D printing, additive manufacturing et similia)
By laying down a virtual shared infrastructure to handle transactions between the infosphere and the physical world, making it possible to disclose old IP without giving up return on royalties and business sustainability, and by offering glocality (global-locally) to the processes of adaptation and production, this will unlock novel innovation markets and an opportunity of inclusion and resilience for society.
As a web for design and manufacturing, this infrastructure will be the horizontal substrate to build innumerable vertical business cases. With no longer the need to design protocols of verification, authorization handling, communication and exchange, all will benefit from a single, governed, and protected an underlying set of fundamental rules and tools, potentially turning the challenge of International Trade Agreements upside down: introducing a need to restrict rather than to open.
Each building block is important enough to become a project on its own. To stay up to date you can look for the label/hashtags #Hephestos or #DigitalFabrication, #MetaFactories.
The story behind:
I presented the first high-level concept of Hephestos.io at CERN back in 2015, in the frame of a "Collision event" organized by the SCimPULSE Foundation and hosted at IdeaSquare, the open innovation of CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. I also presented the concept at the DTIM Europe 2016 in Berlin, and in part at the PON 2017 in the Netherlands. In 2019, I am again collaborating with key partners towards the realization of this highly advanced concept.
Since that time, there have been several initiatives worldwide to approach a few aspects of the Hephestos.io proposal. So far none had been brave enough to be 100% open in a shared platform. Still, it is important to recognize that each initiative on its own has been capable to solve specific challenges. Hopefully, the world is ready to benefit from joined learning.
Among those who contributed to enrich the concept was the Directorate of Innovation and Technology of CERN, that propagated the idea to the University of Bologna, and we can see some places where the idea flourished, such as EEFRA and the Connected Factories project sponsored by the European Union, while a few business companies such as Porsche have come close to the concept. I expect at some point we should be able to bring it all together and disrupt the industry 4.0 paradigm.
The Hephestos.io site will be closed in 2019 to evolve into a newly revised approach by a consortium of profit and non-profit, academia and SME, proposing for a new EU funded project
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Massimo Mercuri acts as catalyst for strategic dialogue and collective reasoning, facilitates problem-solving and new business models development. Active since 1990, he has extensive experience in innovation and business architecture with Fortune 100 brands in different world markets, including digital computing, research & development, industrial facilities, maritime operations, and entrepreneurial startups.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Massimo Mercuri acts as catalyst for strategic dialogue and collective reasoning, facilitates problem-solving and new business models development. Active since 1990, he has extensive experience in innovation and business architecture with Fortune 100 brands in different world markets, including digital computing, research & development, industrial facilities, maritime operations, and entrepreneurial startups.