科技开创全民制造时代

    一旦我们意识到，制造是一种能力，我们就可以通过把制造业大众化来实现这个目标。我们人人都可以成为制造商。奥巴马在国情咨文中宣布，计划投资10亿美元建立一个全国制造业创新网络，这个网络由15个先进的制造业中枢组成。要想让美国的制造业复兴，我们并不需要15个制造业中枢，我们需要的是1,500万个可以制造创新产品的人。

    在不久的将来，3D打印技术将走进千家万户。这是制造能力的大众化。有了3D打印机后，人人都可以通过数码设计制造出各种想象中的物体，或者借用不管来自世界哪个角落的某种设计。只需要按一个按钮，3D打印机就可以用一层层的塑料或其它材质，把你设计的物品在你眼前“打印”出来。10年前的科幻小说情节如今已经成为现实。事实上，能让我们的电脑打印纸质文档的点矩阵打印机，还是不久之前才发明出来的，而现在3D打印机又以同样的方式，使我们梦想的各种物体都能呈现在我们眼前。有了3D打印机的魔力，人人都是制造商，唯一能限制我们的，就是我们的想象力。

    奥巴马把复兴美国经济的希望寄托在重振制造业上，我同意他的观点。但我认为，在实践这个目标的过程中，应该减少从上至下的成分，更多的是要自下而上。“全民造物”运动已经在蓬勃发展了。如果你想亲眼见证它的发展，只需要参加2013年全球60个民间制造者大会中的一个。制造者大会是老老少少的民间制造者的盛会，它既是科学盛会，也是地区盛会，同时也是一种前所未有的新生事务。2012年，有16.5万人参加了旧金山湾区和纽约的两场创造者大会。如果你也去的话，你一定会被那种亲手制造东西的热情所感染，你心里一定会无可遏制地冒出亲自动手敲敲打打、组装零件和DIY点什么东西的念头。

    “全民造物”运动已经在美国各地蓬勃展开了。想象一下，如果美国的每一个社区都由下而上地迸发出生产热情，而不是由上而下地依赖几个生产中枢，那会是什么情形。少一些“推动”，多一些“拉动”，我们人人都能成为制造家。(财富中文网)

    本文作者索尔．卡普兰是《商业模式创新工厂》一书的作者，也是美国罗德岛州普罗维登斯市的商业创新工厂公司的创始人和首席分析师，定期在It's Saul Connected网站发表博文。

    译者：朴成奎

    Once we realize that manufacturing is a capability we can get on with democratizing it. We can all be manufacturers. In the State of the Union Address President Obama announced his plan for a $1 billion investment to build a National Network for Manufacturing Innovation composed of fifteen advanced manufacturing hubs. To bring manufacturing back to the U.S. we don't need fifteen hubs, we need fifteen million makers creating stuff.

    It won't be long before everyone will have access to a 3D printer. Talk about democratized manufacturing capability. Armed with a 3D printer, individual makers can create their own digital design for any imagined object or borrow a design from anywhere around the world. By simply pressing a button makers can set a 3D printer into motion rendering the physical object with layers of plastic or other material right before their eyes. What was science fiction ten years ago is reality today. It wasn't long ago we listened to the whir of a dot-matrix printer spitting out documents from our computers, now a 3D printer renders any object we can dream up the same way. With the magic of 3D printing capability we are all manufacturers, constrained only by our imaginations.

    I agree with President Obama that our national mantra should be to make more stuff. I just think the effort should be less top-down and more bottom-up. The maker movement is already in full swing. If you want to witness it first hand just go to one of the 60 community Maker Fairesbeing held around the world in 2013. Maker Faires are all-age community gatherings of makers. They are part science fair, part county fair, and part something entirely new. 165,000 people attended the two flagship Maker Faires in the Bay Area and New York in 2012. If you go, prepare to be blown away by an infectious passion to make things, creativity to hack and reassemble the parts and a do-it-yourself (DIY) fire in the belly that won't be stopped.

    A maker movement is already happening across the country. Imagine if instead of looking for top down solutions in a small number of manufacturing hubs we encouraged the bottom up maker momentum emerging in every community. Less push, more pull. We can all be manufacturers.

    Saul Kaplan is the author of The Business Model Innovation Factory. He is the founder and chief catalyst of the Business Innovation Factory (BIF) in Providence, RI, and blogs regularly at It's Saul Connected.