Led by professionals and specialized institutions, transforming into a participatory model for everyone.
The new era of manufacturing will be an era of universal creation. Modern manufacturing requires expertise, equipment, and significant investment, which has traditionally been the domain of large companies and professionals. The digital transformation of product manufacturing is not just about optimizing existing manufacturing but expanding the scope of manufacturing to a broader population, involving both manufacturers and the general public. People use digital technology and rapid prototyping techniques to design products and create models themselves. The emergence of 3D and 4D printing technologies has brought manufacturing to the desktops of ordinary people. Through the internet, creativity can be shared and disseminated online. Potential entrepreneurs and inventors no longer need to rely on large companies to realize production. If they wish, anyone can send design plans to manufacturing service providers; they can also use powerful digital desktop manufacturing tools like 3D and 4D printers to complete product manufacturing themselves.
Manufacturing is in the process of transitioning to digitalization. To this day, we still primarily live in a reality composed of physical objects, and the digital revolution is largely confined to screens. In the future, the maker movement will integrate online intelligence more deeply with the real world, and the business internet model will shift to manufacturing, disrupting traditional manufacturing. Numerous individual manufacturers will converge into a universal creation movement, driving a new industrial revolution and opening a new chapter for global manufacturing. The overall trend of manufacturing in the 21st century is not the disappearance of industry leaders but the end of their monopoly over the industry. Large enterprises with many employees will still exist, alongside numerous small companies that cater to consumers' personalized needs, fundamentally changing the landscape of manufacturing. It is noteworthy that some developed countries have proposed the concept of re-industrialization, which superficially means bringing back the manufacturing that has been transferred out, but its deeper purpose is not to return to traditional manufacturing but to develop a digital manufacturing industry that everyone can participate in. Digital manufacturing will pose a severe challenge to traditional manufacturing, particularly for developing countries that rely on low-cost labor as a competitive advantage. Focusing on improving digital manufacturing levels to promote mass entrepreneurship and innovation will be the necessary path for the transformation and upgrading of 'Made in China.'
Transitioning from mass customization to personalized production.
In a certain sense, the history of human social production is a history of continuous innovation and creation. As people's material and cultural needs are increasingly respected and satisfied, manufacturing will also move towards an era of personalized production.
Manufacturing will transcend the stage of mass customization. Early human society was in a stage of small-scale customization, which lasted nearly 3000 years. The Venetian shipyards, which began in 1500, marked the entry of humanity into the stage of standardized production, where interchangeable parts (standardized parts) became a basic feature of monopolistic industries like textiles and machinery in the 19th century. In 1910, Ford built the world's first mass production automobile factory in Highland Park, Detroit, using an interchangeable parts system for mass manufacturing standardized products, marking the entry of humanity into the stage of mass standardized production. In the early 1970s, companies like Toyota combined mass production with customization, establishing a more direct connection between customer needs and products, better meeting diverse customer demands, marking the entry of humanity into the stage of mass customization. However, with the continuous development of digital technology, the stage of mass customization will gradually become a thing of the past.
Personalized production will become the mainstream of manufacturing development. At the beginning of this century, manufacturing began to enter the stage of personalized production. Compared to the early small-scale customization of human society, personalized production does not fundamentally differ in meeting people's differentiated needs. However, it is not a simple return to early small-scale customization but a 'negation of negation' based on different technologies. In the personalized production stage, the key to driving manufacturing development is no longer the product but meeting people's intrinsic needs. Observers predict that around 2040, 3D and 4D printing technologies will reach maturity. When 3D and 4D printing technologies become fundamental components of production, the era of personalized production in manufacturing will truly arrive. Understanding and adapting to this trend is a key aspect of the smooth transformation and upgrading of 'Made in China.'
