Responsible Usage of Technology for Mass Customisation
Published on : Saturday 04-04-2020
Enterprises will face several situations in which tough decisions need to be taken for questions not faced before, says S Ramachandran.
Emerging technologies have reached sufficient levels of maturity to facilitate hyper- personalisation on a large scale. Such mass customisation allows products to be offered matching each individual customer’s preference in a cost effective manner, at an attractive price point. It is a significant shift from conventional manufacturing Multiple technologies can be integrated together to enable such business models today. The internet and social media help in gathering customer preferences. Product configurators put together feasible combinations of sub-systems matching customer choices, to come up with a saleable product. Pricing engines estimate the cost and come up with a price point that is reasonable for the buyer and the seller, keeping in mind the market dynamics. Most importantly, it is additive manufacturing or 3D printing which enables the physical manufacture of the part. 3D printing by its very nature offers several advantages. There is no minimal batch quantity as there is no tooling requirement seen in traditional methods such as casting, forging and machining. Parts can be made on-demand when required and matching the customer’s exact requirement. Inventories need not be maintained. But it has to responsible to the society for the intended usage of the product itself and the impact it causes on our overall society and the environment.
3D printing has evolved beyond low impact areas such as rapid prototyping to high impact areas where parts produced can be used in critical applications in actual products and out in the field. How can equipment makers ensure that it is used responsibly? Environmental concerns that lead
to sustainable development with decarbonisation of energy as the prime focus should be kept in mind. At a basic level, it should not produce any wastage. Parts should be made using the least amount of raw material, power, labor and consumables if any such as filler material. For a circularity perspective, it can use as much of recycled material as possible instead of virgin material.
Ethical and human rights-based responsibility
The World Economic Forum proposes two perspectives for responsible usage of technology: ethics-based approaches and human rights-based approaches. The ethics-based approach provides a framework for decision making in situations where there is no clearly defined correct or wrong answer. For example, is it ok for a country advanced in 3D printing to produce military armament in the battle field to give it a distinctive advantage and take away lives from the army on the other side it is fighting with?
The human rights based perspective takes a holistic perspective at members of society at all levels so that they can live a life with dignity and pride. Sustainable employability is a key driver of such a livelihood today. One issue with emerging technologies and the automation that comes with it is the lack of human employment. In deciding which emerging technology to use for mass customisation, the human element of providing jobs should be kept in mind.
On the positive side, additive manufacturing is an opportunity to completely redesign parts that were designed decades back, keeping in mind ‘design for manufacturability’ for traditional methods. It is not just an alternate for traditional ways of manufacturing.
GE Aviation’s fuel nozzle tip is a popular example. It recently reached a milestone when 30 thousand parts were made. The new design shrunk 20 parts into one. It was 25% lighter than the original part and was five times more in durability. GE carved out a business unit named ‘GE Additive’ to focus on 3D printing not just for its internal demand. This business unit makes 3D printing machines, raw materials required to make parts and the associated activities. Healthcare uses 3D printing to produce body parts. The manufacture of apparel for their staff in the recent concluded Australian Open tennis championship is an example for environment- friendly reuse of materials. A textile firm in Tiruppur produced synthetic yarn from used PET or single usage plastic bottles. Apparel was made from the yarn for usage in the tournament.
When 3D printing did not work out
Like all upcoming technologies, additive manufacturing has its risks of wrong usage. Policy makers need to keep both an ethical and the huma itarian perspectives when it comes to taking a decision. The United States government, for example, is fighting a legal battle to control the making of guns using 3D printing. In a country where the gun culture has been a controversial topic for decades, 3D printing posed a new challenge. If three dimensional models of parts with instructions on how to make and assemble them are posted on the internet, anyone can download them and make a gun. It will not be possible to regulate the availability of design, instruction and material needed to make such products which pose risks to the society at large.
Adidas announced its strategy to make personalised shoes from its modern factories in Germany and in the US in 2016 and 2017 using 3D printing. Robots were used in the modern factory. This arrangement was expected to reduce the time-to-market to introduce new models in a hot fashion industry by having the factories close to demand. But in 2019, adidas announced its plans of shutting down the 2 factories and to shift manufacturing back to Asia. What went wrong? It may not be economically feasible to make the entire shoe using 3D printing. Making only some parts may not be profitable. The technology may not yet have reached the economies of scale of traditional manufacturing. Adidas announced its plans to shift manufacturing back to Asia, leveraging the advantages provided by its distribution partners for market insights.
Circular economy and measures for circularity
The circular economy is one way of looking at responsible mass customisation. The approach recommends reuse, refurbishment and recycling of products, parts and materials as much as possible instead of a linear use-and-throw approach we are so used to. Organisations should have proactively have a plan in place to handle products at the end of their life, reusing them as much as possible.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation was established in 2010 as a thought leader to establish a circular economy influencing leaders from business, government and the academia. “Circulytics” is a comprehensive measure announced by the foundation for measuring an organisation’s transition towards a circular economy. It is a measure not just for the flow of products and materials but for circularity across the entire organisation. It measures the amount of recycled material used in products, the lifetime of a product and how well it was maintained, and how much of it went for landfill at the end of its life. The foundation proposes indicators to quantify the restoration of material at a product level and company level. Organisations can develop their own metric or participate in initiatives such as Circulytics to understand where they are in their journey towards circularity. It can be a way to measure how responsible they are for the broader society in the way they conduct their business. Responsibility is no longer limited to running operations as per local laws, rules and regulations. Enterprises will face several situations in which tough decisions need to be taken for questions not faced before. Having frameworks in place to handle such scenarios will be necessary and go a long way in deciding the strategy in the digital era we are in today.
S Ramachandran is Principal Consultant, Infosys, for application of emerging technologies to address business needs, in the manufacturing vertical in Infosys Knowledge Institute. His focus is on developing compelling thought leadership and points-of-views, based on recent trends in management and digitisation. He is a regular blogger and a speaker on topics such as Digital Transformation and Industry 4.0.
