Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Future of Open Source, Small-Scale Manufacturing
The electronics manufacturing industry has, over the last several decades, produced a wide
range of automated and semi-automated manufacturing solutions that make it possible to
manufacture and assemble high-quality electronics at a similarly wide range of production
volumes. These constant improvements in equipment and tooling are, in no small way, one
of the primary reasons that SparkFun has been able to grow its own circuit board assembly
operations, which are at least as cost-effective as outsourcing those operations overseas.
However, the world of more generalized industrial automation has not yet produced the
same range of options to assist in efficiently introducing other assembly operations, in-
cluding both packaging and inventory movement. Yes, there are some amazing automated
systems out there, but they have all been designed to meet the needs of assemblers with
exceedingly high-volume operations. Yet even the most modern automated systems still re-
quire a great deal of customization so that they are capable of handling an organization's
specific product(s).
In addition to assembling hundreds of uniquely different circuit board designs,
SparkFun puts together several hundred distinctive kits to make its electronics available in
an inviting and approachable way. These are an attractive option for anyone looking to
tinker with electronics for the first time, including children and educators who want to
teach electronics to students. In terms of manufactured kits, probably the most famous kit-
building company in the world is LEGO. LEGO has certainly solved the automation chal-
lenge in assembling its highly popular kits as efficiently as possible, without sacrificing
quality. In this case, however, the company's volumes clearly justify the capital invest-
ment required for the necessary automation equipment.
If your required assembly volumes are orders of magnitude lower than LEGO's, and if
your volumes are spread among dozens or even hundreds of vastly different kits with
many uniquely shaped components, the automated assembly equipment options that cur-
rently exist are severely limited. Thus there is a great opportunity for the development of
less-sophisticated automated or semi-automated solutions that can sufficiently handle
lower volumes of inventory handling and assembly work, at a far lower cost than the ex-
isting automated systems being built today by the likes of FANUC, Omron, and Honey-
well. For DIY manufacturing to continue to succeed in opening doors for entrepreneurs to
get their product into the marketplace more quickly and at a lower price, regardless of the
size of the market those products serve, automated solutions for low-volume assembly
must become more readily available.
The good news is that more economical industrial automation systems are already be-
ing developed. For example, Rethink Robotics has put a great deal of energy and effort in-
to its Baxter design, which can be introduced to your operations at a base cost of $22,000.
