Technology

My recent examination of technology trends for 2012 emphasizes advancements in mobile communications and cloud computing as well as related developments in software applications, SaaS, social networking and crowdsourcing. As I was investigating these trends I came across several references that highlight 3D printing as a potential game changing technology for product manufacturing. For readers unfamiliar with this technology area, the 3D printing process begins with a CAD model of an object. This model is sliced into layers that are used to drive an “additive manufacturing” method in which materials are applied in corresponding layers by the printer to create the three dimensional entity. There is a selection of 3D printing methods in use today. These methods are summarized in the report “Could 3D Printing Change the World?” (Strategic Foresight Report, Atlantic Council, October 2011). Common methods of building of layers include:

• Extrusion of thermoplastic or wax material,
• Jetting of binder into a polymeric powder,
• Use of laser to melt metal or polymeric powder (laser sintering)
• Or use of UV laser to harden photosensitive polymer.

Some systems enable the use of more than one type of material and it’s also possible to create colored objects.    

I think it’s important to note that 3D printing is not new. In fact, sources reference the use of the systems for rapid proto-typing as far back as the 1980’s. These systems have primarily been used in fields of industrial design and engineering for crafting parts that are then reproduced via more traditional manufacturing processes. Within the soft goods and fashion sectors, 3D printing has primarily been used to aid the development of footwear products and jewelry. For readers that are interested in learning more about the use of 3D printing for footwear, Adidas describes the benefits of the process for their product development strategy in a vendor published case study from 2010. Timberland’s use of 3D printing for product development is described in an earlier article (On the Job: 3D Printing Gives Footwear Company Leg Up on Competition, Cadalyst, Feb. 10^th, 2006).

Why Should Readers be Interested in 3D Printing?

If 3D printing has been happening for some time, why is it being called out as an important trend for product manufacturers to be aware of? Even more importantly, since 3D printing appears to be a technology that has more relevance to other industries, why should participants in the cotton supply chain take note?

For starters, 3D printing is increasingly being explored as a technology solution for the manufacturing stage of products in addition to rapid proto-typing. Most attribute this shift to advancement in system capabilities and the ability to print materials that meet performance requirements for finished items. Innovators in the 3D printing area are also exploring the use of the technology for areas including fashion and textile related products. Check out the 3D Printed Bikini article in the technology reference area of this site. Additionally, have a look at some of the innovative products and concepts being developed by companies that specialize in 3D printing including Freedom of Creation (e.g. furniture, space dividers, bags, textiles) and Within (e.g. chain mail glove).

These companies are exploring the technology to create structures and shapes that are difficult or impossible to produce via traditional product manufacturing channels. In some cases the resulting products provide functional capabilities that could not be addressed by other means (e.g. medical implants and devices). In other instances, the focus is on aesthetics and/or reduction of material waste given the “additive” rather than “subtractive” approach to manufacturing.

The evolving price point of 3D Printers should also be noted. In the recent past, these systems have been fairly expensive to purchase. However, open source kits and lower cost solutions are now available. For example, the MakerBot Replicator, described as a personal 3D printer that sells for under $2000, recently won the Best of Show Award in the Emerging Tech category at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show. This is not the only low cost device on the market. Cube by 3D Systems was competing in the same class of product at CES and sells for under $1300. This price point opens the door for individuals to print at home. In the home setting the user can download CAD data for products and replacement parts or even design and manufacture their own products. Will it be possible to print cotton fiber at some point or jet a flexible binder that offers a nonwoven approach to cotton textile production? 3D Printing strategies involving layering paper and glue have already been explored and so it may be that printing cotton textiles is not so far fetched.

My primary goal in covering this topic is to point to a couple of themes. Just like developments in social business and crowdsourcing open the door for companies to think about communicating, innovating and developing products differently, the advancement of 3D printing inspires the textile supply chain to consider alternative strategies for manufacturing product. Specifically, how can our industry manufacture textile products via additive means? The recent announcement by Nike regarding the company’s Flyknit seamless running shoe upper is as great example of this kind of approach and it’s a concept that the company is positioning within their sustainability story as well.

Secondly, assuming continued development and growth in adoption, 3D printing provides an example of a technology that is paving the way for decentralization of product manufacturing. In the context of this theme, we should be asking ourselves, “Who will be the designers and producers of textile products in the future?” Just as digital printing is enabling a “Do it Yourself” approach to textile decoration, technologies such as 3D printing are putting design and production in the hands of individuals or in the hands of manufacturing resources with proximity to the consumer. This kind of technology also opens the door for crowdsourcing in regard to design content. Check out websites such as Cubify and Thingiverse as examples. Also refer back to Ponoko mentioned in a previous post.

Will this shift happen on a grand scale? Or will it be specific to product areas and industries? Time will tell and the answers will be determined in part by a variety of factors including the level and pace of technology development and adoption, desire for unique and personalized product among consumers, and a drive toward more sustainable manufacturing and product delivery strategies. While 3D printing may not be disrupting manufacturing methods and design strategies within the cotton textile supply chain today, the broader sphere of additive manufacturing is a technology area to watch. With that in mind, I will continue to look for developments and applications in this area that readers may find of interest.

Looking ahead…

I will be stepping away from general technology trends to examine systems and advancements that are a little closer to home. As always, we welcome your topic ideas, comments and insights!

Afterthoughts

In my last post I addressed the topic of apps, cloud computing and software as a service. As I review this post, I realize that I neglected to mention the growing importance of hybrid-cloud strategies. Here are a just a few comments on the subject before launching into the current topic. First of all, readers may be struck with the thought that accessing technology or service via a cloud platform could inadvertently provide access to proprietary company information outside an approved audience. As I’m not an IT expert, I’m not sure how valid this concern is for the broader landscape of cloud based solutions available today. However, where this concern exists tech experts are noting the development of hybrid cloud scenarios that involve the use of both public and private cloud arrangements. Through hybrid strategies corporations retain control over valued information and assets, but enable access to public clouds where information and/or asset security is less of an issue. Now, on to the next technology trend for 2012…

More and more companies are going social…

Social networking has been a buzz phrase in popular media for some time and it’s clear that these networks are providing a mechanism for people to connect on a personal level within a digital setting. Though some may question the value of interactions within this space, the overwhelming response from a user perspective has been positive and for the most part the naysayers have selected to observe from a distance or disengage when the negatives out weigh the positives. It’s also clear that many companies have established or are examining marketing strategies that harness widely adopted forums such as Facebook and Twitter. In fact, Facebook’s recent IPO demonstrates the perceived opportunity that social media offers for enterprises that are attempting to connect with consumers to create a following for their brands and products. That said, what are some key trends in the social networking area that readers should watch for? How are social networks changing the way some companies operate? What is crowdsourcing and gamification and is there a link between these concepts and social networking? Most importantly, why should readers be interested in these topics? Let’s take a look…

A recent article in PCWorld (Tech Trends You’ll See in 2012, Megan Geuss) points to the growing significance of social networks on the technology front and specifically the drive toward requiring a Facebook account “…to do more stuff on the web”. As an example, Geuss points to the need to set up a Facebook account prior to creating an account with digital music provider, Spotify. This is just one partnership that Facebook is currently engaged in.  The site is also one of several paths for accessing Pinterest  - a network that has gained considerable attention in the last six months. For readers that are not familiar with Pinterest, this network allows individuals to create on-line pin boards for collecting and sharing imagery that the user categorizes by themes of their own choosing. Individuals can access Pinterest by visiting the home page to log on or through their Facebook or Twitter account. The pin boards can become virtual “mood boards” that express consumer inspirations and preferences in regard to a wide range of product areas including fashion and home. Users can follow the boards of other users, post comments and/or repin imagery to their own boards.

Sounds like a giant focus group and marketing opportunity right? In fact, a recent article in Mashable describes 5 Ways Brands Can Use Pinterest to Boost Consumer Engagement (Constance Aguilar, January 10, 2012).  From a supply chain perspective, this is just one more way to gain insight into what makes consumers tick and specifically a strategy for gaining a sense of those colors, styles and products that are trending and showing greatest sales potential. Similarly, recently launched Mulu.me is a networking site that allows users to recommend and find products. A recent article, Meet Mulu, a Pinterest-Like Site for E-Commerce – With a Cause (All things D, Lauren Goode) describes the revenue stream generated as a result of a recommendation from a Mulu “curator” (recommender of product) . An interesting twist here is the opportunity for curator’s of products on the site to share a piece of the pie with a charitable cause of their own selection. Ultimately, the point is that consumers are using social networks to find and share product information. Brands have the opportunity to connect with consumers and share imagery that helps to establish brand identity. At the same time the brand can mine these on-line populations for consumer preference information. It’s a different way of conducting business and one that can benefit all supply chain participants as we strive to deliver the right product at the right time while optimizing resources and minimizing waste streams including unsuccessful product.

Beyond Consumer Engagement

Social networking solutions are also becoming relevant outside the consumer realm and are providing employees with new tools for communication and collaboration. In early January I received notice of the post, Should your company ban internal email? (SmartPlanet, Heather Clancy). The article describes the challenge of managing email given the large volumes most of us receive. Clancy highlights the ease and accessibility of communicating through messaging technologies including social networks. The author also points to the fact that information can be exchanged in regard to a specific topic or context within forums such as Linkedin. This is in contrast to the use of email where a user typically sends and receives messages related to a vast array of subjects. Clancy suggests that over time, email may become a less important or even an irrelevant mode of exchanging information. We’re already beginning to see this trend within segments of the population that prefer to communicate via text, chat or messaging.

One of the more interesting trends I’ve read about in regard to social networking is the concept of social business (Deloitte Predicts the Top 10 Technology Trends for 2012, TechJournal) which is identified as a disruptive concept that involves the adoption of social technologies within the business setting. According to IBM - a company that offers solutions in this area - a social business can be described as “…one that embraces and cultivates a spirit of collaboration and community throughout its organization – both internally and externally.” Social businesses use tools developed for social networking to support connections between parties and the sharing of knowledge and strategy that results from this connectedness. What does that mean? It means that employees can interact with each other via a social network to discuss projects, share information and innovations and solve business problems. In a similar way, PLM solutions provide a network for sharing aesthetic and technical product information internal to a company and also externally, with vendors the brand selects to open it’s network to. However, PLM systems do not typically enable the level of collaboration offered by a social business solution.

Harnessing the Crowd       

Like social business, crowdsourcing harnesses the power of collaboration. In my research on the topic I discovered that the coining of the term is attributed to Jeff Howe (The Rise of Crowdsourcing, Wired, June 2006). In this article Howe suggests that “the crowd” (referring to the general population) is becoming a resource for creating content and solving problems and may be, “The future of corporate R&D”.  The article references iStockphoto as an early crowdsourcing solution in the stock photography area and NineSigma as a provider of crowdsourcing within the realm of research and development. The idea is that companies can access the minds and resources of many rather than a few. For example, Linkedin Groups create communities of participants that are interested in similar subject areas. Participants can post questions and comments and can mine group members for their knowledge and for solutions to problems identified by members of the group. The benefit here is the opportunity to draw information from parties that may have great depth of knowledge in a given subject area and/or access a diversity of expertise for solving a problem.

While crowdsourcing is not really a new concept, it is an approach that seems to be gaining momentum. In fact there are now a variety of tools available for companies that wish to make use of crowdsourcing strategies to drive innovation and development. Chaordix and Redesignme are two examples of solution providers in this area. There are also a growing number of crowdsourcing websites that support activities such as product ideation, product development, manufacturing, buying and selling. Where the solutions are comprehensive a site serves as a virtual supply chain and e-tail outlet all in one. Check out a few examples:

• Ponoko – This on-line community connects designers of products, material suppliers and digital fabricators (e.g. CNC cutting and 3D printing services). Ponoko also provides a vehicle for buying and selling the resulting products and sharing of design files.
• Quirky – is a site that helps inventors refine product ideas by providing a forum for feedback. Participants in the community can vote on ideas and provide suggestions for improvement. Quirky supports the designer during the ideation phase through product design and branding. The site also provides a shop for sale of products that make it all the way through the design and fabrication process. Additionally, Quirky has retail partners that participate in selling of product. Community participants can stimulate products sales by posting to social networking sites.
• Spoonflower – is a source for digital textile printing that has an audience of crafters that wish to work with printed fabrics of their own design. The crowdsourcing feature comes into play through a community of participants who vote on submissions for weekly fabric themes. Those submitting designs for printing can also allow other visitors to purchase fabric printed with the design. Many customers of the Spoonflower service sell constructed products via Etsy – an on-line community and sales route for crafters.
• Threadless – is a web community for submitting t-shirt graphics. Visitors to the site can purchase t-shirts of their own design or view, critique, vote on and/or purchase designs submitted by other participants in the community.

For the examples listed there’s obviously a strong link between the crowdsourcing strategy and the trend in DIY. It’s worthwhile considering these approaches in regard to how they may impact the cotton supply chain and it’s important to recognize the changing relationship that’s occurring between designers, manufacturers and consumers of products including those made from textiles.

The Gaming Factor

Before closing out this post, I also want to point to the idea of “gamification” – a concept that’s gaining attention in the tech/business media and that involves introducing a competitive feature into a business activity (Check out 10 Game-Changing Business Innovations for 2012, SmartPlanet, Joe McKendrick). In some instances, companies are harnessing interest in on-line games and are using gaming strategies to inspire productivity, interest level, achievement, learning and/or innovation among employees. In other instances, companies are using gaming activities to encourage engagement at the customer level. The voting activities described in regard to the sites listed above are an example of a gaming strategy (i.e. designers compete for votes and customers visit the site regularly to view and vote on designs or product ideas). A source from retail TouchPoints mentions “flash selling” sites as another example of customer engagement through gaming (Gamification To Reach $2.8 Billion By 2016). In the instance of flash selling there is limited availability for a given product and a sort of “rush to buy” scenario develops that keeps consumers checking the site and strategizing to find and purchase the best products.

Summing up

In closing, you can see that there are a number of links and some overlap between the technology trends I’ve written about since the beginning of the year. Next time I’ll be capping of the technology trend series of post by addressing the buzz around 3D Printing as a game changer in the context of product manufacturing. So check back toward the end of February…