Revolution of service and replacement parts

Our vision

When we think about the future, we usually think of different types of technological developments, microchips put into the human brain, half man-half machine cyborgs, laser guns etc., in one world objects. And we rarely think on how the society should work in the future, or if we do so, we create the vision based on our dystopian sci-fi memories. The reason, why is not to be answered now. Let’s turn our attention to what is to be expected in the near future when we use the technological development the right way, how our life might look like in several decades.

In the next set of articles, we will present the visions of ENVIENTA, the social changes in many different areas of life. This article is about the future of service and replacing parts, which will undergo a significant change, as well.
Why?

There are two trends existing, unseeable. The networking process of the society is booming and fastening thanks to expansion and development of telecommunication technologies. People with the same interest can find each other much easier, they can fix their activities easier, therefore they can realize and act on their common goals easier, as well.
Common places, makerspaces, where the work is done in a decentralized way without hierarchy, without top-down, centralized orders, have multiplied fast.
Even within the entrepreneurs have appeared teal organizations with a structure of a network. It seems that networking society has begun to change the hierarchical society.

Meanwhile, the production sector goes under a revolution, as well. With the improvement of production technologies, we can use tools (3D printers) making possible the manufacturing of a product on the level of individuals. There are products made in makerspaces, satisfying private needs instead of mass products from conveyor belts. The process of production is becoming decentralized, local and open without losing the advantages of industrial technologies. It keeps digitized, robotized and automatic but serving local needs, is open for anyone considering tools, plans or products. So far, there is a new trend coming up. The unique and individual way of productions is taking over step by step the mass and serial production, in most of the case.

ENVIENTA promotes both of the trends. The ENVIENTA Platform provides a communication platform for open source developments, supporting the networking process. KOLLABOR gives us a chance to test the manufacturing of individual and unique products and technologies, supporting their spreading, too.

Although the two types of the trends are hardly seen on the market yet, soon they will be visible. Makerspaces and manufacturing in makerspaces will become part of our daily life. Let’s see how will it look according to our vision. Now only checking service and replacement parts.

Let’s imagine that one of our household tools is broken, eg.: ventilation of the hoover is broken. What if this hoover is not on the market anymore, there are no replacement parts sold either. The sale company is gone, too. Furthermore, we are bad with technical skills and have no clue what is the problem. When we face a problem like that in the future, we only have to go to the nearest makerspace, as both production and service will be available there. Makerspaces are working in a different way than factories and services do. Makerspaces offer a wider range of opportunities. For example, the tools available in a makerspace can be used—costly- by anyone, but if it is needed there is the staff or the specialist who can help us. They will disassemble the hoover to diagnose the broken ventilator. We will have to pay for that. As only a broken part must be changed, they will put the ventilation into a 3D printer and after scanning they will print us a new part according to the scanned plan. We will have to pay the costs of the material. The new ventilation will be replaced, et voila, we can continue to clean the house. But before we could finish, let’s get one step back, and imagine that the broken ventilation is missing one part. In this case, an intelligent planning program will substitute automatically the missing part after scanning. When the product is more complexed, the staff is using the intelligent planning program.

This future is a new era of material handling. 3D printing opens up the opportunities of ours. We will have the chance to choose the best for us from millions and millions of types of materials, and qualities. In this future, we will not have to spend the time to search for expensive trade services or to contact the producers in other countries and then wait for the package via post. We will not even have to go to the next city to change or fix anything for the household. We may have to download the plan from the cloud, pop into the nearest makerspace and print it. We, the group of ENVIENTA is working on a future like that!

Follow the ENVIENTA project, join us on Telegram: http://t.me/envienta

Source: Envienta Open Source Everything