MANUFACTURING: The Future of... Digital Design & Digital Products
An AI's take on... the transformative impact of digitization and dematerialization on how we design and create new products
[Written by AI - BEFORE chatGPT and published as a book in July 2022]
The above image, the below video, and the following introduction to DIGITAL DESIGN were produced by various artificial intelligences (AI). This 6-minute read gives an overview of new ways of designing in the near future. It is an excerpt from the book Techtonic Shifts, the first ever business book completely written by an AI.
The Context
Digitization is transforming manufacturing, and this transformation is leading to new forms of outsourcing. It is enabling manufacturers to increasingly automate and streamline their production processes.
The digitization of manufacturing will automate many tasks, including product design, production planning, and quality control. This will lead to a reduction in the number of workers needed to produce manufactured goods. However, new types of jobs will be created to support and operate the new technologies.
Digitization increases productivity, reduces the cost of goods, and enables new business models. It also creates new types of jobs. For example, 3D printing enables on-demand production, and robotics automates repetitive tasks.
Digitization and Dematerialization
Digital design captures the essence of a physical product and dematerializes it, because a digital product can be infinitely reproduced and shared at near-zero marginal cost. Dematerialization is the process by which physical objects or substances are converted into digital form. This conversion allows manufacturers to produce and trade goods and products more efficiently.
The digital design process involves using software to create digital prototypes of products. These digital prototypes can then be tested, improved, and iterated on digitally. This removes the need for physical prototypes, which can be costly and time consuming to make.
Physical objects can be converted into digital form through a variety of methods. One way is to scan the object and digitize it. Another way is to record the object’s location, movement, and other characteristics.
Dematerialization is the process of converting physical objects into digital form. This conversion allows two parties to exchange products without exchanging their physical form. For example, instead of receiving a physical book, you can receive a digital version of it. The dematerialized book can be created in physical form by printing it on paper. Ownership can be transferred via blockchain.
The Role of Blockchains
Together, blockchains and smart contracts can automate the collaborative design, transfer, and ownership of digital products. Blockchains, or distributed ledgers, are shared databases that record transactions in a verifiable and permanent way. They enable parties who don’t know each other to securely exchange value or information. Smart contracts are computer protocols that facilitate, verify, or enforce the negotiation or performance of a contract. Smart contracts allow the performance of credible transactions without third parties. These technologies provide trust, transparency, and immutability to digital transactions.
The convergence of additive manufacturing, blockchain, and IoT technologies is enabling new business models for distributed manufacturing. By combining blockchain with IoT, we can track the provenance of raw materials, parts and components, and assemble them using 3D printing.
Digital products, such as music, movies, and books, can be copied and shared freely. This ease of copying and sharing can undermine the incentive for creators to produce such works. Blockchain technology provides a technical solution to this problem.
It enables creators of digital works to embed information about these works in a digital ledger that is shared among a distributed network of computers. Such information can include the identity of the creator, the identity of previous owners of the work, and usage conditions for the work. The blockchain can then facilitate the transfer of ownership of the work based on agreement among participants in the network.
Blockchains can therefore facilitate the collaborative design and transfer of ownership of digital products by creating an immutable record of transactions.
Digital Twins
Digital twins are virtual representations of physical assets, processes or systems. They enable companies to digitize their physical assets, processes and systems, and simulate how they will perform in the real world. They combine real-time data from sensors with analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) to enable better decision making.
Digital Twins help companies analyze and maintain digitized products. They allow companies to simulate and analyze how their products work, how they perform, and how they can be improved.
Industrial Design
Industrial design is the professional service of creating and developing concepts and specifications that optimize the function, value and appearance of products and systems for the mutual benefit of both user and manufacturer.
Industrial design will change significantly. The industry will move towards more human-centered design, with products becoming increasingly intuitive and personalized.
The industrial design process will increasingly be informed by data. This will lead to the creation of products that better reflect individual users’ needs and preferences.
The process will change in the future as more and more products become connected to the internet. This connection will enable new forms of interaction, such as voice control, gesture control, and augmented reality.
Design Thinking
Design thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success. It is an approach to problem solving that emphasizes empathy, collaboration, and experimentation. The approach is particularly well-suited to address complex challenges, such as those found in manufacturing.
Digitization enables efficient design thinking through improved collaboration, access to data, and automation. It enables teams to work together in different locations, at different times, and across different disciplines, provides easy access to data, allowing teams to make better decisions faster, and automates repetitive tasks, freeing up time to focus on more strategic work.
Digitization and Consumer Products
Digitization of products empowers customers by providing them with more choices, more information, and more control over their purchases, and by allowing them to make informed purchasing decisions. VR and AR technologies allow customers to experience products before they buy them.
Digitalization is enabling companies to get closer to their customers, and also enables manufacturers to collect data from customers’ usage and behavior. This proximity is allowing companies to offer products that are more personalized. As companies collect more and more data, they can better understand their customers’ needs and preferences.
For example, some car companies are offering customers the ability to customize everything from the color of the seats to the dashboard layout.
The digitization of products is necessary so that customers can customize these products themselves. In the physical world, personalization is very limited. Digitalization is necessary because physical products are static and inflexible. They cannot be personalized by customers.
Digitalization enables customers to test-drive products and to experience the product before purchase. For example, customers can experience how a product looks, feels, and fits, as well as how it functions, through augmented reality (AR).
This is an excerpt from the book Techtonic Shifts, the first ever business book completely written by an AI. Click on the image or the link here to buy on Amazon.
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