The traditional manufacturing process is prevalent with challenges and inefficiencies like capacity issues, serious communication challenges, such as language barriers, time zones, and many layers of sales and logistics between you and your actual manufacturer.

However, with the advent of distributed manufacturing, part production companies can go back to business as usual. By leveraging a network of geographically dispersed manufacturing facilities that are connected by digital technology this new manufacturing process brings an end to nightmares associated with manufacturing.This article will explain all there is to know about distributed manufacturing, how it differs from traditional manufacturing and its various benefits over the latter.

Welcome to the Future of Manufacturing

In distributed manufacturing, local manufacturers who are geographically dispersed are onboarded with whatever their capabilities are. A network of distributed micro-factories is developed around the location where the goods are to be finally transported. It deploys the use of digitization that interconnects the resources and manufacturers along with a strong supply chain network. Local manufacturers have years of experience producing consistent, high-quality work. Distributed manufacturing can quickly reinvent the manufacturing industry from something monolithic and closed to something transparent and agile. By relying on a network of manufacturers, distributed manufacturing can deliver superior results in three key ways: speed, quality, and cost-effectiveness.

Distributed Manufacturing Delivers Outstanding Quality

In the era of lean hardware teams, small local manufacturers have become an integral part of the success of distributed manufacturing. High volume manufacturing companies have to produce large batches of parts, most time. And they often lose quality due to sheer units of scale, communication barriers or a chance of human error. Small shops, on the other hand, often have decades of experience in manufacturing consistent, high-quality work. The result is that you get good quality expertise imparted into your product.

Distributed Manufacturing is Faster

At Procurabl we have seen a trend towards smaller, lean teams developing hardware products, both in startups and enterprises. This means that the competition is fierce, and the ability to iterate early and quickly can make a team extremely competitive. For traditional manufacturers, a single change has to be understood by people of different profiles which increases communication levels. If iterations are not implemented correctly can result in Muda. Thanks to reduced transit time and fewer transportation modes, hardware teams can now take advantage of local resources allowing them the ability to do multiple revisions in the time it would take to do one order with a large manufacturer.If you are gearing up for a market launch, it is even better to go with distributed manufacturing. By getting that head start over your competitors, you can bring your products to the market faster and at an economical price too.

Distributed Manufacturing is Cost-Effective

High Volume manufacturers play on quantity. But this bulk order method is outdated, as this process is a risky affair, with mistakes proving extremely costly. One of the biggest cost considerations for these high volume manufacturers is that they often fail to budget the cost of operating and maintaining machines. Machines are complex and highly tuned. Without proper maintenance, they won’t perform properly, which leads to failed parts, downtime, and a whole lot of frustration. Distributed manufacturing requires significantly less up-front capital than traditional manufacturing, and it doesn’t require the constant maintenance of owning and operating machines. At Procurabl, we have a total insight into the process/machine capabilities of the local manufacturers in our network. By leveraging this expertise of local manufacturers we are able to deliver gains for our customers of more time and money. Further, with manufacturers being in the same geographic location, tariff costs, shipping costs, and production costs are drastically reduced.

Distributed Manufacturing Will Democratize Mobility

With the advent of advanced technology, OEMs have begun to build electric vehicles, drones, rockets and their subsystems like powertrain, navigation and electronics, distributed manufacturing can solve their challenges efficiently. Distributed manufacturing allows organizations in cities and small towns that have been affected by globalization and outsourced manufacturing to produce parts with less capital and overhead than ever before, helping system-level innovation continue to grow at exponential rates.With a network of manufacturers, an interconnected ecosystem is being built by Procurabl to support growth and the development of the local economy. When these groups are connected and have the resources they need to be successful, we can lower the barrier to entry into product development, positively affect local economies and it is sustainable.

This is how we begin to democratize mobility.