Networked Local Manufacturing
* Report: Connecting Makers to Markets through Networked Local Manufacturing. FINAL REPORT on the MakerNet pilot project in NAIROBI, KENYA. Anna Lowe with additional authors Jessica Berlin & Andrew Lamb. MakerNet, 2017
URL = http://www.makernet.global/ pdf
"Cisco, IBM, and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) financially supported the MakerNet pilot project."
Description
From the introduction:
"In 2016, an international group of organisations working on the cutting-edge of technology for development (Tech4Dev), entrepreneurship, and community empowerment came together to found the MakerNet Consortium. Their aim was to develop and test concepts for strategic infrastructure, systems and tools that consolidate and streamline the efforts, expertise and resources of individual makerspaces and makers, and connect makers to existing manufacturing infrastructure and market opportunities in their communities.
A proof-of-concept pilot project in Kenya
was conceived to explore business models
and digital tools for connecting Nairobi
makers and manufacturing capacity (supply)
to potential hardware customers in the aid
industry (demand). The project was supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development
(BMZ)-financed GIZ Digital World Program,
the Cisco Foundation, and IBM.
This paper is one of the outputs of that pilot
project and covers the following topics:
• Description, analysis, and lessons learned from the MakerNet pilot in Kenya
• Insights and analysis on networked local manufacturing, drawing on the prior and on-going work of the MakerNet Consortium on related topics in other countries, such as Ghana, Haiti, Jordan, Myanmar, Nepal, UK, et al.
• Next steps and recommendations for further work
• Research and Mapping
• Digital tools and infrastructure development
• Pilot use cases in further countries and sectors
MakerNet is conceived as a system of makers, manufacturers, tools, business models,
supply chains, and markets. Its purpose is to
enable local production of supplies that meet
humanitarian and sustainable human development demands and aspirations. We call
this production approach Networked Local
Manufacturing.
Networked Local Manufacturing has the potential to improve the availability of useful
products & technologies and therefore improve quality of life, at the same time as creating business opportunities and jobs. It is a
route to sustainable industrialisation and
delivering on the Sustainable Development
Goals.
The pilot project undertaken in Nairobi,
Kenya focussed on simple medical devices."