MFD for electronically enhanced Soft goods:

Ross D Alcazar – Chief Operating Officer, Softmatter
18th August 2022
The topic of productization and some of our challenges today is at the forefront of our evolution. By finding ways to continually innovate and how we improve by building new products and rolling them out to mass production as efficiently as possible. In addition, there are new obstacles to combining the precision requirements of hard goods with the lenient attributes of soft goods.
Although from early examples and highlights of Productization and Learning from the OEMs of Silicon valley, we are replicating best practices and models.
There have been many tech start-ups and hardware companies that have been borne from Silicon valley in the last few decades, and majority of them still have the same fundamental ramp up issues today. Hardware is always evolving and changing, and innovation in Silicon valley has no end. Therefore hardware manufacturers should never be complacent towards any certain type of manufacturing methods. For example, Cell phones and traditional PCBA making of the past have given way to 3D printing technologies used today. 3D printing becomes an enabler to accelerate time to market or flexible manufacturing. Soft goods commonly fabricated by sew and stitch are viewed as the next opportunities for sustainability and automation. Particularly to remove waste in our processes and reduce human error.
Products being designed these days continue to push the envelope of traditional manufacturing rules and not always fits the standard DFM DFX guidelines. Merging both hardgoods and softgoods to the highest standards in each of their categories is difficult.
Often designers are opted to degrade their own output to realize mass production on existing manufacturing capital equipment. These considerations are typically described in the design stage as “Design for Manufacturing” DFM where the constraints on production equipment limits the designer to a specific approach early in the design. In which case, more often restricts true creativity and possibilities for significant innovative products.
Emergence of Web 3.0
How did the need for Web 3.0 arise? This is important to consider, as it helps understand the opportunities that are available in Web 3.0.
The current age of the internet, referred to as Web 2.0, has fostered a culture of distrust due to the lack of transparency and data security, particularly concerning user-generated content. Due to the centralized nature in which the internet currently operates, social media companies such as Instagram, Facebook and YouTube have the freedom to ban users and restrict content; hence users have limited control over their online personas and digital assets. Therefore, barriers to earn revenue on user-generated content where users may lack control of their own content, is a major source of frustration. Furthermore, the current centralized aspect of the internet allows large corporate entities to profit using valuable user data. An example of an incident which led to the skepticism towards entities such as Facebook, is the data misuse scandal, in which, personal data of Facebook users was collected by a consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, for political targeting.
However, as the internet continues to evolve, Web 3.0 emerges, and may be understood as an ongoing iteration that operates on a decentralized online network, which offers users the ability to take ownership of their own data and other digital assets. An example of decentralized protocols, used by Web 3.0, are blockchains, which are leveraged for cryptocurrency transactions. The adoption of Web 3.0 grants users the opportunity to monetize their creations, while owning the process end-to-end, without requiring permission from big tech companies. Further, with the advancement of artificial intelligence, predictive analytics can be deployed on the user’s end to distinguish between legitimate and fraudulent actions, thus providing users with accurate information for decision-making.
The use of Web 3.0 technology together with the Metaverse, will enable companies to expand to a new domain in the internet environment, thus bringing about a multitude of revenue-generating opportunities.
Hence MFD or Manufacturing For Design is a terminology recently implemented by the most demanding brands. It’s a framework whereby product design creativity is the primary approach and stimulus to force and rethink manufacturing process approaches. Manufacturing has to adjust by developing and inventing processes to keep up with customer’s new requirements and a designer’s unlimited boundaries. New equipment, methods, and transferring of technique from proven industries are essential.
This is not a replacement for DFM, but rather an extension that would continue to question and “challenge” the norm. Its clear that existing machines could not be abandoned, but consider an intermediate step to help enhance existing capital, leverage of partnerships, to achieve new requirements.
The blending of MFD and DFM strategies (a MFD|DFM approach) can support to feasible evolution of manufacturing, and ultimately disruptive process innovation, defined as a rethinking of manufacturing rather than just improvement on existing solutions.
By doing so, Softmatter will continue to position ourselves as a key provider of embedded electronic value chain leader. and the go to partner for electronic enhanced softgoods.