科技開創全民製造時代大綱
In his State of the Union Address, President Obama made a big deal about manufacturing jobs as a central part of his economic vision for the country. "Our first priority is making America a magnet for new jobs in manufacturing", he proclaimed. I support the president's aim and passion to revive manufacturing, but to accomplish it we first have to jettison industrial era thinking. The industrial era and the 7.1 million manufacturing jobs lost in the U.S. from 1979 to 2012 aren't coming back. We must create new 21st century manufacturing jobs that leverage what America is great at, creativity and innovation. Manufacturing will grow in the U.S. when we accelerate the use of technology to increase productivity, enable new business models designed for mass customization and unleash the manufacturers in all of us.
美國總統奧巴馬在國情諮文演講中把製造業工作崗位當作美國經濟發展藍圖中的重頭戲。他說：“我們首要的任務，是要把美國變成新的製造業工作崗位的吸鐵石。”我支持奧巴馬復興製造業的目標和熱情，但是要實現這個目標，我們首先要拋棄工業時代的舊思想。工業時代已經一去不返了，同時消失的還有美國1979年至2012年間在美國消亡的710萬個製造業崗位。我們必須建立能夠利用美國現有優勢的21世紀的製造業崗位。隨着我們加快利用科技促進產能，美國的製造業一定會再次增長，而且會催生爲大規模定製化生產服務的新商業模式，釋放我們所有人的製造才能。
To begin, we need to recognize that manufacturing isn't an industry sector, it's a capability with plenty of opportunity for innovation. We take industry sector definitions for granted. As if industries were clubs with exclusive admission criteria and secret handshakes only revealed to companies that agree to play by understood rules. The industrial era was defined by clearly delineated industries, making it easy to identify which sector every company was competing in. It was all so gentlemanly really, as if competition was governed, like boxing, by a code of generally accepted Marquess of Queensberry rules. Companies were all assigned a numerical Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code (now North American Industry Classification System, or NAICS) identifying which industry sector they fit in to.
首先，我們需要認識到，製造並不單純的是一個產業部門，而是一種能力，其中蘊含着許多創新機會。只是目前我們理所當然地把它看成一個產業部門。工業時代的“產業”就像一個個俱樂部，每個產業都有各自的准入標準和暗箱操作，只向那些同意按規則出牌的公司敞開。工業時代是由一個個界定清晰的產業構成的，我們很容易就能把每家公司歸類到一個個產業部門裏。看似頗有君子之風，就好像大家都在監督之下公平競爭，就像拳擊賽一樣，人人都要按規則出招。每個企業都會有一個標準產業代碼（SIC）（現爲北美產業分類系統，簡稱NAICS），用來確定各自屬於哪個產業部門。
Those days are over. Industries don't work that way any more, the industrial era isn't coming back. Is Google (GOOG) a manufacturer or a service provider or both? Their acquisition of Motorola Mobility and U.S. production of the Nexus Q home media player suggest Google is serious about building manufacturing capability. Is Apple (AAPL) a manufacturer or a service provider or both? It's hard to tell the difference between a manufacturer and a service provider and the distinction is limiting. Today the lines are blurring. Think iPod. Apple didn't bring the first MP3 player to the market. It changed the way we experienced music by delivering on a value proposition that bundled product (iPod) and service (iTunes). Apple didn't view the competition as other product manufacturers Apple is a market maker not a share-taker.
但是這樣的日子已經結束了。各個產業的運行規則也不復如舊，工業時代也一去不返。谷歌（Google）到底是一家生產商還是服務商，或者兩者兼而有之？谷歌收購摩托羅拉移動（Motorola Mobility），在美國生產Nexus Q家庭媒體播放器，表明谷歌在非常認真地打造自己的生產能力。蘋果（Apple）算生產商還是服務商，又或兩者兼而有之呢？現在我們已經很難指出生產商和服務商之間的區別，而且二者之間的區別也很有限。如今生產商和服務商之間的界限正在漸漸模糊。以iPod爲例，蘋果並不是第一個推出MP3播放器的廠家。但是蘋果把它的產品（iPod）和服務（iTunes）捆綁推出後，給我們帶來了一種新的價值定位，改變了我們體驗音樂的方式。蘋果看待競爭的角度與其他產品生產商不同，蘋果並不是搶佔市場，而是在創造市場。
Industrial-era thinking and NAICS industry codes force companies into characterizing their business models as being either product- or service-focused. This is a false choice. Making a product doesn't define the market a company is creating or competing in. Describing a business as a manufacturer immediately constrains business model innovation opportunities. If we want to bring back manufacturing we have to start by changing our thinking about manufacturing.
工業時代的思維方式以及NAICS產業代碼使企業的思維模式陷入窠臼，它們的業務模式不是以產品爲中心，就是以服務爲中心。這是一種錯誤的選擇。生產一種產品，並不意味着一家公司只能在某個市場裏競爭。把一家公司定位成生產商會限制業務模式的創新機會。如果我們希望重振美國的製造業，我們必須改變對製造業的思維模式。
Once we realize that manufacturing is a capability we can get on with democratizing it. We can all be manufacturers. In the State of the Union Address President Obama announced his plan for a $1 billion investment to build a National Network for Manufacturing Innovation composed of fifteen advanced manufacturing hubs. To bring manufacturing back to the U.S. we don't need fifteen hubs, we need fifteen million makers creating stuff.
一旦我們意識到，製造是一種能力，我們就可以通過把製造業大衆化來實現這個目標。我們人人都可以成爲製造商。奧巴馬在國情諮文中宣佈，計劃投資10億美元建立一個全國製造業創新網絡，這個網絡由15個先進的製造業中樞組成。要想讓美國的製造業復興，我們並不需要15個製造業中樞，我們需要的是1,500萬個可以製造創新產品的人。
It won't be long before everyone will have access to a 3D printer. Talk about democratized manufacturing capability. Armed with a 3D printer, individual makers can create their own digital design for any imagined object or borrow a design from anywhere around the world. By simply pressing a button makers can set a 3D printer into motion rendering the physical object with layers of plastic or other material right before their eyes. What was science fiction ten years ago is reality today. It wasn't long ago we listened to the whir of a dot-matrix printer spitting out documents from our computers, now a 3D printer renders any object we can dream up the same way. With the magic of 3D printing capability we are all manufacturers, constrained only by our imaginations.
在不久的將來，3D打印技術將走進千家萬戶。這是製造能力的大衆化。有了3D打印機後，人人都可以通過數碼設計製造出各種想象中的物體，或者借用不管來自世界哪個角落的某種設計。只需要按一個按鈕，3D打印機就可以用一層層的塑料或其它材質，把你設計的物品在你眼前“打印”出來。10年前的科幻小說情節如今已經成爲現實。事實上，能讓我們的電腦打印紙質文檔的點矩陣打印機，還是不久之前才發明出來的，而現在3D打印機又以同樣的方式，使我們夢想的各種物體都能呈現在我們眼前。有了3D打印機的魔力，人人都是製造商，唯一能限制我們的，就是我們的想象力。
I agree with President Obama that our national mantra should be to make more stuff. I just think the effort should be less top-down and more bottom-up. The maker movement is already in full swing. If you want to witness it first hand just go to one of the 60 community Maker Fairesbeing held around the world in 2013. Maker Faires are all-age community gatherings of makers. They are part science fair, part county fair, and part something entirely new. 165,000 people attended the two flagship Maker Faires in the Bay Area and New York in 2012. If you go, prepare to be blown away by an infectious passion to make things, creativity to hack and reassemble the parts and a do-it-yourself (DIY) fire in the belly that won't be stopped.
奧巴馬把復興美國經濟的希望寄託在重振製造業上，我同意他的觀點。但我認爲，在實踐這個目標的過程中，應該減少從上至下的成分，更多的是要自下而上。“全民造物”運動已經在蓬勃發展了。如果你想親眼見證它的發展，只需要參加2013年全球60個民間製造者大會中的一個。製造者大會是老老少少的民間製造者的盛會，它既是科學盛會，也是地區盛會，同時也是一種前所未有的新生事務。2012年，有16.5萬人參加了舊金山灣區和紐約的兩場創造者大會。如果你也去的話，你一定會被那種親手製造東西的熱情所感染，你心裏一定會無可遏制地冒出親自動手敲敲打打、組裝零件和DIY點什麼東西的念頭。
A maker movement is already happening across the country. Imagine if instead of looking for top down solutions in a small number of manufacturing hubs we encouraged the bottom up maker momentum emerging in every community. Less push, more pull. We can all be manufacturers.
“全民造物”運動已經在美國各地蓬勃展開了。想象一下，如果美國的每一個社區都由下而上地迸發出生產熱情，而不是由上而下地依賴幾個生產中樞，那會是什麼情形。少一些“推動”，多一些“拉動”，我們人人都能成爲製造家。
Saul Kaplan is the author of The Business Model Innovation Factory. He is the founder and chief catalyst of the Business Innovation Factory (BIF) in Providence, RI, and blogs regularly at It's Saul Connected.
本文作者索爾．卡普蘭是《商業模式創新工廠》一書的作者，也是美國羅德島州普羅維登斯市的商業創新工廠公司的創始人和首席分析師，定期在It's Saul Connected網站發表博文。
