I’m continuing to share my favorite moments of COFES 2019 I attended last week. One of them is Eric Anderson’s of ScaleVC presentation. Eric was speaking about new trends in how to build hardware.
Think about how fully digital companies are developing products and make it the same for manufacturing. The most intriguing element of paradigm Eric was introducing is Devops for Hardware.
Here is an interesting workflow explaining a typical manufacturing end to end process.
Role of collaboration is absolutely critical in a new development – manufacturing companies, contractors and suppliers are everywhere.
And according to Eric, the tools for collaboration are terribly missed in the market.
I could not resist and not to share OpenBOM design to procurement flow (disclaimer – I’m co-founder and CEO) demonstrating how collaborative flow can connect multiple people – designers, manufacturing planners, support and purchasing people together.
What is my conclusion? I found Eric’s approach interesting and different from what I’ve seen before. A traditional approach of engineering software is to support product development processes. And it means to get into existing manufacturing business to improve it. ScaleVC approach is different – he was talking about “software” that is capable to build hardware by changing the process and the way companies will operate. Devops for hardware. The most fascinating aspect in this domain is bringing the experience of web and online businesses such as (eg. Amazon, Google, and others) to manufacturing. Just my thoughts.
Best, Oleg
Disclaimer: I’m co-founder and CEO of OpenBOM developing cloud-based bill of materials and inventory management tool for manufacturing companies, hardware startups and supply chain. My opinion can be unintentionally biased.
