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What’s Next: Turn Key Factories?
April 24, 2008
What caught my eye in an article in the New York Times about the new compressed-air cars was not their technology but their business model. It seems that the idea of compressed-air cars has been around for ten years but Tata Motors, the largest car manufacturer in India, has purchased the rights to manufacture them.
Tata Motors is an emerging powerhouse having recently purchased such premium brands as Jaguar and Land Rover. They are also a leader in making affordable cars. There newest car, the Nano is billed as the world’s cheapest car.
Their business model for the compressed-air car, as the New York Times puts it is:”…as unusual as its engine. The company will not sell fleets of compressed-air cars to drivers, but hundreds of small “turnkey” car factories to franchise holders. Shiva Vencat, Nègre’s associate and a franchisee in the American Northeast, maintains that this removes all middlemen and yields a savings of at least 30 percent. The end product: a locally sourced automobile.”
In a blog I posted on April 2, 2008 entitled "What's Next: The end of traditional toy manufacturing?" I wrote about about 3D printers potentially making every home a mini factory. Now I see that at least one large corporation wants to set up factories on the local level. Could it be that we are looking at a future where instead of products being made on the other side of the world by people you don’t know, they will be made by your friends and neighbors right in your own hometown.
Posted by Richard Gottlieb on April 24, 2008 | Comments (0)
