Digital manufacturing.

The earth just moved.

The Economist is featuring the digitalisation of manufacturing as its cover story this week. We have referred to this in the past in the context of our focus on ‘disruptive technology’.

Economist -- The third industrial revolution
The digitisation of manufacturing will transform the way goods are made—and change the politics of jobs too.

Remember this.

“Now a product can be designed on a computer and “printed” on a 3D printer, which creates a solid object by building up successive layers of material.”

What it is.

Ted -- Lisa Harouni: A primer on 3D printing
2012 may be the year of 3D printing, when this three-decade-old technology finally becomes accessible and even commonplace. Lisa Harouni gives a useful introduction to this fascinating way of making things -- including intricate objects once impossible to create.

How it works.

Economist -- A factory on your desk
Manufacturing: Producing solid objects, even quite complex ones, with 3-D printers is gradually becoming easier and cheaper. Might such devices some day become as widespread as document printers?

Thinking through the consequences.

Economist -- A third industrial revolution
As manufacturing goes digital, it will change out of all recognition, says Paul Markillie. And some of the business of making things will return to rich countries.