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This concept focuses on the productivity gains possible by moving from factory production to network production.
Factory production allowed fewer people to create more physical goods at a cheaper price than craft production. In craft production, one person makes all the parts of an object, such a table or tshirt. Factory production, each worker does one part of the production over and over but the process is composed into a line that results in a complete product. Factory production focuses on quality control, standardization, and automation. Network production can leverage factory production but it adds the uniqueness factor back in. A network can produce an infinite variety. And given people's desire for identity and uniqueness, it can outperform factory production.
Network production looks like Threadless, a tshirt company that has a network of designers. The physical shirts can be made in a factory process, but the design that makes them interesting is created by a network of creatives. We can also think of aspects of the sharing economy as network production even though it is less about physical goods. It too uses uniqueness as a winning edge. Airbnb (for all the gripes we may have about community impacts and exploited sharers) beat out hotels in short order by allowing people to charge for sharing their property. Networks do a better job of creating, producing, and delivering unique objects and experiences to those that desire them.
Just as factory produiction didn't fully replace craft production, network production will not eliminate the need for some factory production. But it may help limit it to only that which does it best (where best is defined by the current ethical and cultural preference).
Factory production allowed fewer people to create more physical goods at a cheaper price than craft production. In craft production, one person makes all the parts of an object, such a table or tshirt. Factory production, each worker does one part of the production over and over but the process is composed into a line that results in a complete product. Factory production focuses on quality control, standardization, and automation. Network production can leverage factory production but it adds the uniqueness factor back in. A network can produce an infinite variety. And given people's desire for identity and uniqueness, it can outperform factory production.
Network production looks like Threadless, a tshirt company that has a network of designers. The physical shirts can be made in a factory process, but the design that makes them interesting is created by a network of creatives. We can also think of aspects of the sharing economy as network production even though it is less about physical goods. It too uses uniqueness as a winning edge. Airbnb (for all the gripes we may have about community impacts and exploited sharers) beat out hotels in short order by allowing people to charge for sharing their property. Networks do a better job of creating, producing, and delivering unique objects and experiences to those that desire them.
Just as factory produiction didn't fully replace craft production, network production will not eliminate the need for some factory production. But it may help limit it to only that which does it best (where best is defined by the current ethical and cultural preference).