Extreme Manufacturing

We are proud to announce the beta release of an the Extreme Manufacturing platform for Open Source Ecology. We are now testing the platform.

Extreme Manufacturing (XM) is an open source hardware development methodology based on the principles of Extreme Programming in the field of software. XM focuses open source design and collaboration, and the revenue model is Distributive Enterprise. Extreme Manufacturing is lean in all respects, while retaining sufficient structure to anable scalability. The platform is currently in development. Joe Justice of Team Wikispeed and I have coined the term. We’re here to change the paradigm of how things are made – by unleashing economic collaboration and eliminating competitive waste. My fundamental motivation stems  from a conclusion that the rate of innovation could increase significantly – if open collaboration were the norm for doing business.

We are taking baby steps to arrive at the open source economy. The XM Platform is our first attempt to take all that we learned over the last 5 years about open hardware development – and shake our techniques down for extreme results – extreme development velocity while retaining strict standards of quality control. We are aiming for parallel development of 25 GVCS tools by July 1 – on a 3 month prototyping cycle – to deliver the complete set of 50 GVCS tools by year-end 2012. Our goal is to develop a scalable platform, such that a new process for developing any product or service can be organized on a week time scale. Moreover, this platform may be adapted to any product or service  – such as organizational development of Factor e Farm or OSE. My personal prediction is that this method will scale to a 2% market penetration of all global production by 2018. I am referring to any enterprises started via XM techniques – such as GVCS products, which span a wide range of productive sectors. The assumption is that if sufficient rigor and resources are allocated to the development of a product via open source methods – such a product naturally surpasses the quality and service of any ‘competitors’.

Here is  a brief introduction to the method by Aaron (see script):
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The magic of this method lies in synergistic, lively, distributed, parallel development – occurring both at Factor e Farm (FeF) and via global collaboration. This platform will combine parallel remote prototyping, Desisgn and CAD Flash Mobs, feedback from advisers, constant vlogging of results, Daily Standups, and Product Demos. The most remarkable feature of Scrum is that ALL STEPS MAY HAPPEN AT THE SAME TIME AND MAY OCCUR IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER. The key to this is modular design – where as long as the interface between components is clearly defined – all components may be developed simultaneously. Moreover, if the effort involves breakdown into very small steps, then any single step is likely to be sufficiently low-cost that performing that step becomes feasible. Massive parallel development also means that any result provides useful feedback to inform other steps. On the Scrum Floor – or the FeF workshop – people are aware of each others’ work, they can pair up to learn, and they can swarm on a problem if needed.

It is worthwhile to note that while we are developing the methods at FeF, the intent is that any group can replicate this effort in other locations – as a new paradigm for economic productivity. The highlight of the platform is extreme collaboration via ongoing  feedback, open process, transparency of results, and sufficient rigor to allow for all necessary development steps to happen – while remaining lean via application of Scrum methods.

The key to success lies in recruiting a team of 10 Scrum Masters and 1-2 Product Owners to run the process –  for  10 GVCS product groups at one time.

This turns the discussion to Extreme Recruiting – an open recruiting process. Our hope is that if we publish our recruiting methods transparently – we can leverage assistance from the global community – on top of the effort that Tom, Aaron, and I are currently providing. There are 2 parts to Extreme Recruiting. First,  if  you are interested in the Scrum Master (or Product Owner) position – here is our Extreme Recruiting application. Second, if you can help us recruit, we are asking you to provide the first round of interviewing for the candidates. Contact us at recruiting at opensourceecology dot org to get involved.

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