Economic Impacts of Manufacturing Incubators
Gaining manufacturing jobs in the U.S. from foreign countries. This is partly due to rising wages in China and India and partly due to new technologies. Result is increased demand for those manufacturing incubators.
The center has became more selective because higher demand.
Charges $8-$11 per square foot rent (less than price for comparable space in its neighborhood.)
August 2017 http://seattlebusinessmag.com/manufacturing/industry-space-seattle-gives-small-manufacturers-room-grow
Industry Space Seattle
47,000-square-foot building
10 industrial work spaces, a furnished conference room and offices.
Gives tenants the use of 10 overhead crane systems, which can cost $60,000 to $80,000 each, Bianchi says, along with a $30,000 compressed-air system, a $20,000 forklift and an industrial paint booth.
Tenants include LED lighting, custom metal manufacturing and 3-D printers for metal fabrication. Most have 2-4 employees.
In 2015, the city of Seattle awarded Industry Space $100,000
Impact Washington is a nonprofit that provides consulting services and business mentoring to fledgling manufacturers.
Feb 2016 https://hbr.org/2016/02/entrepreneurs-take-on-manufacturing
Examples of software-enabled manufacturing startups
Pebble - a Kickstarter-funded project that has now sold over one million smart watches (and which predated Google’s Android Wear smart watch and the Apple Watch).
Nebia - a start-up water-efficient showerhead maker in San Francisco — recently scored investment money from Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google Chairman Eric Schmidt’s family foundation.
Drop - a startup that makes a $100 iPad-connected kitchen scale and software app now widely available in Apple Stores and the Apple website,
Fitbit
June 2017 http://www.ozy.com/fast-forward/the-manufacturing-incubator-changing-design/78980
3D printing
Example: replace $50,000 months-long operation of traditional steel casting method to $1000 days-long specialist equipment used to test bio-pharmaceuticals.
Example: Collimator- a gadget that helps X-ray machines and CT scanners filer out unwanted signal noise in order to produce a nice image, through 3D printing, can produce better pictures and 40% cheaper