* Article: Military goes MOD

A commentary by Eric Hunting:

“This recent article from Treehugger details the US military’s recent deployment of containerized manufacture-on-demand facilities they call Mobile Parts Hospitals in Afghanistan. Though article erroneously notes that “there are not a lot of computerized machine tools and 3D printers in Afghanistan” when in fact, and thanks to our colleagues with FabFolk, there are actually fab labs in Afghanistan helping the next generation synch-up with the digital industrial tools of this new century, the article does point out the sort of mini-industrial revolution this technology is realizing in the context of military logistics. Through these MPH facilities they are realizing the tremendous advantages in time and flexibility gained from local parts production, which means optimizing utility in the field by minimizing the time hardware is left idle waiting on replacement parts from thousands of miles away and allowing engineers to implement adaptations and improvement to equipment on site and on demand. Military and commercial industrial logistics often parallel. The idea of supply chain logistics in industry is a direct product of military logistics theory. That this concept of ‘hyperlocal’ production is proving practical in this context is a strong indicator of its potential and likely adoption (by the more ambitious of entrepreneurs -today established companies never ‘get it’ until after the fact, if ever) in the commercial sector.

The million dollar cost of these MPH systems at present might seem to suggest that there is a large gap in potential commercial practicality of this technology and production concept. But it’s important to bear in mind that military hardware procurement does not function in any way remotely resembling the competitive open market. The contemporary defense industry does not, in fact, produce hardware to win wars as was the case during wars that actually presented a plausible existential threat to those nations propagating them. There is no compulsion to cost-efficiency as found in the marketplace -or as seen when the homeland is really under threat. There is no real competition between military products. Only competition in gaming the bureaucracy when there isn’t a complete vacuum for a solitary company to fill. And so the high costs of these military systems may relate less to any inherent costs of the ‘new’ technology than to the underlying political/bureaucratic nature of the military procurement process. That even at this inflated cost this technology is proving logistically advantageous for the military would suggest even greater potential as equivalent civilian products and turn-key system produced in the context of the real world marketplace finally emerge.

Clearly, the basic hardware making up the MPH is by no means novel or exclusive. In fact, it’s a little behind the curve. But the situation of the military application of this digital fabrication technology has compelled it to integrate in a form and manner it has not quite yet achieved in the Fab Lab or conventional light industry. In terms of the mobility (fluidity?) and adaptability of parts data, the MPH is well ahead of the amateur civilian attempts at the same thing among the Maker/Fab Lab community. And this may be largely due to the -ironically- open and utilitarian nature of military hardware. Within the military, the entire ‘content’ of hardware and goods must be an open book for maintenance crews, technicians, and engineers. The military built habitat is thus very open compared to the civilian built habitat composed of a great many products whose entire make-up are company secrets or simply nowhere documented, let alone in any standardized ways. And so the information that the MPH requires to be digitally consolidated for its use mostly already exists in various forms. For the civilian Maker this must be accomplished through a haphazard and ad hoc process of reverse-engineering ones own artifacts and habitat! (and always with the implied threat of some kind of corporate retaliation) THIS point is what makes the MPH such a significant feat. It’s real demonstrated potential rests not in the simple ability of its tools to fabricate parts on demand in remote locations. It’s the demonstration of what you can accomplish when your industrial knowledge is comprehensive, since the MPH would be a useless metal box were it not for the openness of the military industrial knowledgebase and the comprehensiveness of its documentation. THIS is the MPH’s very important lesson.