Open Source Hardware and Decentralized Urban Production for Urgently Needed Products during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of a local, resource-efficient and open(-source) production infrastructure for the rapid manufacturing of urgently needed products. Decentralized, networked and open production sites (Fab Lab, Makerspace) in urban areas, equipped with modern, low-threshold digital production technology, have been collaboratively used during the pandemic by the civil society to produce personal protective equipment (PPE). A key element for this resilient production and local improvement of the supply situation was open source hardware, whose product data were collaboratively developed and shared around the globe and could therefore subsequently be manufactured, modified and sold in conjunction with Fab Labs and Makerspaces. The authors have also developed a face shield based on an open source design, adapted it and provided it for the local market. In this paper, we show in a holistic single case study not only the development and production of the face shields, but also the future relevance of an open(-source) production infrastructure and a production planning and control system (PPC) in case of crises or local need in which new participatory value creation patterns result in innovative products.