From mind to products: towards social manufacturing and service

After reviewing the development of industrial manufacturing, a novel concept called social manufacturing (SM) and service are proposed as an innovative manufacturing solution for the coming personalized customization era. SM can realize a customer's requirements of "from mind to products", and fulfill tangible and intangible needs of a prosumer, i.e., producer and consumer at the same time. It represents a manufacturing trend, and is expected to become popular in more and more industries. First, a comparison between mass customization and SM is given out, and the basis and motivation from social network to SM is analyzed. Then, its basic theories and supporting technologies, like Internet of Things (IoT), social networks, cloud computing, 3D printing, and intelligent systems, are introduced and analyzed, and an SM platform prototype is developed. Finally, three transformation modes towards SM and 3D printing are suggested for different user cases.