Discover a Crowdsourcing initiative – CrowdSpirit Part III
3.How is it possible to Crowdsource electronic products and to produce good quality products for a small company like CrowdSpirit ?
Now we are entering the core of our project which I hope will not bother you 
I think that you have understood how CrowdSpirit will be able to get the most upto date information in terms of customers’ needs based on yesterday’s article (c.f. hyperlink). So let’s talk about how to produce good quality products. I’d say that producing and distributing online products such as pictures, software, etc… is definitely less challenging from a supply chain standpoint than physical products. However, I’m sure that the CambrianHouse guys are screaming about that sentence . The reason is simple: you do not have to physically ship a product because you can simply download it from a website.
I think that you have understood how CrowdSpirit will be able to get the most upto date information in terms of customers’ needs based on yesterday’s article (c.f. hyperlink). So let’s talk about how to produce good quality products. I’d say that producing and distributing online products such as pictures, software, etc… is definitely less challenging from a supply chain standpoint than physical products. However, I’m sure that the CambrianHouse guys are screaming about that sentence . The reason is simple: you do not have to physically ship a product because you can simply download it from a website.That’s the main reason why it’s more complex for Crowdsourcing to appear in the “physical” world but the electronic world is the perfect world for testing this concept. Why? Because this world is one of the most advanced in terms of outsourcing: Let’s take an example. I’m sure that when you purchase your GPS, your ipod or your PC that you’re convinced that the brand mentioned on the logo printed on the product itself is the company which is producing the product, it makes a lot of sense. In fact, this is increasingly not the case. In practice, the company which deal with end customers like you and me are more and more focused on the brand image (*the logo*) and much less on actual production. This is what we call OBM (Original Brand Manufacturer). The main purpose is to manage their brand image and that’s it Then in order to produce the products, the OBM get in touch with company called ODM (Original Design Manufacturer).
Then in order to produce the products, the OBM get in touch with company called ODM (Original Design Manufacturer).In fact, the ODMs are the factories which produce the products but ODMs can also offer design capabilitie to their customer (OBM). So ODMs produce products which are sold by OBMs…that’s simple..right
So if you followed me, I think that you start understanding why is possible to produce any kind of product by simply asking these ODMs to produce your product. It’s incredible to see how it’s easy to find all you want on pubic market place. The ODMs have even their own catalog of products where you simply have to stick your logo on it in order to become a new Brand….That’s true…I can show you how you can even have your name on your own MP3/MP4 players if you’re ready to order at least 500 pieces….yes I know – what do you do with 500 MP3 Players…but it’s just to show you that everything is possible in this electronic world. By the way, you can understand why there is so much difference in terms of price between products which looks exactly the same. Sometimes (not always of course), in addition to the price, the only difference is only the logo…that makes the logo very expensive !!!
Coming back to our CrowdSpirit project, you can decide either to use pre-designed products that you can choose from the ODM catalogs or go further on in the process and to ask them to design a totally new product. That’s where things become slighty more complicated..of course, I’m not going to reveal all our secret sauce because everybody will be able to do our business model but I can tell you that we will have the capability to design totally new, good quality products based on the supply chain that I have just introduced…it is just a question of time to get the product in your hands.
I hope that you’re now convinced that because everybody can produce their own products that CrowdSpirit will be able to make good quality products. So you can wonder why a big company cannot provide a service like us as a small and powerless company like us..let’s wait until tomorrow to get the answer to your question.
Lionel, CrowdSpirit Founder
4 Responses to “Discover a Crowdsourcing initiative – CrowdSpirit Part III”
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I still find it a bit difficult to imagine how this will work in detail – let’s say one of your users wants to design a new toaster which runs on solar power. There are many steps from planning the circuitry to the actual shape, researching and sourcing materials etc…. And only then you shop around for finding the right manufacturer. So my question is how do you get so many people to collaborate in a effective way?
Hello Christian,
let me try to provide you with more details as I can understand your question. First of all, Toasters are not part of our product scope
(c.f. http://www.crowdspirit.org/how-it-works/products-scope for further details on product scope ). Anyway, CrowdSpirit will will have contractual agreements with partners in charge of handling all the technical aspects of the product design from specification until manufacturing and via supplier sourcing. These partners will collaborate with the community through our collaborative platform which is under design. So we’re not expecting that the community will provide us with very technical skills like AutoCad or solidworks drawing of either the moult or the electronic boards but we’re more looking for an interaction with our technical experts around the functionnal aspects of the products as described on my previous post –> http://www.openbusiness.cc/2007/01/23/discover-a-crowdsourcing-initiative-crowdspirit-part-ii/.
Coming back to your example which is fully in line with what we’re looking for in terms of idea, the community will propose such idea which is a “functionnal idea”: a toaster which runs on solar power. Our experts will provide the community with a feasability analysis in order to know if it’s possible to create such product or not. Then if it’s possible, our experts will provide the community with all the technical skills in order to design such products and so they will propose several alternatives in terms of technologies with Pros and Cons for each of them. Based on this information, the community will be able to take the best decision with the help of our experts. Of course, if community members have very technical skills and they want to participate to the very detailed technical design of the products, they are more than welcome but this is NOT a MUST for us to get such ressources for completing the product design. It’s more a NICE TO HAVE, as we have already all the technical skills available for the community.
Hope it’s more clear, Do not hesitate to ask me question. I’m fully available for that.
best regards
Lionel, CrowdSpirit Founder
[...] Teil 1: Das Geschäftsmodell im Detail Teil 2: Der Mehrwert von CrowdSourcing Teil 3: CrowdSourcing und Qualität Teil 4: Der Vorteil einer eigenen Community Teil 5: Wann es los gehen wird (folgt am 26.1.07) [...]