The US Military Special Operations Command is building eight "mobile factories" that fit into standard shipping containers. These factories are based on the successful experience the US Army has had with something similar called the MPH. From Strategypage:
The MPH was developed when the army realized that the easiest way to get the many rarely requested, but vital, replacement parts to the troops, was to manufacture the parts in the combat zone. In short order, this led to the construction of a portable parts fabrication system, called MPH, that fit into a standard 8x8x20 foot shipping container. The original version used two containers, but smaller equipment and more powerful computers eventually made it possible to use one container.
The key to making this work was the availability of computer controlled machine tools, which can take a block of the proper metal, and machine it into the desired part. The computer controlled machine tools have been around for decades, but the big breakthrough was the development of CAD (Computer Assisted Design) software for PCs in the 1980s, which made the process of designing, and then fabricating, a part much faster. The MPH has a high speed satellite data link, which enables it to obtain the CAD file for a part. Many CAD files are already stored in the MPH. Often, the MPH staff figure out a way to improve a part, based on the broken parts they see, and what the troops tell them.
In the last six years, MPHs have manufactured over 100,000 parts, on the spot. This saves days, or weeks, that it would take to order the part from the manufacturer, and the MPH part is usually a lot cheaper (because the air freight and manufacturer mark ups to pay for maintaining the part in inventory). The next version of the MPH has a 3-D part builder, which uses metal dust and a laser to build a part.Hyperlocal manufacturing is real. Think of it as one of the economic hearts of a thriving resilient community. It's a revolution already in motion, as you can see in the rapid spread of hackerspaces. Connect these hackerspaces, and the communities they serve, with networks that allow people to share, buy/sell, modify, customize, etc. designs for products/parts, and we are on our a way to a resilient decentralized economy that can survive the economic dislocation to come.
