Distributed Quality Control

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Distributed Quality Control (DQC) of open source hardware refers to quality control performed not in centralized facilities, but by distributed microfactories. OSE is experimenting with this paradigm as a route to the open source economy of distributed manufacturing and Distributive Enterprise. The scale of production can be as small as home-scale production, or larger microfactories. Homes, schools, and small enterprises diversify into distributed manufacturing. For this, Truly Replicable Production is required. To achieve Truly Replicable Production - part of the game involves developing transparent mechanisms whereby quality control is certified by international standards bodies (UL, CE, ASME, etc) - or new entities can be created to support decentralized production (DeFab).

Engaging in DQC involves producing documentation. The most effective, digital, practical documentation is a time lapse video showing test procedures for visual examination by a reviewer.

Transparency Protocol

  • A governance mechanism for DeFab (analogue of DeSci, DeFi, ReFi, etc) is to be established. Initial draft:
  • Create Foundational Criteria
    • open design for a product- fully accessible, complete CAD data published in an open source format on an open access public repository
    • Certification organization - to manage open CAD data repositories and their standards
    • Open Source design for production machinery and data collection machinery
    • Open source design for production engineering
    • Open source design for data collection
    • Open source materials production machinery
    • Open repository of published performance, test, materials science, etc data. For unequivocal identification of performance standards and their deviation
    • Definitions of acceptable performance limits for 2 Sigma to 6 Sigma quality control levels
    • A funding mechanism taking a minute fraction of production proceeds to maintain repositories, standards for DeFab, and training for producers interested in joining the DeFab ecosystem.

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