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The Case For Collaborative Consumption

Collaborative consumption is all about the idea that we have too much stuff that we don't want, and we'd be better off if we traded it off to someone who wants it.

Rachel Botsman is the champion of a fairly interesting idea: collaborative consumption. The basic premise is that we have too much stuff that we don't want, and we'd be better off if we got rid of it. The key, however, isn't just throwing it in the trash, because there's a good chance that someone, somewhere in the world, wants exactly what you have to offer, and is willing to give you exactly what you want. There's a lot more to this idea that Botsman talks about in the video below, but what interested me was how this might be used in manfuacturing. Surely there are companies out there in need of a certain piece of equipment, or just a part, with someone else wanting to offload the very same thing.

She also makes an interesting analogy — the average electric power drill in one's household will get an average of 13 minutes of use throughout its lifetime. Clearly, it's going to waste most of the time. What's the equivalent of these drills in manufacturing?

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQa3kUJPEko width:640 height:390]

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