Unit Sourcing Automation

At best, a one click order process sets off a chain of events where all parts appear at a given location. However, the purchase is not made from a single product manufacturer- but from multiple sources in a supply chain.

To accomplish this, a combination of in-house automated manufacturing, outsourcing, and software with APIs may be used to achieve this through a browser-based software code. In the most distributive (easy to implement) instance, this can be implemented as HTML embedded within a wiki.

In order to automate the supply chain process, specialized open source software, APIs, and scripts may have to be used to tap producers.

That supply chain can have in house and outside suppliers:

In house:

• Automated 3D printer which starts a job upon request from an order form, and harvests parts automatically.
• A CNC machine which loads materials automatically, cuts parts, and harvests them automatically

Outsourced:

• Amazon, ebay, and other sellers.
• API embed codes for sourcing, and scripts to run this as an automated, one-click process
• On-demand manufacturing sites and cut sites, such as McMaster-Carr and Misumi.