In continuing our exploration of how the compeerist vision of a commons-based transition out of capitalism translates to the material economy, this chapter considers the possible commonification of manufacturing, which, as with infrastructure, is instrumental in providing the actual material hardware on which the digital revolution depends. Critically, however, manufacturing has also become increasingly dependent on the digital. Indeed, the application of digital technologies to manufacturing has brought us significantly closer to Marx's vision in Grundrisse, where information, rather than labour, becomes the key determinant of value creation. Yet the ability of digitized knowledge/code/data to bring about a liberated workforce while delivering greater material prosperity for all, as is compeerism's aim, will greatly depend on both who controls this digital value, a key issue in Part I, as well as how the industry that can make use of this value is organized, which is the overarching focus of this chapter.

The increasing interdependence between digital capabilities and manufacturing is worth emphasizing. To begin, product development goes through various, exhaustive stages of design, prototyping, and testing using sophisticated modelling software and computer power. The entire production process, from the logistics involved in acquiring the needed components to the actual assembly on the factory floor, is largely organized and kept on track using algorithmically driven, and increasingly blockchain-enabled, monitoring systems. Products themselves, such as cars and appliances, are becoming digital goods in their own right, outfitted with processing power, software, and internet connectivity that can significantly enhance performance. Yet, clearly, the innovation within manufacturing that entails the most far-reaching implications for human societies has been the application of industrial robots to perform manufacturing processes based on computer instructions, allowing for a large degree of automation.

Within this continuously evolving realm of digitally programmed production, the emerging technology with the most potential to disrupt the manufacturing sector is, arguably, that of 3D printing (or additive manufacturing). With the right digital design inputs, which can be changed at will, the 3D printer can produce a wide array of things within one confined location. Here, it is clearly the design code, as opposed to any actual human work on the factory floor, that becomes the main source of added value within any produced good.