WHERE THE IDEA CAME FROM
The microfactory concept was first proposed in 1998 by Cardiff Business School academics Peter Wells and Paul Nieuwenhuis.
They shook up car making by replacing a large-output, sprawling factory with a network of low-volume plants. Instead of a highinvestment, metal-bashing press plant, a paint shop and a complex production line, their vision was of low-investment, flexible production equipment responsive to changing market conditions.
“You can build a microfactory network bit by bit, which from a strategic point of view is important, because you expand your production to a growing market by replicating each microfactory locally, rather than building a huge factory and then forcing cars into the retail network,” Wells told Autocar.
They studied low-volume firms like Lotus (which had recently launched the revolutionary extruded-alloy, compositebodied Elise), Ferrari and electric car pioneer Think.
The conclusion was to size a microfactory around annual production of 5000. Thus supplying a market like the UK, typically served by a large plant making 300,000 cars per year, would require 60 microfactories, each near a major population centre.
Each would also act as the local dealership and repair hub, cutting out 40% of the total cost of the vehicle.
“If the vehicles are leased and brought back to the microfactory for refurbishment before moving on to a new user, you can get pretty close to the circular economy. I can see Arrival’s [car] deal with Uber working like that,” said Wells.