Keywords

1 Introduction

Rapid globalisation has catalysed innovation and increased efficiency in manufacturing and production. It has, however, also exacerbated global technology and socioeconomic inequalities: While industrialized nations develop industry 4.0, artificial intelligence, and associated technologies, low digital resources and capabilities in developing countries and LDCs drastically hinder the development of technical know-how, digital infrastructure, and scientific research capacities.

One promising example of enablers of more equitable and inclusive growth are the developments in the field of open source economics. No longer limited to software programs, the open source definition is now increasingly applied to physical objects, also known as open source hardware (OSHW), whereby the plans to reproduce a physical object are made freely accessible for anyone to access, use, modify, distribute, and sell [1]. Open source machine tools (OSMT) are a distinct subdomain of OSHW, whereby the build instructions, bill of materials (BOM), electronic schematics, and CAD files for machine tools are made freely available on the internet. By giving people the means and the knowhow to build their own machine tools, OSMT are a key technology driver for sustainable and inclusive industrial development in resource constrained contexts [12].

This paper uses a qualitative approach to explore the potential of OSMT in alleviating resource pressures and increase productive capacities using the example of migrant run microenterprises in Oman. Treated like temporary labour and subjected to discriminatory national policies, they often operate in the low skilled manufacturing sector and are faced with human and financial resource shortages [14]. With no initiatives or support from the government to facilitate production capacity development, they are left vulnerable to economic shocks and are unable to expand, grow or diversify their businesses. To evaluate the potential for OSMT to alleviate their resource constraints, the level of awareness of OSMT among migrant workers in the manufacturing sector in Oman is identified and the challenges that could hinder the adoption of OSMT are outlined. Owing to the highly restrictive temporary migration policies, the conditions of the migrant run microenterprises in Oman are representative of marginalized communities living in low resource contexts.

2 Background

2.1 The Role of Microenterprises in Poverty Alleviation

Representing two thirds of global employment, and 80 to 90% of the employment in developing countries, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) form the backbone of the world economy [17]. Of the three, microenterprises absorb the majority of the workforce while also making the largest relative contribution to the GDP [19]. They also play a key role in alleviating poverty, economic empowerment, and the wider distribution of wealth by enabling small-scale income generating activities and creating jobs [7]. However, they face many hurdles owing to their small size, limited resources and capacities [8]. These inadequacies make them more susceptible to economic shocks such as the disruption of global supply chains due to the COVID-19 pandemic [5].

Microenterprises are challenged on a number of fronts, including through increased competition, limited abilities to adapt to rapidly changing market demand, technological changes, and the need to innovate and be creative [4]. Successful economic development is a result of structural transformation, technological upgrading and industrialization [21]. However, microenterprises often lack the resources to invest in technology [22]. This hinders their economic development by trapping them in low value creation activities. Providing easy and affordable access to modern machine tools and automation technology will enable microenterprises to increase productivity, expand their businesses, and progress towards higher value-added sectors of industry.

2.2 Open Source Machine Tools (OSMT) as a Technology Driver

The term machine tools has varying definitions but is generally used to refer to forming, milling, or grinding machines with a focus on metal processing. Sometimes called “mother machines”, machine tools are directly or indirectly used to make every modern human-made object, including components required to make other machines [10]. They are therefore of fundamental importance for many different industries. Due to this, machine tools are often regarded to wield the highest impact on the productivity of whole economic systems compared to innovations in other fields [15, 16].

Innovations in machine tools, however, are highly concentrated in a few industrialized nations which are the sole producers of manufacturing technologies [2]. Most developing countries rely on buying from these centres of machine tool innovation as they do not have the necessary resources and know-how to invent and produce such technologies themselves. To do so, entrepreneurs in developing countries need high upfront capital investments. Importing machine tools into low-income countries is furthermore riddled by administrative and procedural difficulties including high customs taxes, shipping costs and other expenses. A lack of technical know-how and low technological literacyFootnote 1 further add to this. All in all, the high cost of purchasing and using high-tech machine tools is an insurmountable challenge for many entrepreneurs in resource constrained contexts. Therefore, even though machine tools can be regarded as decisive technology drivers for economic growth that can leapfrog developing economies, high-tech machine tools are often unattainable in developing contexts.

By applying similar principles as open source software (OSS), OSHW offers a potential solution to this problem: By making build instructions, BOMs, electronic schematics, and CAD files for machine tools freely available online, it is possible to mitigate the divide in their accessibility between industrialized and developing economies. This can strengthen bottom-up, community-driven developmental approaches [12]. Self-built machine tools can be significantly cheaper than their commercial counterparts, lowering the costs of advanced manufacturing and automation technologies that would normally be unattainable for marginalized communities in low resource contexts [13]. This could foster the growth of microenterprises by boosting productivity, reducing intensive labour, and supporting income generating activities. Moreover, by enabling the production of higher value goods, modern CNC machine tools would allow microenterprises to progress beyond low value adding manufacturing processes and compete against bigger players with higher capital, resources, and machines, resulting in equitable and inclusive industrialisation.

3 Migrant Run Microenterprises in Oman

With the top 10% of the population earning more than 60% of the total income, the Middle East is plagued with one of the most unequal wealth distributions in the world [6]. Oman like its GCC counterparts has a large migrant population, with most stemming from South Asian countries [3]. These migrant workers mainly work in the low paying secondary job market such as in agriculture and manufacturing with usually menial and backbreaking tasks that endanger the workers’ safety [9].

With migrants seen as temporary labourers, there are little to no possibilities for them to assimilate or gain citizenship in their host countries, effectively barring them from integrating within the country’s socio-economic context [23]. Trapped in low skilled occupations with minimal wages and subjected to exclusionary and discriminatory national policies, some migrant workers venture into microenterprises as an alternative source of better economic returns [14]. Among those microenterprises that focus on manufacturing, they primarily involve low skilled and labour-intensive activities using manual machine tools, in sectors such as metal fabrication, construction, and carpentry.

Migrant entrepreneurs are not eligible to receive funding from government SME financing initiatives since these are exclusively available to citizens only [18]. They therefore rely heavily on their personal savings or borrow from friends or family to start a new business or invest in machinery [14]. This makes it difficult for them to modernize, grow, or economically diversify their businesses, while also making them more susceptible to economic shocks. Lacking a supportive growth environment, migrant entrepreneurs operate in highly resource constrained contexts.

3.1 Methodology

Fieldwork was carried out in Oman during February 2022 with the aim of answering two research questions: Do OSMT have the potential to boost the productive capacities of migrant run manufacturing microenterprises? What barriers hinder the adoption of OSMT?

The local industrial cluster of Wadi Kabir Sanaya in the city of Muscat, that has a predominantly dense population of migrant run microenterprises, was focused upon. Due to limited online and telecommunication opportunities of the microenterprises, interviews with the respondents were carried out face to face at their sites of business. The respondents were all male migrants from the South Asian countries of Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh. The migrant entrepreneurs were interviewed in their native languages of Urdu, Hindi, and Bengali All interviews were transcribed and translated into English. The collected data was then subjected to in-depth qualitative content analysis.

The number of respondents interviewed was limited due to constraints in time and the unwillingness of some respondents to be interviewed. Semi structured interviews were carried out with the owners of four wood working workshops and six steel fabrication workshops. Steel fabrication and carpentry were focused upon since these comprised the majority of the migrant run manufacturing microenterprises in the industrial cluster. Oman’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry classifies microenterprises as firms with 1–10 workers and an annual revenue of less than 150,000 Omani rials [11].

3.2 Results

The interviews and observations were conducted with a set of complementary objectives. First, the technological and educational preconditions of migrant workers were studied. This included an assessment of technical know-how and formal education to determine migrant workers’ theoretical ability to independently access and replicate OSMT designs. Most of the interviewees had little to no formal education and could not read nor write in English. On the other hand, all interviewees had extensive hands-on experience with a mean of ten years in their professions. Most of the interviewees had initially been taught by family members or had obtained practical experience through informal apprenticeships in their home countries. Only few had completed formal vocational training. Interviewees did not regularly use the internet for work-related purposes and generally possessed low levels of digital literacy. This was also reflected in the fact that albeit most respondents could identify CNC technology from pictures, they themselves did not use CNC machine tools and had no knowledge about CAD/CAM technologies. It was observed that among those enterprises that did possess some machine tools, all were manual machine tools with no automation; almost all interviewees responded that processes for which CNC capabilities were required were outsourced. When asked for the reason why they did not buy a CNC machine tool, interviewees responded that they could not afford to buy a CNC machine, or their workshop lacked the space for one, or that they preferred the quality of manual machine tools over CNC machines.

Interviews then focused on determining migrant workers’ awareness of and attitudes towards OSHW in general and specifically OSMT. Most interviewees had no knowledge of the concepts OSHW and OSMT but were not unfamiliar with the practicalities of the two. Several interviewees already had experience in building machines, albeit on a small scale and with simple machines that did not involve software or automation. They responded that they had built the machines from pictures of models available on the internet or by looking at machines that neighbouring shops had. When asked about their opinion on building their own machine tools, along with being more open to the idea, those interviewees that already had built small machines were also more confident in their own abilities to replicate other machines compared to those who had not built a machine. Moreover, they had a good understanding of what they would need to replicate a machine, namely detailed visual instructions of the building process.

Challenges and barriers to OSMT adoption were also considered in both interviews and observations. Key findings here were limited time and space and a lack of knowledge and experience outside of the narrowly defined fields of work done in their enterprises which could hamper both the building process and limit the benefits the interviewees might gain from the finished product. Another point identified was the fact that some interviewees did not see a necessity for automation and were content with the manual machine tools they already used. Apart from that, it was observed that most products produced in these enterprises did not require a great degree of precision. Most interviewees therefore lacked the experience for manufacturing parts with tight tolerances. This could pose a challenge for building complex machine tools with moving parts requiring precise and accurate fabrication methods.

3.3 Discussion

Based on the results from the interviews and observations, the needs and the potential of OSMT to increase productivity in the context of migrant run microenterprises in Oman can be derived. The reluctance of many interviewees regarding the adoption of OSMT was based on different reasons: these included limited resources including a shortage of workers, finances, knowledge, time, and space; some interviewees also did not see a necessity for modern CNC machine tools or automation. The different attitudes of migrant microentrepreneurs regarding OSMT show that they can be divided into two types, the survivalist and the opportunistic. On the one hand, reluctance to even consider the idea of increased productivity points towards risk-averse behaviour and the lack of a growth mindset which is often seen in survivalist microentrepreneurs [7]. This attitude also shows that many interviewees were unaware of the potential benefits of OSMT and how automated machine tools can increase productivity while reducing labour intensive tasks, thus using the available resources more effectively and reducing the need for increased resource input in the middle and long term. It also shows a lack of understanding of the working mechanisms and benefits of OSMT and their great variety and versatility. For example, foldable, compact, or portable machines reduce the need for additional space and make workflows more flexible. Moreover, a key benefit of self-built machine tools is that they can be designed to cater to one’s exact requirements with no redundant features. This reduces costs and complexity and makes repair and maintenance easier.

Opportunistic microentrepreneurs were, on the other hand, more open towards OSMT adoption. This was particularly true for those migrant workers that had previous experience with building machines, which shows that initiatives such as educational courses and build workshops aimed at exposing migrant workers to practical experience with OSMT can lead to increased openness to OSMT adoption. They also have the potential to decrease the fear of building more complex machines and facilitate capacity building.

Regarding the accessibility of OSMT projects, it is important to recognize that low English abilities among migrant workers in Oman prohibit them from realizing most OSMT projects currently available. Most projects published online are documented in English and are strewn across various online platforms and repositories, that are often difficult to find due to keywords lacking standardization. Language barriers coupled with low digital literacy makes it almost impossible for the majority of the migrant microentrepreneurs with little formal education to access and implement these projects. To make OSMT documentation more accessible to communities like theirs, assembly documentation needs to be as language agnostic as possible. One possible solution could be IKEA style manuals whereby the documentation is limited to the use of numbers, pictures, and symbols that most people can intuitively understand. Moreover, build and user instructions that need to be in text format can be documented in a way that allows conventional browsers to automatically translate the entire page to the local language. These efforts could broaden the audience and user base of OSMT projects, thus helping the feedback and adaptation cycle.

It was difficult for some respondents to comprehend what technologies could benefit them and the only machines of reference for them were machines available locally and those everyone else was using. Moreover, most interviewees were sceptical of what these self-built machine tools could look like. Co-creation workshops in the framework of action-based participatory research whereby the machine tool is designed, developed, and built with the end user can create awareness among the microenterprises while also empowering them. They will also shed more light on the design methodology that needs to be implemented to facilitate successful adoption of OSMT. To elevate the awareness of OSMT and overcome challenges in their adoption, future works might also study synergies from a cooperation of potential OSMT users, who lack digital literacy but have good practical knowledge, and university students, who have high formal education but might lack hands-on experience.

4 Conclusion

To stay relevant in a rapidly evolving global economy and become resilient in the face of pandemics, microentrepreneurs in developing countries need to modernise and diversify their technological capabilities. With significantly lower costs and freely available plans, OSMT offer an affordable and low threshold alternative for equitable, inclusive, and sustainable local production capacity building. To fulfil this potential, the challenges and barriers to OSMT adoption need to be mitigated. These range from difficulties in engineering design, social acceptance, to lacking formal education and digital literacy. Multidisciplinary approaches from the fields of engineering and social science are necessary to overcome these challenges. For example, the basic lack of awareness of the potential of OSMT could be solved by carrying our build workshops with potential end users to expose them to the concept. Appropriate engineering design would furthermore need to consider the local resources available and the constraints outlined by the end users.