Trends in digital manufacturing laboratories over time during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Study of small-scale private laboratories in Mexico

This study analyses the points of interest, doubts, manufactured projects, obtained from more than 200 small-scale manufacturing laboratories throughout the year 2020 using netnographic techniques, through non-participatory observation of the interactions in participation groups in the social networks where the different laboratories interact and provide feedback internally.

The participations of the members were collected from January 2020 to December 2020, subsequently performing a categorization in chronological order where the interactions are divided according to their nature, which may or may not be related to COVID 2019, Materials, Equipment, Doubts about processes, Available Projects, Regulations, Courses, Project Results and Collaboration with Institutions, among others. After having this information, quarterly trend maps have been generated that allow us to study the behavior of these laboratories.

Finally, these quarterly maps are contrasted with the various milestones in the development of the epidemic in search of causal relationships between its evolution and the behavior of the manufacturing laboratories.