That would be a completely new manufacturing technique for tiny components.

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But it has a new manufacturing technique for the component parts in LED light bulbs, potentially could lower the price of LED light bulbs, cut them in half.

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The new manufacturing technique has been under development for two years and is still in a research facility, hidden among the grubby buildings of Pirelli's sprawling Bicocca plant on the outskirts of Milan.

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Unions protested the new technique of flexible manufacturing pioneered by Toyota and embraced around the world.

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Last year in April 2012, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology created the first plastic solar cell (Forbes: New Technique Creates First Plastic Solar Cell) which they hope will help change requirements for manufacturing of organic printed electronics.

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At one time the technique was widely used within corporations to help come up with new product ideas or to devise radically new manufacturing processes.

ECONOMIST: Idea