Labeled by one expert as the harbinger of “the next industrial revolution,” 3D printing takes a product design and digitally slices it as thin as 1/12,000th of an inch, then prints out these slices in layers. Long used in such industries as aerospace and auto production, 3D printing is rapidly catching on across myriad businesses – largely due to social media and the fact that the technology has become more affordable to the average consumer.
The Factory of the Future
Jon Cobb, executive vice president of marketing for the 3D printing company Stratasys, has been in the business for 18 years. At this fall’s Life Science Alley conference in Minneapolis, he noted that “for the first 15 years, no one cared. But what’s happened over the last two to three years is nothing short of amazing … Instead of designing for traditional manufacturing, people are starting to design for 3D printing.”
- In one recent 3D printing breakthrough, a Canadian-built hybrid car now has most of its body and interior manufactured using this new technology.
- On Nov. 22, 3D Systems announced it will partner with Google’s Motorola on Project Ara, which will create a modular and open-source hardware platform for smartphones. The goal is for 3D Systems to invent a continuous, high-speed printing production and fulfillment system.
- Gartner’s latest forecast on 3D printing notes that global shipments will jump by 49 percent this year and then increase another 75 percent in 2014, to just over 98,000 units.
As its applications expand and prices drop, 3D printing will enable more and more goods to be produced at or near the point of consumption. Many goods that have traditionally been built in large, centralized plants will be produced locally or even at the household level. Using 3D printing – with some home-based instrumentation priced as low as $500 per unit – you can theoretically buy raw materials and software files, or better yet, find designs free of charge on the web.
The Ultimate in Lean
As 3D printing takes hold, manufactured goods will become infinitely more customized, because changing them will no longer require retooling – only simple tweaking of software instructions. This will cause businesses all along the supply chain, manufacturing and retailing chain to rethink business strategies and operations.
On a global level, this trend will have an even greater impact. A model of widely distributed, small-scale manufacturing will replace mass manufacturing in many scenarios. For example, auto parts could be made at local dealerships and repair shops and vehicles themselves could one day be produced in every metro area, versus at select factories around the world. Plants could eliminate the need for complex supply chain management by making components only as needed: the ultimate in lean manufacturing!
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