3D Printing Competes with the Conventional Methods of Manufacturing

In the manufacturing industry, 3D printing predominantly competes with the conventional methods of manufacturing such as molding, machining, milling, and casting. Even though 3D printing has been around for a couple of decades it has only gained substantial prominence over the last 3 years due to the introduction of very low cost 3D printers in the industry and has shifted focus from subtractive manufacturing methods to additive manufacturing methods with little or no waste involved. The market map below concisely shows where 3D printing stands in the metal manufacturing industry on the basis quality and cost of raw materials and cost of the process of manufacturing.

Even though injection molding is the dominant process in the plastic manufacturing industry today, the high costs of equipment and making molds make it unsuitable for lower-yield production. In addition, the precision and cost-effective production of 3D printing, make it a more lucrative process to manufacturers to invest in. With the growing awareness of the advantages 3D printing, it could fast become the dominant design for process manufacturing in aerospace, automobile, medicine and various other industries. All the aforementioned processes would be classed, as indirect competitors to 3D printing as they offer the same end product through an entirely different process and most 3D printing firms believe that they do not face any real direct competition.

???????????Some of the biggest companies are starting to get involved with 3D printing. Google has already developed free software called Sketch up which makes creating 3D designs easy. This further underlines the fact that?industries?are gearing up for 3D printing to be diffused into the early majority stage. HP has also started manufacturing 3D printers. With these companies advertising dollars, 3D printing will be pushed into the public space even further.

Corney (2005) argues, “If Gershenfeld (2005) and Bowyer (2010) are correct rapid prototyping technology will eventually undermine the need for centralized mass production (and the manufacturing technologies that support it). In this way the production of manufacturing tooling could go the same way as magnetic tapes and paper drawings.” as online companies can start-up?quickly and easily because?they are not inhibited by complicated and costly manufacturing processes. Therefore, it is essential that this technology is welcomed and developed in a positive light in order to drive economic change and keep the US economy at the forefront of innovation. This allows businesses to thrive in the future having been built on a platform that embraces transformation.

The removal of part of the supply chain and human economic activity in producing goods could potentially lead to the destruction of manufacturing industry. This affects not just the direct participants in this industry, but also the service sectors that support it.

Questions have to be asked about the potential mass unemployment that could be driven by the movement into 3D printing if the people in these industries are directly affected. The detraction of labor in industries is not a new argument to be had. In the recent past it as argued that computers were going to drive people out of jobs. Berg & Dalton (1975) argue that the movement towards service sector jobs will create more employment at higher wages and therefore, despite the manufacturing sector being diluted, in the case of 3D printing, the sector shift to services will compensate for similarly skilled labor as in the future many see consumers downloading products as they do music today. The generation of wealth brings employment in other areas according to Bowyer (2010).

Companies that are trying to push 3D printing have to publicize 3D printing to the general society. With the likes of Google and HP being involved, 3D printing has a big backing from the industries biggest players. 3D printer’s needed to be able to perform more functions to be accepted by the general society. As the general public adopts 3D printing, every individual would be craft manufacturing in some way. 3D printing would possibly be a great facilitator for individuals to innovate in their own homes. People could design new products just by using their 3D printer and software.

‘Collaborative strategy is the synergy between the strategy of a Business and the strategy of its partners to realize the objectives through collaboration’ (Welborn & Kasten, 2003).’?With customers demanding more customization and personalization 3D printing allows companies to go a step further in mass collaboration. With the rise of Web 2.0 and possibly moving to Web 3.0 we are all connected in this networked society (Castells,1996). As such, information can be shared easily and?therefore?projects can be done in a massive scale.

Companies are at a stage now where home users will start to buy 3D printers due to it being more affordable. Furthermore, with free software being available, home users will have all they need to develop prototypes.

Minecraft is a game, which allows users to create objects layer by layer similar to how 3D printing designs are made. The game has a mass following with over 4 million purchases worldwide. Every user can open up their creations or game world to other users so they can mass collaborate together. Minecraft users are one of the most close-knit communities and have come together to create so amazing objects (Aron, 2011).?Minecraft. Print was created as an add-on, which allows users to take these designs and print them off using a 3D printer.

“Bre Pettis, CEO of Makerbot, is a proponent of open source principles where any design uploaded to Makerbot’s community website, Thingiverse, must be shared for free. He has often been quoted about his idea of a “sharing world,” where you won’t need to sell things using money as the exchange” (Langnau L 2012). On the other hand 3D systems allows a user to keep 60% of the sales proceeds as an incentive to upload a CAD file to their cubify website from where other users can access designs. Such open-source communities would save users the time and effort to design a product before they can actually physically have it. With open sourced software and hardware, MakerBot has created a friendly competition between the users to create as many designs as they can and upload it to MakerBot's website Thingiverse for other users of the community to access for free, thereby building a platform for new innovations to arise.

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