3D Printing - Distributed, Standardised Manufacturing

Not a catchy title, I know, but I wanted to talk about one of the benefits of 3D printing that doesn't get talked about that much.

My Ockham Razor Company has just started to offer 3D printed Travel Edition razors for sale (a great gift for Christmas by the way). The material benefits of 3D printing mean that our travel razors are the lightest reusable razors in the world at less than 10 grams, including the blades.

To make these razors we use a 3D printing facility found via 3DHubs.com - a global network of 3D printers available for outsourced 3D printing.

I've built up a great relationship with a local 'hub' which has been extremely helpful in developing our prototypes, and now our actual products. However, this particular hub is currently unable to fulfil my latest order for Travel Edition Ockham Razors. In this case, it's only temporary downtime for them, but otherwise it would be the historical equivalent of a supplier going bust, which can easily be fatal for a small business.

But for us, it's not a problem. Almost instantly, we can find another supplier who can make our products from exactly the same materials, in the same way, and on the same machines. There's no lead time and very little risk.

We're obviously used to the fact that data can be uploaded to servers somewhere and immediately downloaded anywhere in the world (even if we don't really understand the magic behind how it happens).

So it's hard to imagine not being able to print identical documents anywhere in the world almost instantly. We don't need typesetters any more. Worst case is that you run out of (standardised) ink.

It's exciting to think that physical products could soon be made in a similar distributed and standardised way. Just as a book can be printed and published in two different countries, we could manufacture identically products locally and massively reduce transport costs and lead times.