3D Printing: The Future Impact on Sales, Distribution & Manufacturing

The Context

Not everything can be 3D Printed and therefore Retail Shop Fronts as well as Malls will retain life ahead. However, with changing technology, beyond just 3D Printing, and the evolving models of commerce, the processes or norms of sales, are certain to change. And that also means, a change in the way products are distributed. For example, much of the cargo that the shipping industry will be carrying across distances in the future, will be 3D Printing Filaments. That also translates into impact upon manufacturing.

What 3D Printing Can Do - Ahead

A lot of things cannot be 3D Printed, but there are a lot of things that can be 3D Printed (if not now, then in the future) and easily assembled (where and if necessary), including at home, by lay persons (again, if not now, then in the future). Let us go through a few examples.

1. Jewelry - Watch the following video to see how Gold is already being 3D Printed:

2. Toys - What the following video to see how that is already being done:

3. Utensils - Watch the following video to see how that is already being done:

Besides the 3 examples above, much more can already be 3D Printed, which has already transformed the production processes for many manufacturing companies.

The Future of 3D Printers

It is not a big deal to own a printer at home that prints your word documents or photographs as of 2017, at least not, for most persons on LinkedIn. Paper Printers, are household items. 3D Printers too, will be household items. Every home today, that has a Paper Printer, will have, a 3D Printer.

While most 3D Printers today come with significant limitations or specialties, the 3D Printers ahead, which will be household, will likely be multi-purpose/multi-function, with the capacity to take in and produce with a wide variety of material filaments. That means, the same 3D Printer you'd use to 3D Print a toy for your child, would be usable, to 3D Print gold jewelry, as long, as you purchase the gold filament. And then you can 3D Print your pots and vases. Your cups. Your mugs. You get the point.

The Plus Point of 3D Printing At Home

You get to decide, with greater options and flexibility, the specifications for the products you want, whether it is size, shape or colour.

What the Future of 3D Printing Means for Businesses

You don't have to sell a Physical Product anymore. You sell concepts and ideas. Perhaps, licenced. These are bought by consumers, downloaded, onto their computing devices, or directly into their 3D Printers - and the items are printed from material, directly acquired from material dealers, in the form, of filaments.

Off course, for some types of businesses, like those selling utensils or vases, for example, the future of 3D Printing is bad news, for in conjunction with wider tech evolution in general, it would mean, any layman is his own producer, and needs to make no purchase for such products, apart from the filaments off course.

Then there are products you'll probably never find economical or practical to 3D Print or assemble at home, or to have resources to do something of the sort, in every household. Rather than ship or export such items, large brands, would stop manufacturing themselves, but distribute them to local dealers around the world, with their own 3D Printing facilities, in the form of specifications, designs and plans, in software code instruction, for the 3D Printers to print out in parts, and for complementing robotic machines, to assemble the 3D Printed components. This also means new business opportunities for companies to emerge to support brands, in distributing goods, under the banners of their labels, in return, for a cut. In short, manufacturers of today, the large ones, will not manufacture tomorrow, but feed many more smaller manufacturers.

There will be other sorts of opportunities that will emerge as well. Jewelers of tomorrow will not need to invest in shop fronts, or in expensive material inventory, but work rather from a computing device to sell, just designs, for people to download. This would lower the bar for entry.

For Material dealers off course, it is also a game change. They'd possible now deal directly with the consumers, to home deliver their products in the form of filaments.

The change here, is not exclusive to manufacturers or material companies of today, that will evolve in tandem with the evolution of 3D Printing tomorrow. The change will also impact companies operating today on the e-commerce models to deliver physical goods to consumers. The options for what they could carry, between producers and consumers, will decline.

Timeline to Watch?

The next decade from today, is going to see much of the above, manifest into realisation.

Harish Shah is Singapore's first local born Professional Futurist and a Management Strategy Consultant. He runs Stratserv Consultancy. His areas of consulting include Marketing, Strategic Foresight, Systems Thinking, Scenario Planning and Organisational Future Proofing.