Ctrl + P [PRINT] your home, everything inside and your organs in this lifetime

Additive manufacturing is a major mindset shift for the world of people that makes things. They are used to taking some big block of material and then removing material from it to create the desired item...the product. However, 3D printing does the opposite. It takes chards of material and builds it up into the desired item. ??

When you think about the reduced wastage, lowered supply chain complexity and faster turnaround times that 3D printing offers, it can be of no surprise that ARK estimates the industry to grow at 60% p.a. from $12 billion in 2020 to $120 billion in 2025. Yes, that is approximately 10x in 5 years.??

3D printing has the potential to disrupt global manufacturing in the near future because it is starting to mature (only starting) as the convergence of several exponential technologies such as automation and artificial intelligence, become apparent. Together this convergence will not only create new products from new materials but develop combinations of supply chain links and fulfil market demands in ways that were never possible.

This represents a massive opportunity considering the complex globally optimised trillion-plus dollar supply chain, we have today in 2021.

3D printing is still very early in its maturity as a commercially viable technology accessible to the masses. The cost of a 3D printer has gone down 40x since the early 2000s according to Salim Ismail's - Exponential Organizations, and the ultimate aim for many is that people are able to operate 3D printers in their homes and in their communities in order to manufacture virtually any frequently-required items at the fraction of the cost of:

• manufacturing it in a comparative advantage country,
• distribute it through the supply chain to your local market and
• then buy it from there.

Can you imagine buying the design of your new beautiful chair from the internet,

• plugging it into your versatile 3D printer,
• after doing a bit of ergonomic customising based on your body profile,
• load the correct material(s) and
• hit "print".

Basically shipping many things from different parts of the world will be obsolete. This is the market size!

Although 3D printing is early in its opportunity curve, the technology itself has been around almost as long as the internet. It started solving lean manufacturing problems for rapid prototyping requirements. Product designers could develop working prototypes at a fraction of the cost and time using 3D printing. Taking out the need to visit the factory to produce a prototype for testing purposes.

Spare parts OnDemand

One of the major causes for downtime in factories and processing plants has been the need for spare parts and the tools to fix and fit them. An entire tooling and parts department generally manage the complex requirement of optimising the inventory and ordering of these with little efficiency. However, sensors, big data and 3D printing are allowing few plants to track wear and tear then 3D print parts and tools OnDemand on the site.

Across these three areas there is clear projected demand by industry:

• Prototyping is relevant in all industries, where ever physical products are products and there are accompanying prototypes required. 3D printing will be disruptive.

Moulds and tools are finding relevance in industries such as:

• Auto parts
• Machinery components
• Foundries and metal products
• Industrial manufacturing optimisation

End-use parts have the potential to transform

• Aerospace
• Health Care
• Footwear, and
• Semiconductors

The estimates of the opportunity vary depending on which consultant you talk to, but all agree that we can expect exponential growth from 2x to 10x within a matter of a few years. Those are exciting odds for any innovator and investor. However, this benefit is suspected to be mostly for the developed world where manufacturing efficiencies will lower costs but in the developing world, this would have the same benefit accompanied by the loss of much-needed jobs ?????♀?????????.

In China, a 2019 EY report showed that 78% of manufacturing companies have already adopted 3D printing somewhere in their processes. This also supports the report by the International Data Corporation (IDC) that shows a surge in growth of additive manufacturing makers (i.e. the people that make 3D printers) as they account that about half the "3D printing" (manufacturing providers) global revenues are in China. 

The United States still accounts for the biggest 3D printing market at 36% of global spending with the EU following at 26%. Developing markets in the rest of the world spend 10% of the global share, which implies an opportunity for innovators and investors in these regions to take advantage of the arbitrage ????.

I sense that countries that rely on supply chains to import added-value goods from abroad, like many African countries, have an opportunity to cut distribution costs and empower local makers through 3D printing ?? . 3D printing can be leveraged to out-compete global players within their local markets.

This will take foresight from investors and shrewd strategies from African innovators on the continent. However global product demand will be driven by the 1.2 billion African people that are joining the world population in the coming three decades. Which is the only region expected to grow its share of the world population. ??????

What would you do or are you doing with a 3D printer?