Supply-chain, 3D print and COVID-19
You probably did not miss in the recent news a few pictures of 3D printed protection equipment for people working in hospitals. But I believe it is essential to take a step back to understand what is happening here because it is outstanding.
Since China reacted to COVID-19 by a massive plan of production shutdown and lockdown of its population, the worldwide supply chain break and came to a halt, since many years, many countries relied on China to provide the production capacity. They reduced their stock of equipment to a drastically low level relying on just-in-time deliveries to maximize efficiencies in cash management. Sadly, this plan took a massive tall when China decided to close his boarder.
With the COVID-19 infected figures increasing at an exponential rate hospital started to be submerged, and the limited stock melted without being able to be replenished. In Venture Capital language, we call that a vacuum in a market, and this one was a lot of hell.
As nature hates the void, something had to jump in to answer the need, and I was pleased by discovering the maker community answered the call. If you are not aware of this community, there is a strong community of 3D printer enthusiasts and hackers ready to solve those civic problems at any point in time.
At the tip of the spear of this movement, I saw two initiatives in Italy. The first was from Milan's FabLab, who designed and printed in 24h, 50 respiratory valves for its local hospital. The second with Isinnova, who converted Decathlon snorkeling mask with a 3D printed adaptor so they can be used as respiratory C-PAP masks plugged on machines. Following their reactions, a more coordinated answer started to arise from leading hobbyist 3D companies like PrusaReasearch, focalizing on what the community can produce in significant quantities with limited equipment.
Then coordination platforms started to arise to coordinate the effort of design and distribution, creating a new spontaneous supply chain network. Without them, it would have been impossible to create a design matching the need of the medical staff and linking together material resellers, hobbyists manufacturer, and hospitals.
On the other side of the spectrum, it is quite interesting to see the reaction of the industrials that are in charge of providing that equipment. I believe we saw two extremes of responses; on one side, some reacted by starting lawsuits actions whiles other like Medtronic open-sourced their machines schematics to enable the production of equipment to save lives.
Which lesson should we learn from it? Probably the first one is that makers' networks are more than ever an asset for their local communities. They shine especially in the period of crisis as they enable lightning-fast answers to solve problems. It also perfectly showcases the flexibility of 3D printing technologies in places of constrained resources. Proper synchronization through platforms allows them to become a giant virtual problem-solving and production factory. From a supply chain standpoint, I think it illustrates well how digitization and mesh types distribution networks are resilient to disruption.