Today, most supply chain processes consist of the same steps, namely the procurement of raw materials and the production of the final product, followed by the transportation and distribution of this product to the customer. However, there is an increasing curiosity about transferring these steps to the consumer through the use of 3D printers (Suberg, 2018).
The origin of 3D printing lies in the development of prototypes. The purpose of this technology was to make creating prototypes and models cheaper and easier for engineers. The automotive industry discovered the potential of this new technology and created more use cases. This was followed by using 3D printers for establishing certain parts of a final product that are difficult to produce. Despite the fact that 3D printing is becoming more popular, it is still hard to tell whether a consumer product consists of 3D printed parts (Suberg, 2018).
Printing our own products at home may seem strange now, but when the 3D printer becomes accessible to the mainstream market it will have an enormous effect on almost every business, and in particular the delivery industry. The market has already developed in a striking way and the price of a 3D printer has dropped to less than €1000, making them more accessible to consumers (Bizibl, n.d.).
3D printing could be a disruptive technology to the general design of the supply chain, by reducing the demand of high volume facilities, construction distribution and low-level assembly lines. In a traditional way, the consumer products are distributed in warehouses after which the products are delivered to the customer. This leads to the risk of having products in stock that are not wanted. 3D printing reduces this risk by eliminating the need of stocking finished products, since these can be printed on demand (Jumaah & Szary, 2018).
As a result of skipping a few steps of the supply chain and delivering a pulled customized product that is locally printed, lead times, assembly lines and time to market are minimalized. This result has an enormous effect on economic savings in logistics and production (Jumaah & Szary, 2018).
Another advantage that the 3D printing technology offers, is the increase in the amount of customized products. Furthermore, 3D printing will increase global purchases, which contributes to the ongoing globalization. Products do not have to be shipped anymore, because they can be printed out (Jumaah & Szary, 2018).
Unfortunately, every gain is balanced by a loss. 3D printing technology is not applicable for mass production, meaning it cannot compete with the current speed of a mass manufacturing process. It also causes some issues regarding intellectual property. If every consumer is able to download blueprints from the internet, producers have to find a way in which they can control their intellectual property. Moreover, problems with regard to liability and security will arise (Bizibl, n.d.).
Although downloading and producing our own products at home seem far away, it is dangerously getting closer. The 3D printing technology is ready to change our world.
References
Suberg, T. 2018. “The Future of Logistcs Tech: Print or Ship?”. Predict, [online] Available at https://medium.com/predict/the-future-of-logistics-tech-print-or-ship-7b1e3fb2fc8e [Accessed 21 Sept. 2020]
Bizibl. N.d. Six Theories About How 3D Printing Will Change Logistics. [online] Available at https://bizibl.com/logistics/download/six-theories-about-how-3d-printing-will-change-logistics [Accessed 21 Sept. 2020].
Jumaah, O. & Szary, P. 2018. A study on 3D Printing and its Effects on the Future of Transportation. [online] Available at https://cait.rutgers.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/cait-utc-nc19-final.pdf [Accessed 21 Sept. 2020].
Thank you for this article! I believe that 3D printing has a lot of potential, specially now with the waste of mass production and transportation impact on the planet. If people would not need to have things delivered to their places anymore that could save a lot of emissions. With the pandemic we also saw the limits of transportation as lots of delays were occurring. If people can choose what to print, and knowing that a cost is also associated with that, I believe less “useless” objects will be created and thus bought.
Hi Rachida, I really enjoyed reading your article! It is clearly written and provides a nice overview of the history of 3D printing. It also explains an application of 3D printing that I think not many people are familiar with. 3D printing is indeed a technology with a lot of potential. Many companies are currently trying to improve their delivery process. A fast delivery is something that is highly valued by customers and is therefore a process that could enhance the customer experience. This could result in a competitive advantage for the relevant company. Although companies are looking into the possibility of using drones and self-driving trucks for the delivery process, I feel that the application of 3D printers is oftentimes overlooked. Using 3D-printing to replace logistic processes could create a new market segment and save companies a lot of costs by for example, just as you mentioned, not having to maintain an inventory. I do agree with you that it is hard to tell if consumer products will eventually exist of 3D printed parts. Besides the limitations that you mentioned, I would also like to add that certain materials are not printable. A material needs to be able to melt in order for it to be printed and built up into a product. Cotton, wood and silk are some of the materials that cannot be melted but would be needed for products like clothing and interior items. However, you never know if new technologies would solve the current limitations of 3D printing in the future. Just like you, I am very curious to see how 3D printing will develop and if it, one day, will be possible to print ordered consumer products.