Christmas is the time for presents. If you’re still looking for an unusual gift, how about a 3D printer? 3D printers are devices that use liquefied plastic, metal alloys or even cement to produce a component based on a 3D solid model. The first home 3D printers are entering the market and Microsoft has already integrated software drivers for controlling 3D printers into its Windows 8.1 operating system.
In the professional sector, 3D printing technology is slowly moving out of prototype and sample production and into isolated production niches. Some authors already see the end of traditional production: the customer only buys the 3D model of a product and manufactures their own part.
From a logistics perspective, 3D printers could solve many procurement, production and distribution logistics problems:
Set-up times would be practically zero, parts would no longer be delivered by truck from the suppliers, but would arrive by web. The economic constraint on production and procurement batches would be lifted and stocks could collapse.
But let’s let some air out of the fantasy balloon again: 3D parts will presumably still have to be assembled, 3D printers will have limited capacities and therefore order backlogs and considerable printing times, and will continue to require set-up times and inventories due to material changes. Even if every customer were to print their parts at home, the diverse printer material would first have to come to them.
Nevertheless, the idea is exciting and if you mentally apply the concept of 3D printing to your own production, you will certainly develop some ideas that you can already implement without 3D technology. 3D printing is already a creative stimulus today!
Yours sincerely
Andreas Kemmner
