Importance Of 3d Printing

3d Printing: Change in Conventional Manufacturing Process, Reform of Supply Chain and

Importance of Localization

1. INTRODUCTION

3d printers revolutionize the manufacturing process and even a single printer can produce enormously different types of parts and products such as shoes, appliances, auto and airplane parts, foods and bones. 3d printers use variety of materials including plastics, metals, ceramics, glass, paper, food, and even human tissue. The production takes place in various locations, namely small businesses, hospitals, homes, etc. where there were previously no manufacturing capabilities at all.

Since industrial revolution, manufacturing has been associated with production lines, assembly lines and distributed supply chains.

As a result of lower ICT costs, coordination costs have declined and after 1980s to benefit from comparative advantage, factories were unpacked into smaller manufacturing units.

Now we are observing the beginning of 3rd unbundling in which consumers and small business are becoming manufacturers and complex traditional factories with specialized machines are turning into simplified factories which are equipped with 3d printers. These new factories will allow the revision of production line easily without the need for further capital investment since there will not be specialized equipment or machines in the factories as it was traditionally but arrays of 3d printers.

Localization dates back to the book of Alfred Marshal (1890) “Principles of Economics” in which it was defined as “industrial districts” that is the spatial agglomeration of specialized industries, and today it is usually recalled with Porter’s definition of

Because, contrary to conventional manufacturing in which many parts are assembled, with 3d printers many parts such as a jet engine part can now be constructed as a complete part that is ready-to-use.

In conventional manufacturing a lot of parts are manufactured in different factories and then all these parts are shipped to the same location for assembly. Car manufacturer Chrysler’s Toledo Park receive parts from 105 suppliers within 200 miles radius, 48 suppliers within 200-500 miles radius, 34 suppliers within 500-1500 radius and 29 suppliers within 1500-3000 miles radius in North America. In Europe there are also six Tier-1 suppliers which are located more than 4300 mile away from Toledo Park. Shipment of parts take from 24 hours to 10 days. This process is time consuming and requires a lot of coordination through the supply chain. With 3d printing, it is now possible to manufacture many of these parts in one location that is close to the final product assembly station. 3d printing of parts locally will save time and eliminate the cost of transportation as well as some of the complex stages inherited in today’s global supply