Personal Fabrication: part 2...The Advantages
What are the advantages to using desktop manufacturing as a production process?
No tooling costs or lead-time
Once a design is complete as 3D digital data, it’s ready to be produced. There are no enormous tooling costs of several thousand dollars, and no tooling lead-times of several months. Just upload it to a rapid prototyping service on the Internet, and get it back in a couple of days.
On-demand manufacturing
This method could completely re-order the sequence of product development and manufacturing. Now one can design it, sell it, and then make it. The common method of product development is to mass manufacture a product and then try to sell them. But if there are no tooling-costs to absorb and each product can be quickly made one at a time, one only then needs to make just enough to satisfy demand. This means less waste, less overstock, and less overproduction.
The end of marketing as we know it
Marketing is based on the goal of understanding the customer so that only the right products are developed. However, with personal fabrication, a business could design multiple products and present the choices to the customer. The customers then choose their preference, purchase and then only make the ones that are preferred. Instead of choosing one design, a company could choose five designs to be designed and developed without the manufacturing investment. This could mean more work for the designers, and less power in the hands of marketing.
Mass customization
Each design could be made unique for each individual since making each product unique costs nearly the same as making them all identical. This is because an increase in quantity doesn’t significantly decrease costs with rapid prototyping. A design could be modified through variables given by the customer; much like a tailor makes clothes to fit the body shape. One could justify the higher cost because of it’s unique quality.
Revitalizing old products
What if one person in a remote area needs a replacement part for an out-dated and unsupported device? Today they would have to do a great deal of research into how and where to find such a part. But with personal fabrication, they could scan the broken part with a 3D scanner, recreate the part digitally and then fabricate it locally.
Serving the ignored market
What about the ignored markets, the markets that are too small or don’t have enough profit potential to get the attention of corporations? These people have needs too. Whether they are people with disabilities, people in micro-niche groups, or in those in developing countries, their needs are unique and specific to their culture and situation. Designers could work with them to design and fabricate products that serve these ignored micro-groups.
Extreme complexity
Additive prototyping techniques allow for geometry that is not possible with injection molding or other mass production methods. Undercuts, internal features, varying wall thickness, zero draft, and other complex geometries are not a problem for rapid prototyping machines.
The Belgian company Materialise has a division (MGX) that specializes in designed objects that are made by rapid manufacturing. Their work has been shown at design exhibitions around the world since 2003. They work with designers to create unique and extremely complex lamps and lighting. The forms of these lamps are only possible through digital modeling and rapid prototyping machines. MGX offer customization for lighting to accompany high-end interior designs.
No tooling costs or lead-time
Once a design is complete as 3D digital data, it’s ready to be produced. There are no enormous tooling costs of several thousand dollars, and no tooling lead-times of several months. Just upload it to a rapid prototyping service on the Internet, and get it back in a couple of days.
On-demand manufacturing
This method could completely re-order the sequence of product development and manufacturing. Now one can design it, sell it, and then make it. The common method of product development is to mass manufacture a product and then try to sell them. But if there are no tooling-costs to absorb and each product can be quickly made one at a time, one only then needs to make just enough to satisfy demand. This means less waste, less overstock, and less overproduction.
The end of marketing as we know it
Marketing is based on the goal of understanding the customer so that only the right products are developed. However, with personal fabrication, a business could design multiple products and present the choices to the customer. The customers then choose their preference, purchase and then only make the ones that are preferred. Instead of choosing one design, a company could choose five designs to be designed and developed without the manufacturing investment. This could mean more work for the designers, and less power in the hands of marketing.
Mass customization
Each design could be made unique for each individual since making each product unique costs nearly the same as making them all identical. This is because an increase in quantity doesn’t significantly decrease costs with rapid prototyping. A design could be modified through variables given by the customer; much like a tailor makes clothes to fit the body shape. One could justify the higher cost because of it’s unique quality.
Revitalizing old products
What if one person in a remote area needs a replacement part for an out-dated and unsupported device? Today they would have to do a great deal of research into how and where to find such a part. But with personal fabrication, they could scan the broken part with a 3D scanner, recreate the part digitally and then fabricate it locally.
Serving the ignored market
What about the ignored markets, the markets that are too small or don’t have enough profit potential to get the attention of corporations? These people have needs too. Whether they are people with disabilities, people in micro-niche groups, or in those in developing countries, their needs are unique and specific to their culture and situation. Designers could work with them to design and fabricate products that serve these ignored micro-groups.
Extreme complexity
Additive prototyping techniques allow for geometry that is not possible with injection molding or other mass production methods. Undercuts, internal features, varying wall thickness, zero draft, and other complex geometries are not a problem for rapid prototyping machines.
The Belgian company Materialise has a division (MGX) that specializes in designed objects that are made by rapid manufacturing. Their work has been shown at design exhibitions around the world since 2003. They work with designers to create unique and extremely complex lamps and lighting. The forms of these lamps are only possible through digital modeling and rapid prototyping machines. MGX offer customization for lighting to accompany high-end interior designs.
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