This is a thought leadership article in our series looking at the future of 3D printing.
Len Pannett is an operational strategy consultant at Visagio Ltd, where he helps organisations to realize their operational aspirations. He is a specialist in the impact of 3D printing on supply chains, and is a founder ofSupercharg3d.com.
The future of 3D printing for the supply chain by Len Pannett
Every day brings with it news of innovative ways that 3D printing is being used, the amazing things that it can make, and how it will transform our world beyond all recognition. There is talk that it will radically change supply chains, from eliminating the need to store spare parts and having 3D printers in car service centres, to more fantastic claims of solving sustainability issues.
Despite 3D printer sales growing at around 25% per annum, hinting that it is having a significant impact in how things are made, 3D printing is not yet generally used in manufacture. It remains an interesting tool for making things, intriguing and enigmatic for many businesses, wondering how best to meet their customers’ needs.
当然，在需要进行复杂设计或需要大规模定制或快速设计到分机周期时间的情况下，3D打印是理想的选择。
So will 3D printing become all-pervading over the next five years? Unlikely. However, it will enter mainstream operational planning and begin to shape longer-term supply chain models.
3D printing increasingly considered
在业务的战略规划中，五年不是很长的时间。大多数公司都有一个五年的计划周期，他们考虑客户的需求将如何改变以及如何最好地满足这些需求。
他们将考虑哪些工具以及如何最好地安排其运营。在许多情况下，该分析将包括识别和试验新技术，而3D打印越来越多地进入这些考虑。
Sure, 3D printing has considerable advantages in design flexibility, particularly in the production of complex forms, as well as in reducing the end-to-end time to make things.
It has a transformational flexibility to cope with “lots of one”, batches of single items, something which is costly and time consuming to do otherwise. However, it remains an immature set of technologies with many constraints, direct and indirect.
Not yet a manufacturing panacea
Despite being over 30 years old, 3D printing is not yet a manufacturing panacea. It requires a new approach to design, one that is less constrained than traditional reductive manufacture and which appreciates the nuances of 3D printer capabilities.
3D打印机使用的材料需要专门准备并与所雷电竞app下载使用的3D打印技术匹配。在制造过程中和之后，需要测试3D打印的物品，如果足够好，可以在后期制作和完成。这些阶段都增加了周期时间和成本，必须计划。
最现代的3D打印机，例如Stratasys的雷电竞app下载J750，可以同时制作几种颜色的物品，尽管真正的多种物质印刷（最需要的是大多数制造商品的关键）仍然是几年的时间。
While innovative designs have succeeded in simplifying assembly, for instance, by internalising hydraulics in some items, laying internal conductive pathways, such as wires or metal tracks, with the qualities necessary of production “things” will not be possible for a while yet.
Moreover, the question of sustainability may hold back those sorts of advances – consider the difficulty of recycling a multi-material tyre or a Tetrapak carton with it paper, metal and wax layers.
This means that, in the short term, 3D printers will continue to be used for making single material items, even if designs will be increasingly complex and made with fewer individual parts. Assembly will still be needed, bringing together parts of different materials.
How to adapt for 3D printing?
That doesn’t mean that the situation is static for 3D printing – as awareness of it and what it can do increase, so it will enter into operational considerations at board levels. According to a recent survey by consultancy Strategy&, 45% of companies surveyed are not currently considering 3D printing for their product lifecycles, and 95% of those respondents expect it to be included in five years’ time.
Tangible changes in how it is used and the actual impact is has on supply chains will change little, however. So how will those boards adapt?
与任何新技术一样，使用3D打印的决定必须从确定如何帮助实现业务目标的方式开始。
这意味着要考虑到3D打印是否可以比传统方法更好，以及企业以前不可行的3D打印可以做什么。
这始于制造商了解他们products’ bills of materials and assessing whether there is an advantage in 3D printing each component. GE and Airbus have found that the technology allows them to redesign aircraft parts to reduce their weight, saving costly fuel. Additionally, there may be operational advantages, such as reductions in inventory costs, faster end-to-end cycle times, and higher levels of perfect orders.
例如，该分析已导致Boeing deciding to use 3D printing to make future satellites，如2月份的3dprintingIndudustry报道。如果有案例 - 甚至只是为了了解它可以做什么 - 那么企业必须考虑3D打印将如何实现。
制作3D打印的业务案例
问题将包括：需要哪种3D打印机以及什么材料？它应该购买3D打印机还是使用印刷服务？3D打印是否应该替换或增强现有制造？3D打印机应该放在哪里？雷电竞app下载
它需要考虑更广泛的变化因素才能正确使用它：它具有内部为其设计事物的技能吗？它的设计如何受到IP的保护；它如何确保其3D打印零件的质量？它如何给他们定价，依此类推。福特，Mercedes-BenzBMW都在考虑如何通过基于3D打印的创新来提高汽车的可使用性，此类备件生产更接近服务中心，并允许这些中心按需这些备件。里约·廷托（Rio Tinto）等矿业公司也考虑了这种模式，例如毛虫.
The next five years are unlikely to see a significant change in how 3D printers are used, or in the operating models and supply chains that use them.
但是，企业的思维方式将会发生变化，这将越来越多地将3D打印视为可行的解决方案，并制定了其使用计划。随着数字制造和行业4.0的出现，这将导致新的运营模型，从而利用3D打印的变革性功能，并将远远超出未来五年。
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Read more about thefuture of 3D printingin the 3D Printing Industry thought leadership series.
