3D Printing and Logistics
Six theories about how 3D printing will change logistics
Executive Summary
3D printing has been used by the automotive and aerospace industries to build prototypes for some time now. Components manufactured with 3D printing offer the same safety and stability as the traditionally manufactured components they replace but at a fraction of the weight. Integrating such components into finished aircraft helps save fuel and reduce CO2 emissions. In medical technology, additive manufacturing – the industry term for 3D printing – has already achieved standards on par with traditional manufacturing methods. Dental crowns, hip joint prosthetics, hearing aid shells: 3D printing is used wherever “replacement parts” for the body are needed. The medical industry will see even more revolutionary developments in the years to come. Researchers are experimenting with the printing of human cells.
Artificial skin for burn victims, artificial ears, and artificial kidneys are no longer a utopian vision. A Swiss-made 3D printer is designed to manufacture lung tissue, and soon it will also print jawbone implants.
Fashion designers, architects, artists, and food technicians are experimenting with the possibilities offered by 3D printing. Shoes, clothing, buildings, miniatures, even pizza – all these things have already been printed. The potential for replication seems almost boundless.
Hardly a month goes by in which we don’t hear reports of something new that has been manufactured by 3D printing. Nike has marketed the first athletic shoe with 3D-printed components, a designer is launching her first collection of printed nylon hats, you can download templates for a pair of women’s shoes that can be printed out overnight, and there is a long-running competition among architects to produce the first habitable printed structure, with ongoing research into the technologies and materials best suited to the task. But the market has also developed in less spectacular ways. Prices for 3D desktop printers have already fallen below the EUR 1,000 mark, making them accessible to private consumers as well. Not all of us have the ambition to design our own goods, but the scene for so-called “fabbers” – people who print cell phone cases, mugs, jewelry, or game pieces for their own personal use – is growing. In the commercial sector, 3D printing offers the opportunity to move production close to the consumer. Experts nevertheless remain skeptical that the technology will have much of an impact on global transport volumes in the near future. The trend toward custom production is more likely to boost so-called “last-mile” shipping. Many experts assume that in 20 or 50 years, we will have mobile production platforms that print out components right where they are needed. This could mean that we only need to move raw materials and 3D print cartridges around the world. Time will tell whether such an extreme scenario becomes reality.
One thing is for certain: The market share of additive manufacturing will continue to grow. This white paper puts forward six theories about how technology will affect society as a whole and logistics in particular.
by AEB