Image source: proactiveinvestors.co.uk
Manufacturing processes involve heavy machinery, factory-based facilities, and other capital goods. With many businesses going digital, the mass production of goods may soon follow the same trend. Analysts believe that future manufacturing practices will already be based on digital codes, much like the same way music is bought in online portals today.
Three-dimensional printing will expand its range in the future, conquering areas such as planning, prototyping, engineering, and tooling. It is seeing growth in highly specialized categories and functions such as medical implants built on the digital blueprint of an X-ray or CAT scan. As described by this Bloomberg Businessweek article, “3D printing will do much more than expand the universe of custom-made products; it will transform and change our understanding of what a manufacturer is.”
Image source: gizmag.com
Past and modern manufacturing skyrocketed in terms of gross revenue due to effective logistics, high-quality output, and efficient labor-capital mix. However, improvement does not stop with these methods. Higher percentages of service-based industries on which their GDPs are anchored are defining characteristics of developed economies. The ability to divert human capital from manufacturing and into the service sector is an effect of intelligently engineered, automated, and highly technologized manufacturing systems.
Future manufacturing practices are expected to minimize the participation of manual labor, even in developing countries. Workers will be reduced to tasks of inputting digital codes and feeding raw material into a 3D printer, laser cutter, CNC machine, or an automated paper cutter.
3D-printed products are designed with a complex digital infrastructure but are nevertheless suited for fast-adoption innovations. They enable companies to introduce products to the market that customers will prejudge as essential goods. It may well be the case of invention mothering necessity this time.
Shapeways, Thingverse, and Quirky are some of the service providers that utilize 3D printing technology to deliver innovation, design prototyping, manufacturing, marketing, and selling.
Image source: telegraph.co.uk
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