Things You Need to Know About 3D Printing

Matthew Liotine, PhD.

Vice-President, BLR Research

3D printing is fast becoming a disruptive technology in production and manufacturing. It grew to be a $5.1‐billion‐dollar industry by 2015 with an average growth rate of about 30%, and 5.8 million 3D printers are expected to be shipped annually by 2019. As noted in the recently issued ISACA Tech Brief: 3D Printing, 3D printers enable the manufacturing of certain items more economically than standard manufacturing processes. These machines receive an electronic file as input with details of a product design. They are supplied with a raw material, usually plastic-based, which enables them to print a 3-dimensional form [JS1] of the product. This feature can have profound effects on producing goods within many industries since it replaces the movement of goods with the movement of information, a concept that is growing in popularity within digital supply chains. Instead of transporting the physical product to the point of use, only information about the product needs to be moved to that location, where the product is then locally created.

Additive manufacturing 3D printing is a form of additive manufacturing, a concept that reduces business risk by making production more agile. 3D printing is additive in a couple of ways. First, at the system level, production response to demand is more versatile within a supply chain network since the product can be created precisely when and where it is needed, without the extra inventory and transportation expense. Second, at the local (or machine) level, material is added to the mold only as needed per the design specification that the machine receives. This reduces costs by lessening material waste, since it avoids the extra scrap costs found in subtractive manufacturing operations, such as the use of computer numerical controlled (CNC) equipment. In addition, since a variety of product designs can be created on a single printer, production costs are less dependent on design complexity.

Opportunities 3D printing offers opportunities in several areas:

• Service and response. 3D printing can improve the ability to add on-demand production capacity since materials can be produced at many locations where 3D printers are situated. This can reduce response time for a quicker turnaround.

• Inventory. Reduced lead times can also reduce the inventory investment used to offset the uncertainty in lead-time demand, thereby reducing the need for centralized finished goods inventory. The ability to mass produce, particularly for high-end, highly customized or slow-moving items, without investing in the extra inventory required to withstand demand uncertainty is highly desired.

• Capital. Since 3D printers have the flexibility of creating a variety of product forms, they can reduce the capital costs of owning specialized manufacturing equipment and resources, and consequently facility costs. They can also reduce production process costs due to reduced setups.

• Product development. This added flexibility can also reduce the costs of testing new products since it avoids the need for redesigning specialized tooling to create various prototypes, or to verify and correct product design flaws. Streamlining the product development process can reduce time to market.

• Production. Since a 3D printer can create a sub-assembly as a single unit, it further simplifies the supply chain, since quite often a product’s design will dictate the nature of the supply chain. This can reduce the amount of sourcing required for assembly.

• Transportation. 3D printing enables the ability to locate production closer to customer markets, reducing the costs associated with the physical transportation of finished goods. While it could result in the increased movement of raw material to printer locations, such material typically has lower carrying costs than those of finished goods.

Challenges While any disruptive technology is not without its challenges, the following are viewed as some of the major caveats associated with the use of 3D printing:

• Printer location. 3D printers offer the opportunity to create product wherever the printer is located, whether in remote jungles or even in outer space. This requires the ability to communicate to the printers through communication network infrastructure, if needed, and to store raw material at that location.

• Training. Like any innovative technology, 3D printing will breed new learning curves for staff and owners to understand machine operation and its effects on production processes. Concerns over the potential loss of manufacturing jobs could be offset by the creation of newer jobs and the transfer of new skill sets.

• Price performance: 3D printing of more complex or larger objects can be a slow process and consequently be more expensive than traditional machine methods. While this currently limits usability to acute versus mass markets, it is envisioned that the price performance will gradually improve and grow to be quite competitive.

• Raw materials. Currently, 3D applications primarily use plastic-based raw materials to create product forms, which limit the variety of products that can be produced. However, advancements in polymer and thermos-plastics, along with the introduction of newer raw material substances, could enable more versatility in creating different kinds of products from different types of ingredients.

3D security For most applications, 3D printers are computer-driven and networked devices. Future business models envision products being printed in locations other than those dedicated to manufacturing, such as warehouses, retail outlets, copy and mailing centers, and even residences. People will be printing goods in their own home versus going shopping. Furthermore, manufacturing could be democratized in the same manner that Uber and Airbnb democratized travel and hotel services. Consumer premises can serve as independent manufacturing centers, printing products on behalf of manufacturers.

Overall, there will be great emphasis on the business value of 3D printing, in addition to its operational benefits. This kind of value heightens the need for security and privacy measures. Since 3D printers are cyber devices, they can be subject to the same hazards that typically plague networked computer platforms, such as intrusions, virus infections, denial of service attacks and other forms of cyber threats. Printers need to be secured so that they can determine whether a design file is authentic and does not contain malware. Producers sending design files to printers must determine whether a printer is legitimate, such that it is not owned by a competitor or bad actor. Since printer quality can directly affect product quality, a printer’s performance and reliability characteristics might have to be certified prior to a printing operation. These kinds of measures can protect the firms’ reputation and intellectual property, and prevent counterfeit, knock-off or inferior versions of their product from being created, thereby safeguarding against market leakage.

3D printing requires many of the countermeasures found in traditional information security best practices, including remote access protection, firewalls, digital signatures, encryption and authorization. In addition, security policies and plans will have to be tailored in order to protect the new business and operational models arising from this technology. While the development of 3D printing standards is in progress by organizations such as ISO and ASTM, it will be incumbent upon companies to take the initiative to develop the security programs necessary to protect the integrity of the products created using this fascinating new technology.

BLR's consulting services and innovation approach can help your firm develop a low risk digital innovation strategy. To learn more, visit BLR at www.blr-research.com.

Matt Liotine, Ph.D., is a professor in Information and Decision Sciences in the College of Business Administration at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he teaches and does research in the field of operations management, supply science and analytics. He is also Vice President of BLR Research, a management consulting firm that advises enterprises in the areas of strategic planning, operations improvement and technology innovation.