This document discusses 3D printing and its potential economic and technological impacts. It explains that 3D printing involves depositing layers of material to form 3D objects. The document estimates that within 25 years, 3D printers will be inexpensive and useful printers will be available, changing manufacturing. Factories may use 3D printers for mass production. This could lead to mass customization, reduced costs, and changes to marketing and distribution.

1. 3-Dimensional Printing
ECONOMIC GAME-CHANGER?

2. What I Hope To Provide
 A brief summary of the technology.
 How this topic relates to e-commerce and e-marketing.
 An educated estimation of the direction and effect of 3-D
printing.
 The implications to manufacturing, marketing and e-
commerce.

3. What is 3D Printing?
 A process by which layers
of a material are
deposited one at a time
to form 3D objects.
Backup Link

4. How Does It Relate To E-Marketing?
 3-Dimensional printing stands a good chance of
revolutionizing many manufactured goods over the next
25 years.
 When making marketing decisions, knowing the pros and cons of a
chosen manufacturing method is important.
 Should this occur the marketing landscape for many
products will change drastically.
 How will your line of homogeneous goods sold in a big box store
compete with overnight shipping of custom goods printed on-
demand?
 Knowing what tools you have to work with increases your
value to employers.
 You will be working during this technology’s growth and maturity.
Knowing what is coming technologically makes you an asset.

5. Consumer Printers Now
 Consumer Level Printers  Slow
 Typically only one
material can be printed.
 Small websites offer
reasonable selection of
“trinket” level printable
objects.
The Cubify is one of the first 3D printers
to reach the consumer market. Priced at
$1299 USD.

6. Consumer Printers Within 25 Years
 Consumer Level Printers
 Moore’s Law puts 3D printers at under $200 USD in just 6
years. Combine further developments with their respective
price reductions and you have reasonably priced, useful
printers in 15 years.
 Small “fabrication shops” may begin to open with more
expensive, versatile printers for higher end items.
 Simple electronics may be entirely printable at this point.

7. Industrial Level Printers Now
 Higher Quality but
Expensive
 Used Primarily for
Prototyping
 Recently Used for
Medical Prosthetics

8. Industrial Level Printers Within 25 Years.
 Industrial Level Printers
 Factories will open with 3D printers designed for mass
production.
 Printers which print with a great variety of materials will be
developed and put into use on mass manufacturing scales.
 Current factories will adopt these advancements where
economical
 Customizable components in a traditional product.
 Parts for factory machinery.
 Entire product lines that fit the capability of the current
technology.

9. End Result
Manufacturing 25 Years
Manufacturing Now
From Now
1. Have an idea. 1. Have an idea.
2. Design/prototype. 2. Design/Prototype.
3. Obtain capital. 3. Place product for sale online.
4. Find manufacturer. 4. Market product.
5. Retool factory. 5. Sell product to be printed
6. Find distribution channels. locally at an approved
7. Begin marketing product. facility.
8. Orchestrate manufacturing.
9. Orchestrate shipping.
10. Sell product.

10. Manufacturing Implications
 The marginal cost of production will shift.
 Mass customization becomes a true reality.
 10,000 products can be customized for 10,000 customers with nominal
additional cost.
 Economies of scale are no longer a consideration for simple
products.
 The geographic distribution of some manufacturing will even out as
this technology proliferates.
 Regions can produce their own low-complexity items without incurring shipping
costs.
 Smaller inventories.
 Reduced risk.
 Cost of materials and recycling.
 When many goods manufactured by this technique can be returned to a factory
and easily remade into something new the availability of raw materials will
eventually rise.

11. Marketing Implications
 Inception to sale can be much faster.
 Product launches may take a fraction of their time today.
 “Democratization” of manufacturing could foil product
launches.
 Did your firm just spend $35,000 in research for a better spatula? An
individual in Kansas created a far greater design two months later and is
outselling you.
 Piracy.
 What happens when you can print the latest Nike footwear from a file?
How is intellectual property protected?
 Product differentiation.
 Firms that market traditionally manufactured products will have to
compete with printed alternatives.
 Once advanced enough to be on par with traditional manufacturing, how
do you claim your product is better if it was printed at the same facility,
with the same material as a no-name brand?

12. Marketing Implications
 Pricing.
 How does a well known brand price a product that could be created by anyone
with the required skill to design and access to fabrication factories?
 Speed of business.
 The speed at which new products are created and launched will accelerate as the
technology proliferates.
 This is a dream and a nightmare for marketing.
 New markets.
 One factory in a developing market could produce a variety of goods with no need
for long term, distinct assembly lines. They manufacture only what consumers
require at the moment.
 Ethics
 Less labor for simple products reduces the overall number of opportunities for
labor abuses.
 Less labor for simple products also reduces the available manufacturing jobs in a
region.

13. Clarifications
 Will 3D printing replace traditional manufacturing?
 No. Many traditional processes cannot foreseeably be replicated by
printing with the same end result.
 Will I be able to print an iPhone in 25 years?
 Complicated electronics require so many materials and some
processes that may not be economical to use printing technology for.
Portions of the iPhone will certainly be printable.
 How about printing clothing?
 By the end of the timeframe we’re talking about printers may be
advanced enough to print a weave.
 It is more likely that robotics will have addressed clothing
manufacturing by then.

14. Summary
 This is a highly disruptive technology.
 In 25 years this will have changed shopping more than the
mp3 file changed music.
 Related fields will experience the effects of 3-D
printing.
 Medicine.
 Construction.
 Businesses should prepare themselves to be in a
position to adopt the technology as it progresses.

15. First Printed Car
 First printed “car”
 Prototype
 Only the body was
printed(I believe)

16. First Printed (Model)Airplane
 Used traditionally
expensive structural
features.
 Created as a proof of
concept for future more
practical uses.