Again, since there is no need to keep an inventory of the finished products, the costs associated with the replenishing of the exhausted inventory is reduced. Then there is of course the huge savings associated with no transportation costs needed for delivering the finished goods. Lastly, since there is a reduction in the overall manufacturing cost, the customer can benefit with being charged a cheaper rate for the product and for the manufacturer, this might translate into increased sales. 3-D printing services like Sculpteo, Figulo, i-Materialize, 3DPhacktory, etc., are already following this model (albeit to limited extents as of now).
Improving product quality:-
A part with lesser number of joints is more durable and requires a lesser amount of additional materials in the form of screws, bolts, etc. Hence the target in most manufacturing plants is to include as less number of parts in the final products as possible. Using casts or moulds in these cases fails when the product to be printed has a complex design and the end product is often malformed and discarded, adding to the losses. 3-D printing can be a boon in these cases.
With 3-D printing, the cost and complexity both come down in the form of a lesser number of SKUs per object and reduced material wastage. Since the printer prints according to the input design, most product deformities are taken care of. Often, to increase precision, a slightly oversized model is built and the excess material (which can again be reused) is removed by a subtractive process. The handling of a lesser number of SKUs, wastage reduction, the reduction in the number of product errors (increase in the sigma level) and also the speed at which the final product is created, all contribute to reduced operational expenses. The one which benefits the most out of it is possibly the parts industry, which does not make the full machine containing multiple parts assembled together (such as an automobile plant), but instead produces individual parts only (such as a factory producing only the glass coverings for the headlights and backlights).
Co-creation on the go
Perhaps the biggest impact of this technology is in co-creation. The customers are free to modify the originally offered product in any way needed. Also, since before printing, the products exists only virtually, the customers are free to modify the designs as many times as they feel like. This in turn also gives two more advantages. Firstly, the customer can do a last minute modification of the product, right up to the point of printing. This is not possible in traditional approach where a modification essentially means a re-purchase or replacement of the product bought. Secondly, the ability to freely modify an out-of-the-box design means the manufacturer can have an infinite product line with no additional operational costs. Thus instead of having different models of shoes in its stock, all a shoe manufacturer needs is a free web portal where the customer can modify the design of the shoe! Mobile apps can enable users to scan objects which converts physical form into AutoCAD designs and subsequently print it.
Beauty as a Competency
With the adoption of 3-D Printing, designs can be more free form when compared to the bland geometrical designs that are currently manufactured. Design and aesthetics may take center stage with many manufacturers having beauty as a competency. In an age where the major revenues of most company comes from the selling of their most unique competencies, entire product lines and extensions can be designed around intricate patterns or the most complex visually appealing product designs, again without any extra manufacturing and other operational expenses. However, this might sound as a death