Remember when you could swing by the Blockbuster on your way home and grab a movie to watch? Before Netflix, there were many places we could stop by to rent a movie. These stores were once part of our routine of stopping at the grocery store, bank, get some gas, and maybe grab a movie, but now they are gone. We no longer have these rental stores in our neighborhoods.
I predict a store will someday (soon) fill the void that Blockbuster has left in our neighborhoods and routines. Instead of a neighborhood store to rent movies, it will be a neighborhood store to pickup 3D PRINTED PRODUCTS.
With the development of various 3D printing technologies, we will soon have the capability of simply printing the stuff we buy instead of ordering it on Amazon to be delivered. It won’t be practical to print most products in our own houses (come on…you know your inkjet printer cartridges are probably empty), but it would be practical for a neighborhood store to have a big, expensive 3D printer that is capable of printing anything you can imagine. This would really streamline consumerism and dramatically change the marketplace.
Currently, a company has an idea, they spend a lot of resources on developing it, they build a prototype, the prototype has flaws, they build improved prototypes, then they settle on a final design of the product, they setup assembly lines to build it (and package it), they mass produce it, they distribute it to a shipping facility, then it gets shipped to different shipping receiving facilities around the world, then it gets distributed to various retailers, then Amazon delivers it to you, or you buy it in a store. The product likely gets shipped 6 or more times. That is really inefficient, it uses a ton of resources in shipping materials, fuel, and vehicles, and it takes a ton of time. There’s also a lot of waste in packaging, overstocking of the product, and the initial development of the product. All of this can be prevented.
With 3D printing, the product can be printed when you order it, and you can go pick it up (or it can be delivered to you). That is 1 trip and no packaging required. Think of the savings in efficiency. Amazon ships stuff in Amazon boxes even though all the products already come in their own box. This double boxing and the waste that goes with it will be eliminated, and in most cases, no boxes will be needed. There will be no more overstocking. When you order 1 thing, only 1 thing gets printed. There will be no more warehouses or distribution centers. The main item to be delivered and stored would simply be 3D printers and 3D printer cartridges.
3D printers are capable of printing ANYTHING. Scientists have already successfully printed human body parts. A 3D printer simply spits out a material just like an inkjet printer spits out a color. With print cartridges of various materials, we will be able to print whatever we want. We will even be able to make new materials that don’t exist today. For example, glass, metal, plastic, etc, can be printed to be more porous on a microscopic level. Instead of the material being as dense as it is now, it can be mostly air as long as it is printed with a cellular structure fine enough to be sturdy and not leak (if it’s intended to be a cup or something). Think of a beehive. Those things are super fragile, weigh nothing, and the hexagonal patten of the comb gives it rigidity. Imagine that at a microscopic level with plastics or metals. We could effectively make materials stronger while using less material. This is similar to the concept of a castellated beam. This is a beam that has ridges cut into it to make the beam higher and stronger. It takes no more material, but you get a much stronger outcome.
Also consider the new materials that can be created. We would be able to print plastics impregnated with metals and glass. We could create materials with properties that we don’t have today. Everything can be stronger, lighter, and waste less. We could even impregnate electronics into materials. Think about impregnating materials with products that aid in the future decomposition of it, so it decays more quickly and beneficially in landfills.
Product designers and manufacturers in today’s economy must participate in so many steps to get their product into the marketplace. 3D printing will enable ANYONE (with a knowledge of 3D modeling software) to develop a product. If you have an idea or want something specific, you could model it on your computer, and pay the neighborhood 3D printer a fee to print it for you. This is similar to how YouTube has made it possible for anybody to become a “YouTube star” or to simply get their message delivered to the masses.
3D printing our own ideas could lead to a lot of amateur products that don’t work well, and this is where marketing comes in. Similar to the way Amazon promotes certain products that are geared to our own personal interests, these sort of algorithms will become more and more prevalent as paid advertising and our search history affects the products that are marketed toward each of us differently.
It will be interesting to see how the marketplace will change for the better and worse. Amazon has already created the platform for product marketing and purchasing, but I believe the network they created for product warehousing and delivery will soon become obsolete when 3D printing becomes the norm.
I look forward to hearing your feedback on this exciting future that I believe is inevitable.
If you’d like to learn more about our design process, visit www.josharch.com/process, and if you’d like to get us started on your project with a feasibility report, please visit www.josharch.com/help