This series of articles delves into a thought experiment.What if we let go of using a few machines very optimally, but instead use lots of different machines to meet many needs? And what if we changed ourselves from a service bureau into a manufacturing company that optimized many processes very specifically? What if we go further still and change the way we position 3D printing as a service? Welcome to Eco Design Sweden.Eco Design Sweden is not just a service for making parts; it’s a better way to make.
Positioning So let’s imagine the following service bureau.We have five HP 5600s that produce our main material, PA 11.Why PA 11? Because we’re going to specialize in PA 11 because it is a bio-based material with good performance.
Any waste well recycle on Stratasys SAF´s into an even more heart warming eco friendly series of products.We’re going to work with local designers here in Sweden to make eco-conscious products that carry our branding.We’ll work with the designers and give them free products, get them to start businesses on top of us, and use these demo parts to generate marketing and sales interest.
But it’s not just prototypes we’re making here; our consultants will work with these designers to help bring the products to market, from idea to final product.So we’re going to be working with the local design school Umeå to help them 3D print.We will give lectures and be on standby while each new student at the design school can, for one of their first assignments, design a product with us.
That way we can capture business from these students, begin a relationship with them, spot talent, work on commercializing products, and practice bringing products to markets with designers who are persnickety folks.Each year, we bring everything we make to Salone and drop our entire marketing budget on something the size of a student dorm room to showcase all these students’ work.Through our Idea2Product service, we will offer design, DfAM, consulting, and production services to clients big and small.
We’re not a 3D printing service.We’re an eco-conscious manufacturing company that can turn ideas into reality.Using PA 11, therefore, is important to the brand and will showcase the possibilities of eco-friendly materials. Eco Design Now we’re only doing the eco thing because we’re in Sweden; in the States, we could do guns or whatever works locally.
We also use Stratasys SAF to recycle our used powder in-house and turn it into parts.Our Recycle line will be used to create a variety of design products.In fact, we won’t shut up about all of the environmentally friendly design products we make using the designers we work with.
We’re going to actually contract some of these students to do design work for us.We will have local application engineers on staff to help companies industrialize and develop applications.Now we’re not doing some low-level throw-parts-over-the-hedge thing.
We’re not just a push-button print provider, of which there are now thousands.We have product development expertise, understand COGS, packaging, manuals, and getting stuff into boxes.We also collaborate with design and engineering firms in India and Colombia.
If you need marketing support, PR support, customer service, or a Kickstarter video, our partners and we can provide this.Our overseas partners can also help you follow the sun; your design and parts work don’t stop.New designs, versions, and build files are made while the Swedes sleep, for a lot less money to boot.
But we’re not only outsourcing to lower labor costs and work throughout the night.We realize that by paying high wages to star engineers overseas, we can get some of the best engineers anywhere for your project at prices you’d pay for a house painter in Sweden.House painters in Sweden are around $50 an hour, by the way.
So we can get really talented people overseas to earn significantly more than they normally would if they joined us.Some are specialized, and we may use them only a few hours a month; others we have ongoing contracts with; and others are full-time.We would need strong project managers to guide this process.
So we’ve pumped up the overhead to what end? To turn us from a part maker to a product development partner.We’re going to capture more of the pie.A Factory Floor and So Much More So sure, there is a factory floor.
And we are trying to be excellent on that factory floor.Additionally, we’re going to offer a wide range of manufacturing services to many people.We’re going to help people turn 2D into 3D; we’ll design working MRO parts for them; we can help them make their first parts; we can develop new products for them; we can roll out digital inventories for them; and we can build digital warehouses for them.
We can tell them how to implement additive and when it makes sense to do so.To me, this is a faster way to market.You don’t have to do the work and make the design; we can take care of the entire process.
And to me, this kind of Frankenservice will be much more powerful, with better relationships and better margins than a service focused solely on parts.If 3D printing is a time compression technology, an invention technology, an iteration technology, a technology to reduce time to market and democratize production, we’re going to be the business that actually tackles this challenge head on, not just focuses on one discrete part of it.The greatest demand will never be found in the people who already have files and know how they want it printed.
The greatest long term business will never be found in just printing the orders of the day.The rest of the market is saying: buy a server, buy my storage solution, integrate my product, build your factory.The rest is saying: You take the risk, You invest, You take the time.
You don´t have millions to invest? Too bad.You’re saying, we’re a YouTube for stuff.For little money and little risk up front we’ll take you on the entire journey.
In the end, it will be an idea to Invisalign business that will capture the greatest value.Images courtesy of 3DPrint.com/Joris Peels Subscribe to Our Email Newsletter Stay up-to-date on all the latest news from the 3D printing industry and receive information and offers from third party vendors.Print Services Upload your 3D Models and get them printed quickly and efficiently.
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