Why should I be 3D Printing? - Incremental Production

There are many business situations where 3D printing can achieve cost savings - in this case we will look at how 3D printing can avoid excessive purchasing.

3D printers can produce parts one by one, which I call incremental production (similar to 'job production'). Rather than ordering or producing parts in batches, they can be produced incrementally in a precise quantity as low as a single unit.

In addition to this capability, the costing of 3D printed parts is mostly linear. Aside from a short start-up time and purging of material, 2 prints will be approximately double the cost of a single part. Provided the machine is already loaded, there are negligible fixed costs involved with printing the part – each unit is effectively the same cost. There is no delivery fee or cost to sending a new design to the printer.

Note: To clarify, the fixed costs of a given 3D print are negligible, not zero. There is a power cost involved with preheating, internet usage to send the file and a time cost in walking to and from the machine.

Minimum order quantities (MOQ’s) are most often a barrier for small businesses because their demand is not high enough to satisfy the MOQ’s. This can lead to small businesses ordering years’ worth of supply. If the parts are inappropriate, or product designs change, these parts would either be thrown away or these changes would have to be delayed until the stock is used up. This becomes even more prohibitive when there are many parts used with varying frequency, from many suppliers with differing MOQ’s.

In addition to MOQ’s, every business has to pay for shipping in their parts. If you think you have free shipping, really, you’re just paying for it as part of the final price. I assure you that a discount could be negotiated if you were to pick it up.

By bringing the production of parts in house, several different deliveries can be circumvented. Instead, they will be replaced with a single delivery which would be your 3D printing materials. With a single spool of printing material, you can make millions of different parts. None of these parts will have delivery fees or minimum order quantities. In addition, the production, supply and quality of these parts is completely in your control.

In addition to saving in total costs, 3D printing can have a significant impact on cash flow. This is because you will no longer need to order more than the parts you require, allowing you to deploy money elsewhere in your business such as in marketing.

If incremental production would be beneficial to your business, consider implementing 3D printing. If you'd like help with your implementations, 3D Printing For Business is here for you.

Thanks for reading,

Simon

simon@3dprintingforbusiness.com.au