What do you make of 3D printing? Until recently, I had never really thought about it. At most I thought of it as fairly rudimentary and, well, a bit gimmicky. A thing for school kids and geeks to make figurines and such like with in the classroom.

I’ve changed. And 3D is a big thing.

A small news item in the back pages of the newspaper caught my eye recently. Mercedes-Benz are now using 3D printing to make spare parts for their trucks. Not only current models but old ones too.  As Andreas Deuschle, Head of Marketing & Operations in the Customer Services & Parts Mercedes-Benz Trucks Division, explains “The range (we make) also includes spare parts for which there is only a low demand in small quantities every year. Producing them is thus increasingly uneconomical for suppliers – production facilities and tools often have to be retained and maintained for years. With the 3D printing process these challenges are a thing of the past. For every 3D spare part is available on demand at short notice all over the world.”

Wow.

Just think of the implications of this. Putting aside the savings in shipping, does this not herald a return to an earlier era when instead of chucking broken stuff out we could repair it? I would imagine that one could soon get online and order a spare part for that treasured old car, or for that otherwise perfectly serviceable thingo that needs only a new wotsit to keep it running.

If that is the case, what are the implications for how we design and manufacture? Will it not mean a change in the philosophy of in-built obsolescence (the mantra for much of late 20^th century design and manufacturing processes)? And what changes will 3D printing make to the way we market products and communicate benefits over time?

The implications of 3D printing are clearly enormous.  I’m not sure we have yet fully realised these implications, but one thing is for sure – the future will be amazing.

Written by Tim