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The production of goods with individual characteristics is one of the trends in the consumer market. However, personification has not yet become a popular phenomenon. Is this idea promising for business development?
When the problem of a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) for doctors became acute, the owners of 3D printers united in the volunteer movement #3D for doctors. They began to print adapters, which made it possible to connect diving masks with virus-bacterial filters. Manufacturers were able to quickly develop and release adapters in various configurations for popular types of masks found in stores, quickly covered burning needs and saved many lives – and then began to make full-fledged protective masks and shields.
Mask adapters – example customized product (made to order. — Trends), that is, adapted to different types of masks. How quickly manufacturers were able to design and release a new product with unique characteristics demonstrates the main advantages of XNUMXD printing.
3D printing allows you to create products based on the preferences or personal characteristics of the buyer – personalized goods. This idea arose in the early 2000s, but so far, contrary to forecasts and the rapid development of additive technologies, has not become a mass phenomenon.
Problems of personification
Nike and Adidas have been experimenting with 2012D printing in the production of sneakers since 3. The goal is to create sports shoes in the presence of the buyer according to the individual characteristics of his foot. For example, Adidas said in 2015 that a consumer could walk into a store, spend a couple of minutes on the treadmill, and immediately receive a printed pair of running shoes that take into account the contours of the foot and pressure points while running. At the same time, Nike announced the possibility of printing shoes directly at the customer’s home. To do this, you just need to download the file with the parameters of the sneakers and the characteristics of the foot from the corporation’s website to your home 3D printer.
However, by 2020, these opportunities have remained unrealized. In practice, everything turned out to be more difficult.
The point is the high cost of such products: the consumer is not ready to pay many times more for customized sneakers when you can choose the right model from thousands of more affordable options.
Customization does not take root among automakers either. For example, in 2017, BMW launched the MINI Yours Customized service, which allows you to customize a new or previously purchased MINI car using decorative elements printed on a 3D printer. For example, it was possible to order individual side body inserts, trim parts, LED door sills and LED door projectors. However, the service is currently unavailable.
Where did personification take root?
So far, 3D printing is most actively used in medicine, where it is vital to take into account the individual characteristics of a person. First of all, the technology is useful in orthopedics and dentistry for the manufacture of prostheses and implants. Customization is especially in demand in the production of prosthetic limbs. With the help of 3D scanning, the parameters of the patient are determined, a digital model of the prosthesis is created, which is printed on a 3D printer. In this case, you can create a unique design of the artificial limb. For example, they produce children’s prostheses stylized as favorite movie characters.
Another area where 3D printing is being used to customize products is the production of jewelry and costume jewelry. There are enterprises that produce mass products using XNUMXD printing, for example, the American brands LACE, Nervous System and others. Customization is carried out, first of all, by small studios and workshops offering exclusive jewelry. They print digital models created according to customer sketches or cast them from precious materials using XNUMXD printed molds.
“The prospects for personalized production depend on the specific market,” says Denis Vlasov, founder of 3DSLA – 3D printers. — Why did 3D technologies take root among dentists and jewelers? These are businesses that work with a unique client. In addition, dental clinics or jewelry workshops are geo-referenced and serve a specific area. Therefore, they can vary the price without much risk that all customers will run away to the neighboring area.
As for most goods, the price works here in 99% of cases. Especially when the share of online sales is growing. You type in Google “buy a fountain pen is the cheapest” – and no matter where you are, you buy this fountain pen cheaper. This is where mass production wins.
You can come up with a lot of products that could be customized. But you need to be clear about who you will sell them to. Are there enough people willing to overpay for customization to keep your business alive? “In your calculations, you need to take into account real consumer demand, and not the desire to make money on hype,” says Vlasov. “The conclusion is simple: personalized production is possible when it will give approximately the same price as mass production.”
Denis Alekseev, Head of Development and Production Department of ROBBO JSC (educational robotics, resident of Skolkovo), I am sure that personalized production will become a popular trend of the future. But in order to attract the mass consumer to this segment, it is necessary to overcome a number of technical and organizational issues. For the end user, the process of ordering a customized product should be as simple as possible: with a few steps, order what he wants, while receiving the finished product quickly and conveniently. The cost of individual products may be higher, but this increase must be of value to the customer.
The main disadvantages of XNUMXD printing:
low production speed;
often low quality products;
high cost of the product when trying to mass production.
“As 3D printing advances and the fleet of 3D printers grows, the possibilities for additive manufacturing will grow,” Alekseev says. – Probably, in the future, a distributed network of 3D printers will be able to compete with traditional mass production, localized at one enterprise. In any case, the issues of quality and cost of products produced on 3D printers must be resolved.”
How to reduce the cost of a customized product?
The cost of the finished product primarily depends on the materials for 3D printing. One way to cut costs is to produce consumables yourself.
“If I created the production of personalized products, I would solve the issue of creating consumables at the point of consumption,” explains Denis Vlasov. – That is, if I planned to produce shoes with custom soles, then I would start producing polymers for them. If you control the cost of consumables, you can get a very good selling price for the finished product.”
Another option to reduce the cost of consumables is possible with the development of additive technologies and the development of new materials for printing.
“Our country produces enough materials for 3D printing of acceptable quality. We will definitely not produce materials ourselves, because this is a separate business that requires other competencies,” says Artur Gerasimov, CEO of Innovax (Skolkovo resident). “But what could reduce the cost of 3D production in principle is the emergence of direct-to-raw printing technology. Currently, materials in the form of powder or filaments are used for printing. If we exclude the intermediate stage of processing raw materials and create equipment that will work on the source material – granules, without an additional stage of processing it into powder or thread, this will reduce the cost of materials by 5-10 times. Such developments are currently underway.
The main question is: who will buy it?
Entrepreneurs who will find the answer to the question: who will buy them will be able to develop the production of personalized goods? Businesses that already operate in a particular market and feel the needs of their audience can feel the demand. It is almost impossible to guess – you need to be sure of the demand.
“Now we are the only ones in our country who simultaneously produce printing consumables, 3D printers, software, and a hardware platform,” says Denis Vlasov. “With this model, we could create good conditions for the production of customized products. But we cannot burst into thousands of applications of our technologies. We are not interested in building small businesses ourselves. We create a system – the root and trunk of the tree. And branches and leaves, small markets and businesses, should be grown by those who understand their needs and rules of the game well. And we are ready for such cooperation.”
Artur Gerasimov notes that small-scale production is promising for business development using additive technologies. One of the areas of work of his company Innovax is the production of parts and mechanisms by order of industrial enterprises from the automotive industry, instrument making, and the aerospace industry.
“The desire for individuality, conscious consumption are global trends, they will also have an impact on consumer demand,” believes Zhamilya Kameneva, Business Development Director, I-Teco Innovation Center LLC. — Despite the difficult economic situation, the production of personalized goods remains a promising niche for start-ups and a good idea to launch new business lines at existing production facilities. This is confirmed by the interest in additive technologies on the part of the participants of the Promtech program aimed at supporting high-tech solutions for industry.”
The customization boom will occur when the buyer can get a personalized product at the same price and as quickly as a mass product. Therefore, it is up to the development of technologies and services.
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