Blog
Industrialising Open Material Technologies
Published on May 21st, 2019
This third article we explore the various aspects surrounding open material 3D printers and how they can be leveraged in an industrial context, say to produce spare parts, tooling or production parts, to create, enable or unlock sustainable value to the organisations that deploy them.
Written by Benoit Valin
3D Printing: Manpower implications
Published on May 8th, 2019
This article explores the manpower requirements, and associated roles and responsibilities, for a successful digital transformation of a spare-part supply chain, in industries with significant manufacturing footprints.
Written by Benoit Valin
3D Printing: A Game of Trading Liabilities
Published on May 2nd, 2019
This article explores the risks and liabilities of adopting 3D printing as a means of spare part production, in industries with significant manufacturing footprints.
Written by Benoit Valin
Winning 3D printing, a question of strategy
Published on March 25th, 2019
This article focuses on manufacturing organisations that are looking at 3D printing to revitalise their organisation and to gain the flexibility and resilience their need to thrive in a globalised economy.
Written by Benoit Valin
Understanding FDM Overhangs and Thin Walls
Published on August 7th, 2018
Exploring key limitation of FDM fabrication, and design strategy to overcome them.
Written by Benoit Valin
Are 3D Printing Service Bureaus Still Relevant?
Published on April 16th, 2018
Exploring the relationship between insourcing and outsourcing, the value each can create, enable or unlock in an organisation and the motivation behind choosing one over the other as a mean of maximising the impact of 3D printing in any organisation.
Written by Benoit Valin
The unsustainability of 3D printing marketplaces
Published on March 15th, 2018
A short post exploring the commercial viability of 3D printing marketplaces, and the business model that drives them.
Written by Benoit Valin
3D Printing and Industry 4.0
Published on February 24th, 2018
Unification of design rules, materials, technologies and data places the benefits of 3D printing and Industry 4.0 within reach of any OEM, where by sales & market demand would dictate production volumes and drive part movements across the supply & distribution chains, to have quality and failure data drive design and tooling refurbishment & retirement, to have true part behavior predictability from ideation to after-sales service, and to support design refactoring with actual production & market data.
Written by Benoit Valin
A practical example of 3D printed spare parts
Published on February 2nd, 2018
A story of how a $46.50 3D printed part saved an housing estate $10,000 to $15,000 in gym equipment expenditure.
Written by Benoit Valin
A business case for low-cost FDM (FFF)
Published on October 31st, 2017
The ability to demonstrate repeatability and reliability in high-value business-cases maximising the potential of FFF technology and its materials is the the only foundation needed to industrialise it.
Written by Benoit Valin
Costing HP Multi Jet Fusion Parts
Published on October 31st, 2017
An introduction to Fabnami's HP Multi Jet Fusion Costing Tool able to instantly compute the cost of any given part for all HP printer versions (3200, 4200 & 4210) and the print settings they offer (fast & balanced).
Written by Benoit Valin
3D Printed Eyewear, not ready for prime-time :(
Published on October 18th, 2017
Exploring the market readiness of 3D printing in the eyewear indutry: opportunities and limitations.
Written by Benoit Valin
3D Printing: Pricing for Growth
Published on August 22nd, 2017
Exploring the role of 3D printing services pricing as a market capture strategy and as industry growth driver
Written by Benoit Valin
3D Printing: Opportunity in Hesitation
Published on August 1st, 2017
Exploring the service bureau opportunities where both 3D printing services and 3D printer ownerships aren't effective and inline with the client's price point and budget.
Written by Benoit Valin
Strategies for 3D Printing Service Competitiveness
Published on January 17th, 2017
An overview of Three business and operations models that service bureaus can leverage to reinforce their client mandates, maximise their value proposition and maintain their competitive edge over larger competitors.
Written by Benoit Valin
UPS, SAP and FastRadius: A Partnership For Global Impact
Published on January 10th, 2017
An overview of the UPS, SAP and FastRadius partnership and its impact on clients and service bureaus.
Written by Benoit Valin
And then there were 3D
Published on September 1st, 2016
A short introduction on how service bureaus can leverage automation and outsourcing to reduce their operational costs and improve their effeciency without compromising on quality of service or client satisfaction.
Written by Benoit Valin
Field of 3D Printed Dreams
Published on August 12th, 2016
The importance of automation in pivoting the 3D printing industry to become a cost effective mean of commercial manufacturing, and on how we can leverage outsourcing of non-automatable client facing business processes and technical workflows to low cost regions to further reduce operational costs.
Written by Benoit Valin
How Much is 3D Printing Quoting Costing You?
Published on February 8th, 2016
An introduction to our Quoting Cost Calculator, a tool to help service bureaus estimate quoting expenditures and possible quote automation savings.
Written by Benoit Valin
Fabnami's Four Tips to Increase 3D Printing Service Profits
Published on November 30th, 2015
Adapted for a wider audience, this article provides an overview of four tips strategies service bureaus can leverage to cut-down their 3D printing operations costs, including: waste reduction, print bed optimisation, empowering human resources and support structure minimisation
Jointly written by Benoit Valin, Bill Toulas and Davide Sher.
Five Strategies to Cut-Down Your 3D Printing Operational Costs
Published on November 2nd, 2015
An overview of five strategies service bureaus can leverage to cut-down their 3D printing operations costs, including: sales process automation, build platforms optimisation , profitable production scheduling, factory planning and effective supply chain management.
Written by Benoit Valin
The Journey Towards 3D Printing Industry Commoditisation
Published on November 2nd, 2015
The looming commoditisation of the 3D printing industry and our hypothesis regarding the industry?s value chain division in three independent added-value segments: application, transactional and production.
Written by Benoit Valin
Nesting detection for advanced SLS pricing
Published on November 2nd, 2015
Advanced SLS pricing strategy: offset volume with nesting detection, currently positioned as the industry pricing "gold standard", and most accurate method to price SLS parts.
Written by Alessandro Usseglio Viretta
5 ways to generate (and grow) support material
Published on February 26th, 2015
This article explores the five different methods by which FDM stratasys printers uses to support parts during the manufacturing process, and discusses methods on estimating their volume (and consequently mass) to effectively estimate their price.
Written by Alessandro Usseglio Viretta
The price of 3D-things
Published on February 18th, 2015
Discussin the difficulties surrounding establishing a pricing structure for online sales of 3D printing services.
Written by Alessandro Usseglio Viretta
The Economics of the 3D Printing Bureau
Published on January 29th, 2015
An ovrview of the main issues surrounding 3D-printing bureau operations, and proposes suggestions and recommendations to maximise the likelyhood of reaching commercial viability.
Written by Alessandro Usseglio Viretta