Taking the first step

The secret to getting ahead is getting started

Throughout this book, you have seen companies across an array of industires using 3D printing to transform their businesses, create new revenue opportunities, and gain competitive advantages. But what you will have also come to realize is that organizations that successfully deploy 3D printing in their business do not simply buy a machine.

While engineering-driven initiatives can produce interesting concepts, true business transformation requires a strategy to drive and sustain change; understand what 3D printing can do in the context of your business, develop the future state, and execute the change management needed to get there.

3D printing, properly deployed, will also challenge the ways that program management, designers, engineers, and procurement have traditionally operated. As many of the examples described in this book demonstrate, conventional methods of design, purchasing, ROI calculation, and supply chain configuration won’t work when adopting additive; your organization must be prepared to break down the status quo and start thinking additively.

Furthermore, in order to sustain an additive initiative, you must develop KPIs that encourage adoption of 3D printing. Most likely, your current metrics will be tailored to optimizing your existing business processes. Reevaluate these metrics and ensure that they are providing incentives to take risks, experiment with 3D printing, and discover new opportunities for value creation.

It is the purview of the executive to drive long-term change that impacts not just the next quarter’s results, but the long-term trajectory of the business. A leader needs to live in the future. In order to deploy 3D printing throughout your organization, the journey must be leadership driven. Leadership must define 3D printing as a business priority, develop the strategy, and provide the resources to build an ecosystem and enable people. Perhaps more important, you must build a culture that is willing to change in pursuit of the better and you must provide incentives that sustain that culture.

Reading this book has hopefully inspired some ideas of how and where 3D printing can make changes in your business. Certainly, you have identified benefits that your organization can leverage in the near-term, but we hope that you have also identified opportunities for long-term transformational business benefits that 3D printing can enable. Achieving the kinds of transformational impacts that some of the companies featured in this book have will require executive level leadership and a long-term commitment to investing in people, processes, technology, culture, and incentives.