{"id":18034,"date":"2014-09-25T15:43:49","date_gmt":"2014-09-25T15:43:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/?p=18034"},"modified":"2017-04-17T12:48:37","modified_gmt":"2017-04-17T16:48:37","slug":"how-shapeways-is-tackling-challenges-to-manufacturing-in-the-3d-printing-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/how-shapeways-is-tackling-challenges-to-manufacturing-in-the-3d-printing-industry","title":{"rendered":"How Shapeways is Tackling Challenges to Manufacturing in the 3D Printing Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello to all.\u00a0 My name is David Gillispie, I\u2019m the Vice President of Manufacturing for Shapeways and I thought I would start by telling you a little about myself.\u00a0 I\u2019ve worked in engineering and manufacturing for over 20-years in both start-ups and medium sized companies running their operations.\u00a0 I consider myself a lifelong learner and a dedicated practitioner of lean manufacturing and continuous improvement.\u00a0 I\u2019m super excited to start a series of discussions on manufacturing with our community.\u00a0 I would like to preface my discussion by first saying how delighted I am to interact with our community.\u00a0 One of my goals will be to keep my topics relevant and accessible.\u00a0 In the future I will cover topics on manufacturing to include lean manufacturing, innovation, processes, and manufacturing strategy.\u00a0 Your feedback and suggestions are welcomed and I\u2019ll try to make these posts informative.<\/p>\n

\"Shapeways<\/a>

Factory floor at our Long Island City facility.<\/p><\/div>\n

One of our core values at Shapeways is fun.\u00a0 We take pleasure in transforming the skill and imagination of creative individuals into tangible products.\u00a0 I would like to start with a general discussion around manufacturing challenges and strategies we use to improve our processes.<\/p>\n

Some of the challenges facing Shapeways and other 3D manufacturers for the consumer market is the lack of benchmark data.\u00a0 While Business to Business 3D printing has been going on for years, the consumer market is less established.\u00a0 There are enough similarities to make decisions on printers, materials, and some processes.\u00a0 The challenge is around the high product mix, post production, and the speed at which products must be delivered on a large scale.<\/p>\n

Our community is an exciting and diverse collection of designers and consumers who make and buy really cool products.\u00a0 As a result the products we produce seldom resemble a traditional manufacturing mix.\u00a0 Creating an efficient and steady manufacturing flow or movement of material requires capacity planning that examines product mix, build times, and available post production resources.\u00a0 Of the three, the more challenging aspect is post production.\u00a0 Post production includes break out of the product, sorting, polishing, dyeing, quality check, and distribution.\u00a0 Bottle necks or constraints in the post production process can occur with machines, material, or people.\u00a0 To mitigate the potential impact we constantly review these areas and implement process improvements or add more capacity.\u00a0 We also cross train our team members so they can flex up and down the manufacturing line.<\/p>\n

This is an exciting time to manufacture in the 3D printing industry.\u00a0 Shapeways is rewriting the book on manufacturing with the ultra-high mix, print on demand environment where quality, price, and delivery are being redefined.\u00a0 Our community is pushing us to improve and we listen to your feedback by continually improving our processes.\u00a0 If you have any questions about our materials like the white strong and flexible nylon, full colored sand stone or frosted detail; processes like polishing, dyeing, sorting; or our equipment like our printers\u00a0 \u00a0\u2013 please don\u2019t hesitate to ask.\u00a0 I look forward to hearing from you and answering your questions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello to all.\u00a0 My name is David Gillispie, I\u2019m the Vice President of Manufacturing for Shapeways and I thought I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":18036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[510],"tags":[850,853,854,851,554,849,852],"class_list":["post-18034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-3d-printing-industry","tag-additive-manufacturing","tag-cost","tag-delivery","tag-lean","tag-manufacturing","tag-production","tag-quality"],"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/factory-floor-1-625x351.jpg","yoast_head":"\nHow Shapeways is Tackling Challenges to Manufacturing in the 3D Printing Industry - Shapeways Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hello to all.\u00a0 My name is David Gillispie, I\u2019m the Vice President of Manufacturing for Shapeways 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