Monthly Archives: September 2013

3-D Printing on Paper

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SEPTEMBER 6, 2013

Printing of the head, from the movie "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia"

The exciting topic of 3-D printing continues to evolve, now with a new process called “Selective Deposition Lamination” (SDL). Each 3-D printer builds up objects, layer by layer, but what the layers are made of varies from one to another. Some extrude filaments of molten plastic. Some spray special “inks,” such as liquid polymers that solidify when exposed to ultraviolet light. Some use powdered plastic or powdered metal that is then fixed in place with a laser or an electron beam.  For all of these, the process can be expensive, as manufacturers put a high markup on their printing materials, just as the producers of 2-D printers do on their ink. Now, reports The Economist (Aug. 10, 2013) there is yet another way.  Office supply company Staples is introducing machine prints that are made of a substance that Staples has in abundance: sheets of paper–at 5% of the cost of the materials for other 3-D systems.

In the case of SDL, the process starts by the machine applying drops of adhesive to a sheet of paper. Then the machine slides a second sheet of paper on top of the first and presses them together to bond them. The process continues, layer by layer, until the object is complete. It is then removed from the machine, the supporting material is peeled away, and the finished item, which has a consistency similar to wood, is revealed. Adding color involves old-fashioned 2-D printing. Each sheet, before it is put in the stack, is printed top and bottom with appropriate ink in a pattern that follows the edge of the item at the level this sheet of paper will occupy.

Staples hopes people will use their imaginations and print all sorts of other things as the firm expands the service throughout its chain. One day, as more office documents migrate to cyberspace, 3D printing with paper may even overtake the 2D sort. (For a lengthy overall look at 3-D printers, see The Economist –Sept. 7, 2013).

This post provided courtesy of Jay and Barry’s OM Blog at www.heizerrenderom.wordpress.com. Professors Jay Heizer and Barry Render are authors of Operations Management , the world’s top selling textbook in its field, published by Pearson.

The Rise of American Manufacturing

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SEPTEMBER 2, 2013

us cost advantage

A US that’s a world beater on manufacturing costs?

It could be, according to the just published Boston Consulting Group (BCG) report (discussed in The Wall Street Journal, Aug. 30, 2013), about how the U.S. is fast becoming one of the developed world’s lowest-cost manufacturers. The report details how declining energy costs—the result of the shale boom—are giving the U.S. a greater competitive edge globally.  As seen in the graph, this translates to a double-digit percentage advantage in key costs by 2015. “The trends are accelerating,” says BCG.

U.S. manufacturing is becoming so cost competitive that by the end of the decade it will grab away $70 billion to $115 billion in annual exports from other countries—products that will be made in the U.S. and shipped abroad. The losers: chiefly Europe and Japan. Add to this some manufacturing that will be “reshored” from China, and the U.S. could gain up to 5 million new jobs, including service jobs, BCG forecasts.

Productivity gains in the U.S. are another tailwind. BCG looked at 8 low-cost states, primarily in the Southeast, to which manufacturing is already gravitating. Adjusted for productivity, average labor costs by 2015 will beat Japan by 18%, Germany 34%, and France 35%.

The study helps explain why Dow Chemical this week confirmed it will expand its manufacturing operations in Texas and Louisiana, and why scores of other companies—from Siemens to Toyota to Michelin—are expanding U.S. production, too. More than a year ago, Siemen’s CEO stated that cheap energy in the U.S. was already a game changer—the biggest competitive advantage the U.S. has gained in decades. The wholesale price of natural gas in the U.S. has dropped by half since 2005, cutting the cost of feedstock and fuel. By comparison, natural gas costs 2.6 to 3.8 times more in Europe and Japan.

This post provided courtesy of Jay and Barry’s OM Blog at www.heizerrenderom.wordpress.com. Professors Jay Heizer and Barry Render are authors of Operations Management , the world’s top selling textbook in its field, published by Pearson.