Is printing manufacturing suitable for multi variety and small batch production?

The "scale trap" of traditional manufacturing: the problem of high costs for making many different things in tiny quantities
The main idea behind traditional manufacturing is "economies of scale," and it cuts costs by creating moulds, fixing production lines, and making a lot of products at once. But this model shows three big problems when there are a lot of different types and small batches:
Moulds are expensive: For example, in injection moulding, a single set of moulds can cost tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of yuan, and the cost of moulds with complex structures goes up by a huge amount. A specific consumer electronics company once had to pay three times as much for each piece since they had to customize 500 sets of shell moulds.
The production cycle takes a long time; it takes 4 to 8 weeks to make the mould, test it, make changes, and do other things. If the design changes, the mould has to be opened again, which adds more time to the cycle. A certain company that makes car parts missed the market window because a customer changed the design for a short time, which delayed delivery by three months.
Risk of accumulating inventory: Companies need to keep a lot of safety stock on hand to deal with changes in demand, but when forecasts are wrong, they often end up with too much inventory. The printing machines company's inventory turnover rate is only 15 to 18 times a year, and the cost of capital occupation is more than 20% of the profit. The "flexible advantage" of 3D printing: from "economies of scale" to "responsive economy"
3D printing immediately fixes the three biggest problems with traditional manufacturing and offers a new way to make a lot of different things in small batches:
No mould cost: the "economic revolution" of on-demand manufacture
3D printing makes solid things straight from digital models, so there are no fees for making moulds. For example, making 500 plastic pieces for engineering:
The cost of a traditional injection mould is between 50,000 and 200,000 yuan, and the overall cost is between 51,000 and 201,000 yuan. The cost of 3D printing (SLS nylon) is just 25,000 yuan for each item.
A specific medical equipment company makes custom surgical guides using 3D printing. This cuts the cost of each piece by 65% compared to traditional CNC machining and eliminates the need to store multiple specifications of inventory. This allows for precise medical treatment of "one patient, one version."
Quick iteration: "zero cost response" to changes in design
With 3D printing, you can do "design print test optimization" in a closed loop, which means that you can make changes to the design by merely changing the digital model instead of needing a new mould. One company that makes electronic products employs 3D printing to make shell prototypes and does five version tests in one day. Traditional CNC milling, on the other hand, takes several days. In the process of making fuel nozzles, GE Aviation used 3D printing to combine 20 elements into one. This cut the weight by 25%, the time it took to make the nozzles by 6 months to 2 weeks, and the number of design iterations by 70%.
Distributed production: "Localized reconstruction" of the supply chain
3D printing enables distributed manufacturing, enabling companies to establish printing centres in proximity to clients, hence cutting delivery times and mitigating transportation concerns. During the pandemic, a medical company cut the delivery time from 45 days to 72 hours by making ventilator parts locally with 3D printing. This kept the global supply chain from being disrupted. A specific car company has set up 3D printing centres throughout North America, Europe, and Asia so that they can change their production plans in real time based on demand in each region. This has led to a 50% increase in the rate at which their inventory turns over.
Industry Practice: 3D printing's big step forward in situations with many different types of items and small batches
Adidas is the first company to use "mass customization" to make sports shoe bottoms.
Adidas has teamed up with Carbon to make a lot of 3D-printed shoe soles utilizing digital light synthesis technology (CLIP). This method can print shoe soles with grid patterns in less than 19 minutes, which is
Lightweight: reduce 15% of your body weight and get better at sports;
Personalization: Allow for bespoke designs for diverse foot types and sports situations;
Scale up: In 2019, the company made more than a million pairs, and the price became reasonable.
This model shows that technical optimization can bring together "personalization" and "batch" in 3D printing.
Case 2: Align Technology's "Global Flexible Supply Chain" for Invisible Orthodontics
Align Technology makes more than 320,000 pairs of invisible braces per day using 3D Systems' SLA printers. This is possible because:
Flexibility in design: Each orthodontic device is made for a specific stage of correction for each patient, and CAD files provide a unique ID to each one to avoid confusion.
No stock: made to order, with more than 9 million consumers throughout the world and an inventory turnover rate that is almost infinite;
Cost optimization: 3D printing cuts manufacturing risks and lowers unit costs by 40% compared to other methods.
Case 3: Yuanzhu Intelligence makes industrial equipment parts "on demand."
The FUNMAT PRO 410 printer by Yuanzhu Intelligence uses 3D printing technology to make things like nozzle covers.
Comparing costs: The cost of 3D printing 500 nozzle covers is 55% less than the cost of traditional injection moulding.
Better efficiency: Print 54 air guides in 3.5 hours to fulfill the needs of fast delivery of small batches;
Material Innovation: Printing material axis lifting rods out of PC material makes them lighter and easier to repair when they wear out. This cuts individual expenses by 85% compared to machining.