3D opportunity

for product design

Additive manufacturing
and the early stage

A Deloitte series on additive manufacturing

3D opportunity for product design: Additive manufacturing and the early stage

About the authors

Joann Michalik
Joann Michalik is a director in Deloitte Consulting LLPs Manufacturing Strategy & Operations
group, where she leads the power generation industry group and advanced technologies for the
Manufacturing practice. She focuses on applying the latest technologies to transform manufacturers. Michalik has a BS in engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Jim Joyce
Jim Joyce is a specialist leader in Deloitte Consulting LLPs Manufacturing Strategy & Operations
group, where he leads the Additive Manufacturing and Advanced Supply Chain practices.
He has an MBA from the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and a BA and
MA Jurisprudence from the University of Oxford. He is a former captain in the United States
Marine Corps.

Ross Barney
Ross Barney is a former manager with Deloitte Consulting LLP.

Grey McCune
Grey McCune is a former consultant with Deloitte Consulting LLP.

Deloitte Consulting LLPs Supply Chain and Manufacturing Operations practice

helps companies understand and address opportunities to apply advanced
manufacturing technologies to impact their businesses performance, innovation,
and growth. Our insights into additive manufacturing allow us to help
organizations reassess their people, process, technology, and innovation strategies
in light of this emerging set of technologies. Contact the authors for more
information, or read more about our alliance with 3D Systems and our 3D Printing
Discovery Center on www.deloitte.com.

A Deloitte series on additive manufacturing

Contents
Introduction|2
PDD and the AM framework|4
AM in designing and prototyping for traditional manufacturing|6
Designing and prototyping for full AM production|10
On the other hand . . .|12
The paradigm of design for digital production|16
Endnotes|18
Contacts|21

3D opportunity for product design: Additive manufacturing and the early stage

Introduction
I

N many ways, Detroits 2015 North American

International Auto Show was the same as it
is every year. Giants of the automobile industry filled a formidable convention center with
futuristic concept cars, sports cars, and luxury
sedans. Droves of gawking consumers and
reporters, in turn, huddled around the latest
fruits of assembly lines that have been evolving and expanding since the early days of the
Industrial Revolution.
But this year, Phoenix-based Local Motors
showed up to the worlds biggest auto show
without a car. Instead, representatives took
their place among the paragons of automobile design and proceeded to printyes,
printthe latest version of their Strati, the
worlds first 3D-printed car.1 Founded in
2007, Local Motors set out to reinvent the

process of designing and manufacturing a car,

crowdsourcing design and technology, and
establishing microfactories to bring forth the
final products. The company is using additive
manufacturing (AM) to replace the economies
of scale that can stymie the commercialization of new products with economies of scope
that can help get products to market faster and
cheaperand test and launch new ideas as
quickly as designers can draw them up.2
Many analysts tout AMs potential to
influence the ways companies can produce
and deliver products to customers (figure 1).
AM already touches a myriad of industries
including aerospace and defense, automotive, consumer products, industrial products,
medical devices, and architectureand the
market size for AM systems and support

AM is an important technological innovation that helps manufacturers break existing performance tradeoffs
in two fundamental ways. First, AM helps reduces the capital involved in achieving economies of scale.
Second, it can increase flexibility and reduce the capital needed to achieve scope.
Capital versus scale: AM has the potential to reduce the capital required to reach minimum efficient scale
for production, thus lowering the barriers to entry for manufacturing in a given location.
Capital versus scope: The flexibility of AM can facilitate an increase in the variety of products a unit of
capital can produce, reducing the costs typically associated with production changeovers and customization
and/or the overall amount of necessary capital.
Changing the capital-versus-scale relationship has the potential to influence product designs and help
improve the ways supply chains are configured. These impacts can enable companies to choose between
four tactical paths to deploy AM across their businesses:
Path I: Companies do not radically alter their supply chains or products, but they may explore AM
technologies to help improve value delivery for current products within existing supply chains.
Path II: Companies take advantage of scale economics offered by AM to help transform supply chains for
the products they offer.
Path III: Companies take advantage of the scope economics offered by AM technologies to enable new
levels of performance in the products they offer.
Path IV: Companies alter supply chains as well as products in pursuit of new business models.

A Deloitte series on additive manufacturing

products/services ballooned by 35 percent

to an estimated $3.1 billion in 2013.3 But no
discussion of AMs role in a value chain can
be complete without an understanding of
how these technologies can enhance the ways
manufacturers and designers develop their
offerings, in everything from strengthening

weak supply chain links to fabricating nearinstant prototypes. A closer look at the product
development and design (PDD) process reveals
several avenues for manufacturers trying to
improve performance, innovation, and growth
to leverage AM.

Figure 1. Framework for understanding AM paths and potential value

High product change

Strategic imperative: Balance of

growth, innovation, and
performance
Value driver: Balance of profit, risk,
and time
Key enabling AM capabilities:
Customization to customer
requirements
Increased product functionality
Market responsiveness
Zero cost of increased complexity

Path I: Stasis
Strategic imperative: Performance
Value driver: Profit with a cost
focus
Key enabling AM capabilities:
Design and rapid prototyping
Production and custom tooling
Supplementary or insurance
capability
Low rate production/no
changeover

Path IV: Business model

evolution
Strategic imperative: Growth and
innovation
Value driver: Profit with revenue
focus, and risk
Key enabling AM capabilities:
Mass customization
Manufacturing at point of use
Supply chain disintermediation
Customer empowerment

Path II: Supply chain

evolution
Strategic imperative: Performance
Value driver: Profit with a cost
focus, and time
Key enabling AM capabilities:
Manufacturing closer to point
of use
Responsiveness and flexibility
Management of demand
uncertainty
Reduction in required inventory

No product change

High supply chain change

No supply chain change

Path III: Product evolution

Graphic: Deloitte University Press | DUPress.com

3D opportunity for product design: Additive manufacturing and the early stage

PDD and the AM framework

B

ECAUSE the design and development

process typically has such a pervasive
impact on the products a company offers, its
fit within the AM framework is a nuanced one,
offering value that potentially stretches across
all four paths.4 Taking a structured approach
to thinking about how AM fits within the business, however, can help to contextualize these
nuances and identify the impact of AM in various activities and paths to value. More broadly,
the technologys twofold impact encompasses
rapid prototyping (RP) and the more emergent
concept of digitally optimal design (DOD).

Digitally optimal design, in contrast, takes

final-part production very much into account:
During the design phase, organizations would
purposefully develop products intended for
end use on AM systems. DOD can enable
totally new products and features that take
advantage of the AM processs capabilities.
Furthermore, DOD enables transformative
changes to existing product development and
design processes, such as the ability to easily
and cheaply redesign products and the ability
to use nontraditional sources of design information, including 3D scanning. While DOD
adoption is still nascent,
some industry researchers are already hailing
its potential competitive impacts: In 2014,
Gartner stated, Design
reuse, faster product
launch and introduction, better aftermarket
services, improved
product quality, and
greater consistency between contract manufacturers all indicate [the] high competitive value
of AM in manufacturing operations.7
Figure 2 illustrates the differences between
traditional PDD, RP, and DOD. For traditional
PDD and RP, essentially the same product
ultimately reaches the marketplace. The difference is that, with RP, companies tend to be able
to deliver new products faster and cheaper,
thanks to AMs ability to create new design
alternatives with less investment in setup, tooling, and machine changeover. The DOD alternative illustrates the use of AM in production
as well as within PDD. This use in production
opens up entirely new avenues for the PDD
process, enabling the delivery of components

During the design phase, organizations

would purposefully develop products
intended for end use on AM systems.
Throughout a large portion of its 30-year
history, AM was almost entirely used in rapid
prototyping applications.5 Indeed, such was
the close association between AM and rapid
prototyping over the past three decades that
the two terms were often used interchangeablynotwithstanding that they are not
strictly synonymous.6 Rapid prototyping
remains an important use of AM; however,
in more recent years, AM has found applications throughout the value chain. Today, RP
can accelerate the development process while
reducing costs by using 3D printing to create
prototypeswithout necessarily considering
how final-part production might incorporate
the technology.

A Deloitte series on additive manufacturing

Figure 2. Comparison of non-AM, RP, and DOD product design and development processes

Product design &

development

Manufacturing

End product

Traditional

Traditional

Traditional

Additive
manufacturing

Traditional

Non-AM

Rapid
prototyping
(RP)

Traditional

Digitally
optimal
design
(DOD)
Additive
manufacturing

Additive
manufacturing

(brought to market
faster, cheaper, but still
limited by traditional
manufacturing)

Breakthrough

(products only
possible/practical
because they are
designed and produced
with AM)

Graphic: Deloitte University Press | DUPress.com

that may have been previously impossible or

impractical to produce using traditional manufacturing and design methods.8
Rapid prototyping is located within the
stasis (i.e., path I) quadrant of Deloittes
AM framework. This is not to suggest that RP
cannot offer benefits in other quadrants but,
rather, that the overall impact of RP will not
necessarily revolutionize the end products or
the manner in which they are delivered.
DOD, on the other hand, represents a less
straightforward application, since the ability

to manufacture what was previously impractical or impossible suggests that design, too,
can strive for what was once impractical or
impossible. AM designers can now design for
performance with less regard for traditional
limitations of design for assembly or manufacturing.9 This new design frontier may be one
of the AM movements most exciting elements,
because it opens up routes to the product
enhancement and business model evolution
quadrants of Deloittes framework.10

3D opportunity for product design: Additive manufacturing and the early stage

AM in designing and
prototyping for traditional
manufacturing
A

S noted above, product design has

predominantly used AM to communicate and design products that are produced

using traditional manufacturing methods,

an application that falls firmly in the stasis
(path I) quadrant. Figure 3 identifies four ways

Figure 3. Rapid prototyping can produce AM outputs for four distinct purposes

MODEL

Production

PROTOTYPE

PATTERN

TOOL

Examples

Purpose

Output

Design

Communication

Validation

Replication

Pre-production

Concept models

Form, fit

Wax patterns

Fixtures, jigs

Appearance
models

Functional testing

Cutting guides

Inspection tools

Images provided courtesy of 3D Systems (NYSE: DDD). Used with permission.

Graphic: Deloitte University Press | DUPress.com

A Deloitte series on additive manufacturing

in which 3D printing can be used to support

traditional manufacturing through both the
design and production stages. The bulk of AM
sales, including both machines and services,
has traditionally been driven by design and
communication needs in support of traditional
manufacturing; however, part creation through
AM increased to 28 percent of end-use applications in 2013, continuing AMs trend toward
production use.11 Despite AMs growing production prowess, the design and prototyping
markets still offer considerable space to grow
in the coming years: One analyst projects that
the prototyping/prosumer/education penetration rate, currently 9
to 23 percent, will rise to 29 to 76
percent in 2017.12
Early adopters of AM for
design in support of traditional
manufacturing were mostly automotive and aerospace companies,
and these early adopters remain
invested in the technology. Nearly
three years ago, for instance, Ford
began putting a 3D printer on
every engineers desk, making
the technology integral to R&D
efforts.13 However, AMs usage in
PDD has now gone far beyond
traditional manufacturing giants.
As Autodesk technology futurist Jordan Brandt
recently explained regarding shifts in design,
The hardware, software, and materials are all
combining. Its hard to differentiate between
them now. To innovate in one, you have to
innovative in all three.14 Further adoption of
AM technology in this capacity appears inevitable as investment costs decline and as more
companies recognize the numerous potential
benefits of incorporating 3D printing in the
design process.
Compared to other methods, AM can offer
several benefits in creating prototypes and
models, bolstering a products value by increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the
design process. These benefits generally arise
in three areas:

Saving time in the development cycle

Reducing costs in the development cycle
Enhancing the final products quality
and design
The first two benefits highlight AMs advantages over many conventional methods of creating prototypes and models. (Unsurprisingly,
there is a strong connection between time
spent and money spent in the development
process, but for the purposes of this article, we
are classifying each as a stand-alone benefit.)

Compared to other methods, AM

can offer several benefits in creating
prototypes and models, bolstering
a products value by increasing the
efficiency and effectiveness of the
design process.
The third benefit tends to be more difficult
to quantify, but it originates from the fact
that AM enables companies to iterate more
prototypes within a pre-existing budget; this
can lead to more testing, which likely yields
better product designs. Additionally, AM helps
make it easier to conquer the typical distance
between designers and product stakeholders
(customers, manufacturers, packaging, etc.), as
users can send prototypes as CAD files to be
printed elsewhere.

Saving time
Typically, using AM in the design process
can save time in three ways: by dramatically
shrinking the time between design creation
and prototype, by reducing the effort and
schedule impact caused by iterative design
7

3D opportunity for product design: Additive manufacturing and the early stage

work, and/or by increasing organizational

alignment to accelerate decision making.
First, AM can largely eliminate delays in
waiting for prototypes. Traditionally, creating
prototypes involves custom tooling, coordination with external suppliers, and multiple
handoffs that could invite miscommunication
and introduce risk. By allowing a designer to
print directly from a digital file, early-stage
prototype creation can become a fast and effective part of the development process.
AM can also substantially reduce rework
effort, since delays caused by multiple design
iterationseach starting the process over
typically waste a substantial amount of time.
Removing the need for tooling changes and
incorporating seamless prototype creation
enables rapid design iterations with little
incremental impact.
Finally, incorporating 3D printing into
the design process not only enables technical
validation, but can also accelerate alignment
within the broader organization on a new
designa key success factor often overlooked
toward the end of a design process. Using AM
can allow engineers to explain and demonstrate a new design to a variety of geographically dispersed stakeholderscomplete with
physical modelseven at remote sites.
AM has helped multiple companies save
time in the design process. For example,
Turbine Technologies (a US-based manufacturer of educational laboratory equipment)
integrated MultiJet printing into its prototyping process to help reduce the effort and schedule impacts on PDD processes, long reliant
on complex, investment-grade wax prototype
casting. In particular, Turbine Technologies
was able to print turbine wax mold patterns
in 18 hours as a single component, in contrast
to its 170-hour traditional multi-tool process
requiring 170 hours. The company was able to
directly translate these time gains into competitive advantage and, as a result, landed a key
defense contract.15 AM rapid prototyping can
also save time by accelerating decision making.
One athletic apparel company, for example, has
been able to streamline its product evaluation
8

process from four to six weeks to just one to

two days.16

Reducing costs
In addition to streamlining schedules, using
AM in the design process can drive substantial
cost savings through insourcing, inexpensive
prototypes, and reduced change orders.
Insourcing the creation of prototypes
through AM can offer direct cost savings that
go beyond the cost of material for a model.
The development time required to prepare for
traditional manufacturing methods (including creating manufacturing prints and layouts,
programming CNC machines, and designing
tooling) can largely be eliminated, as can the
need to communicate and coordinate with
an external design shop when the designer
can print a prototype in-house. For example,
when one NASCAR race team adopted fused
deposition modeling (an AM technology)
to produce prototype parts for wind-tunnel
testing, the team was able to slash testing costs
by 89 percent and reduce development time
by two-thirds.17 In addition, AM can dramatically reduce a prototypes total material cost,
as elimination of scrap and lack of tooling
creation often offsets the higher per-volume
costs of raw materials.

Enhancing quality and design

Aside from accelerating the design process,
additive manufacturing can lead to better
designs, helping to develop products with
enhanced quality, performance, and manufacturability. Faster prototyping typically means
that a team can go through more design and
review cycles during the development phase.
Furthermore, AMs ability to help reduce barriers to testing concepts can cultivate an increase
in designers entrepreneurial behaviorthey
can, for example, proactively share printed preprototype models to gauge market acceptance
for consumer products, experiment with more
radical designs with little risk, and test more
frequently so they can avoid negatively impacting the more conservative design progression.

A Deloitte series on additive manufacturing

AM can also bring forth better products

by helping designers to engage with a range
of stakeholders inside and outside the companyand with each other. Printed models,
as opposed to images, are self-contained,
concretely defined, and more universally
understandable as physical objects. Models
may help stakeholders to align on concepts
and design earlier in the product development
process, while customers can be more involved
in design and even co-create. Proper Group

International, for example, prints models to

identify potential issues in design submissions
from its automotive customers.18
Finally, a company can incorporate AMs
enhanced ability to address errors and add
improvements without needing to invest time
and money in changing tooling. As a result,
companies can more rapidly respond to market
and customer demands, fix design flaws, and
counter competitive evolution.19

Image provided courtesy of 3D Systems (NYSE: DDD). Used with permission.

3D opportunity for product design: Additive manufacturing and the early stage

Designing and prototyping

for full AM production
M

OST manufacturers are only beginning to realize AMs full potential as

a source of operational freedom that can
liberate design as well as final production.
Replacing traditional manufacturing with AM
introduces wide-ranging design freedom by
reducing some constraints typically imposed
by concerns for manufacturability and assembly. Returning to figure 1, some companies
are leaving the stasis quadrant and reaping
two fundamental benefits of AM-enabled
DOD: simplified manufacturing and reduced
design constraints.

Simplified manufacturing
AM-enabled DOD can deliver production
capabilities that reduce some of the constraints typically associated with traditional
manufacturing methods.

10 Image provided courtesy of 3D Systems (NYSE: DDD). Used with permission.

Improved part characteristics: AM can

reduce the incremental cost of increasing
a designs geometric complexity, allowing
designers to incorporate elements including
complex curvatures, nonstandard and varying wall thickness, and low-density volumetric
filling. Sometimes, the difference is dramatic:
For example, GEs LEAP engine uses a printed
nozzle that is 66 percent lighter and approximately five times more durable than current
nozzles.20 Likewise, Airbus prints hinges for
jet-engine covers that weigh half as much as
traditionally tooled hinges.21 In the automotive world, Lightning Motorcycle is developing a better swing arm for its electric vehicle.
Lightnings original swing arm, which attaches
the motorcycles rear wheel to the frame, was a
heavy chunk of milled aluminum pipe; an optimized version of the part couples additively
manufactured plastic with aluminum ends to
save weight as well as material.22

A Deloitte series on additive manufacturing

Mass customization: Perhaps most applicable to consumer-facing businesses, mass customization enables each customer to receive a
version of a product created exclusively for him
or her. For example, Disney and other retailers
are using AM to create premium-priced vanity avatars.23 Some medical and dental device
companies are also using AM to tailor products to individual customer specifications, as is
home improvement retailer Home Depot.24
Decreased system complexity: 3D printing can help reduce
complexity and
enhance quality by
printing systems as
single parts rather
than individual
components that
would require
assembly. Boeing
used to produce
more than 20
distinct parts for
each environmental control system
duct, which then
required additional tooling and
welding. Now, the
company manufactures these ducts in a single piece, thus eliminating the need for entire assembly lines while
enhancing quality and reducing inspections,
inventory, and maintenancenot to mention
time and material waste.25
Nontraditional sources of design information: As product designs become increasingly digitized, the potential opportunities
and risks of reverse engineering become more
prevalent. For example, through 3D scanning,
the Smithsonian is creating full-scale 3D prints
of unique historical pieces so people can print
the artifacts at home or enjoy copies at local
libraries and museums.26 Scanning can also
present opportunities for customization at the
point of usefor instance, to provide custom
repair patches for military vehicles damaged

in the field.27 But along with these demonstrated benefits, digital design information can
increase the importance of IP management
and protection.

Reduced design constraints

Designing for AM can help reduce the
constraints that traditional manufacturing
methods impose on scale and scope. An organization can usefully reexamine virtually every
production consideration for design.
Production
location: With
AM, design and
manufacturing
can be performed
virtually anywhere,
so companies can
dramatically reduce
the logistics, cost,
and complexity of
moving products
from manufacturing locations to
end users. Even
self-designusing a
distributed structure for all aspects
of product development through
manufacturingbecomes possible.
Tooling constraints: Product design may
no longer be constrained by mold and tooling
requirements. Incremental changes result from
relaxing traditional design standards, but AM
can help make revolutionary designs possible.
Batch size: A truly single-unit minimum batch size allows on-the-spot production of short-run components as users wear
them down in the field or imagine ways to
customize them.
Waste: Material waste tends to become less
of a concern as designers and manufacturers
find ways to complete tasks with less material
and energy, and as AM components replace
tooled parts.

Most manufacturers are

only beginning to realize
AMs full potential as
a source of operational
freedom that can
liberate design as well as
final production.

11

3D opportunity for product design: Additive manufacturing and the early stage

On the other hand . . .

W

HILE 3D printing is expanding the

frontiers of product design, this
newfound freedom introduces significant
challenges. In this emerging manufacturing
paradigm, companies should revisit three
questions and their potential implications:

AM technology is contributing
to a decrease in the experience
and training requirements for
designers, thus opening the field
to automation as well as to entry
by nonprofessionals.
Who designs? AM can introduce an apparent paradox regarding designers responsibilities and capabilities: The levels of experience
and expertise needed to design a product are
simultaneously increasing and decreasing.
The need for increasing expertise is driven
in part by the proliferation of viable design
options and the implications for product
functionality and value delivery. As the ability
to manufacture becomes increasingly commoditized, many designers are finding themselves generating a higher portion of created
value relative to manufacturing. As a result,
good design is generally becoming more valuable. For example, designers at one industrial
bakery took advantage of the freedom offered
by AM to create a new manifold design that

12

increased production yield beyond conventional process limitations.28

At the same time, AM technology is
contributing to a decrease in the experience
and training requirements for designers, thus
opening the field to automation as well as to
entry by nonprofessionals. As faster
and cheaper prototyping enables iterative design and testing, companies may
become less reliant on expertise that
gets it right the first time. In one case,
two people with no formal aeronautical design training used a highly
iterative AM-based process to develop
a functional UAV airframe.29 Open
design competitions and self-directed
design work are creating opportunities
for hobbyists to supplement in-house
product development groups; indeed,
embracing such potential sources for
ideas may prompt companies to reconsider the role of design in a product
development process.
Likewise, in particular applications, scanning and electronic data sources can automatically generate custom product designs with
minimal input from design professionals.
This possibility is already apparent in medical
devices, where custom-formed hearing-aid
inserts are automatically designed for production based on 3D imaging.30 As 3D scanning technology advances to keep pace with
AM output possibilities, automated design
approaches will likely fall within reach for
many industries, often necessitating a fundamentally changed design process.
Even as AM technology lowers the barriers
to entry for designers in terms of experience
and training, companies incorporating AM
capabilities should adjust their organizational

A Deloitte series on additive manufacturing

skill sets. Gartners 2014 Hype Cycle for Leaders

of Manufacturing Strategies forecasts:
As more advanced manufacturing techniques become mainstream, the skill sets
for managing smart machines or 3D printing will start to differ from current job
descriptions. Traditional organizational
boundaries between IT, line of business,
and business functions need to be shed for
seamless collaboration.31

In line with Gartners assessment, Wanted

Analytics has tracked rising demand for
candidates with AM experience, reporting in
September 2014 that the number of job ads
requiring workers with AM skills had risen
1,834 percent in four years and doubled in just
the previous 12 months. In August 2014, 35
percent of all ads posted for engineering jobs
mentioned AM skills.32

A final note regarding who designs

pertains to the emergence of greater crowd
participation in general product design and
development. The widely heralded arrival of
crowdsourcing is influencing diverse areas
product development among them.33 For
example, public input is creeping into Quirkys
product design and development processes:
The company solicits ideas from an open
community of digital members and opens the
review process to include both Quirky employees and the wider community. For the winners,
Quirky takes over the logistics, supply chain,
and manufacturingbut defers to the crowd
on product naming, branding, and pricing.
While the Quirky process does not yet
directly involve AM processes in end-part
production, the company uses AM to rapidly
produce prototypes of proposed products from

Image provided courtesy of 3D Systems (NYSE: DDD). Used with permission. 13

3D opportunity for product design: Additive manufacturing and the early stage

its Manhattan headquarters.34 Additionally,

AM is part of the wider ecosystem of maker
elements that helps empower and excite a community of amateur designers to participate in
Quirky ventures.
How do designers design? Product design
principles for AM generally lack the consensus
enjoyed by design for cost and design for
manufacturing and assembly principles, and
software tools to aid nontraditional design
approaches are not yet mature.35
Because AM can help reduce the cost of
testing a product design, information on what
works can emerge more quickly than in traditional consensus-based manufacturing practices. For example, an unexpected application
of biomimetic structuresusing structures
from the natural world to enhance product
designsis the creation of artificial shark skin
using AM to improve low-drag fluid conduits
and nautical vehicle surfaces developed using
conventional manufacturing capabilities.36
As software tools evolve to support AM,
they will also likely have an impact on how
manufacturers execute designs. The major
CAD/CAM drafting software packages used in
design for traditional manufacturing have not
yet incorporated a wide set of AM-compatible
features.37 Smaller niche software vendors are
developing new approaches, including algorithms to design complex repeated structures
(e.g., organic honeycomb filling) based on
stiffness parameters, support for generating
free-form organic shapes that do not conform
to current design standards, and structural
analysis methods for assessing the strength and
stiffness of non-homogeneous solid models.38
How do designers determine economic
viability? AM technology can complicate

14

the economics of product design and manufacturing, prompting a broader consideration of costs.39 In assessing product costs,
it is insufficient to merely compare the cost
of traditional manufacturing and AM. An
appropriate assessment should also account
for a new designs enhanced functionalityfor
example, fuel savings from lighter aerospace
components can outweigh higher per-part
costs. For manufacturers, capital assets and
required working capital are easily observable,
but economic viability analyses should also
quantify the value of eliminating manufacturing constraints on scale and scope.
Attempts to quantify supply chain economics should also account for the value of flexibility, responsiveness, and risk management.
Some automakers, for example, are currently
investigating mass customization as a tactic to
compete with low-cost producers.40 Military
hospitals often see the value of responsiveness
to unpredictable demand, with time-sensitive
patient outcomes and inconsistent access to
supplies.41 Finally, the value of risk managementfor example, reducing line stoppages
for short partscan be assessed only by taking
a broader perspective of true economic costs
throughout production, not just the cost of
creating a part.
Analysts should also consider business
model economics when assessing AMs
economic viability in a design function or,
especially, in a broader role. The value of a new
business model is often difficult to determine,
but those conversations are critical. Likewise,
leaders should consider eroding barriers to
entry and unexpected opportunities.

A Deloitte series on additive manufacturing

15

3D opportunity for product design: Additive manufacturing and the early stage

The paradigm of design

for digital production
D

IRECTIONAL solutions to AMs inherent challenges are introducing a digitally

optimal design paradigm, with important implications for the future of design
and manufacturing.
Design may become more participative,
but a core set of highly skilled practitioners will likely emerge. AM engineers may
emerge as a distinct functional skill set, though
inventive amateurs and hobbyists are likely to
continuously surprise and push these skilled
professionals. As AM technologies help reduce
design constraints and kindle new capabilities, many designers in and out of organizations will become increasingly entrepreneurial
and experimental.
The decreasing cost of design, prototyping, and testingand the diminishing need
for formal education and certificationcan
help make these activities increasingly accessible to hobbyists with home 3D printers. As a
result, companies can incorporate much higher

customer involvement in design, including

prototyping and testing, and design customization and modification at the points of production and use will likely become more prevalent.
Some dentists are already producing dental
crowns at their desks,42 and some UPS stores
are developing the capability to print designs
from walk-in customers.43
Participative design is also fostering new
business models. Google, for example, is
launching Project Ara, which allows users to
select their own combinations of parts to suit
their individual needs and replace and upgrade
parts instead of buying new phones. A number
of these parts will be 3D-printed.44
A stable set of design principles will likely
emerge by type of material and method of
AM; these principles are expected to evolve
alongside AM technologies. Several new
design principles are already taking root as
leading practices:

Companies can incorporate much higher

customer involvement in design, including
prototyping and testing, and design
customization and modification at the points
of production and use will likely become
more prevalent.

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A Deloitte series on additive manufacturing

Companies can seek to capitalize on AMs benefits for product design by considering the following steps:
Determine which potential benefits of incorporating AM into the design processsaving time in the
development cycle, reducing costs in the development cycle, and/or enhancing quality and design of
final productsare your greatest priority in the short term, to help create a strategy for effectively
implementing AM to accomplish your most critical design objectives.
Determine which potential benefits of incorporating AM into the production processsimplified
manufacturing and/or reduced design constraintsare your greatest priority in the short term, to help
create a strategy for effectively implementing AM to accomplish your most critical production objectives.
Consider which steps of your design and/or production process could be most easily augmented with AM,
and where doing so would have the greatest impact.
Consider your companys current progress in terms of integrating rapid prototyping into the design and
development process, if any. If applicable, determine whether it is appreciably improving your delivery
cyclein terms of both costs and speed. Examine any inefficiencies to ascertain where enhancements can
be made. If it is not being used, consider where within the design process rapid prototyping might have
the greatest impact.
If you have not made the change to digitally optimal design, review your current design and production
processes to determine whereand ifit can fit in (consult figure 3 in this article), and whether it would
make sense to do so.
Analyze the impact that greater integration of AM into design and production processes may have on
your talent needs and desired capabilities, to plan ahead for any organizational, training, and talent needs.
Based on your current position within the AM framework, determine where you would like your
organization to go. Doing so can help determine whether rapid prototyping or digitally optimal design is a
better fit for you, and help create a roadmap for building the appropriate AM capabilities.

Redesign parts to take advantage of

AM capabilities
When designing parts, complexity and
geometry are generally less expensive than
in the past
Consider novel sources of design inspiration (e.g., biomimicry), and increase your
functional objectives: strength, weight,
efficiency, etc.

Look for opportunities to reduce part

counts and manufacturing requirements
The economics of AM may come to
include products, supply chains, and customer experience. As AM helps reduce the
cost of complexity, companies should develop
an increasingly holistic view of their customers. And AMs expanded economic scope may
encourage companies to capture value from
each step in their supply chains.

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3D opportunity for product design: Additive manufacturing and the early stage

Endnotes
1. Alec, Local Motors 3D prints a working car live at Detroit Auto Show, to
open 2 mini-factories this year, 3ders.
org, January 13, 2015, www.3ders.org/
articles/20150113-local-motors-3d-printsa-working-car-live-at-detroit-auto-show2-mini-factories.html, accessed April 2, 2015.
2. Ibid.
3. Terry Wohlers, Wohlers Report 2014: 3D
printing and additive manufacturing state of
the industry, 2014. Note that this market size
refers only to additive manufacturing systems
and support products/services. It does not
refer to the market value of the products
that are made by way of AM technology.
4. We are anxious to point out that the whole
purpose of Deloittes AM framework is to
facilitate a structured approach to thinking
about how AM fits within the business,
rather than to strictly categorize all types of
AM activity. We are therefore comfortable
with the need for nuance in interpreting
the placement of different activities across
the four paths to value that we identify.
5. Mark Cotteleer, Jonathan Holdowsky, and
Monika Mahto, The 3D opportunity primer,
Deloitte University Press, March 6, 2014.
6. Ibid.
7. Simon F. Jacobson, Hype cycle for
leaders of manufacturing strategies,
2014, Gartner, July 28, 2014.
8. Jeff Crane, Ryan Crestani, and Mark
Cotteleer, 3D opportunity for end-use
products, Deloitte University Press,
October 16, 2014, http://dupress.com/
articles/3d-printing-end-use-products/
9. Pete Basiliere et al., Strategic technology
trends3D printing transforms organizations, Gartner, February 7, 2014.
10. Multiple industry analyses suggest that the
most likely paths to true business model
innovation emanate from design- and productled applications of AM. For a deeper discussion
of AM in the automotive, medical devices,
and aerospace and defense industries, please
refer to the DU Press articles 3D opportunity
for the automotive industry, 3D opportunity
in medical technology, and 3D opportunity in
aerospace and defense via the following link:
http://dupress.com/collection/3d-opportunity/.
18

11. Wohlers, Wohlers Report 2014.

12. Rob Wile, Why many argue theres still a
fortune to be made in 3D printing stocks,
Business Insider, August 26, 2014, www.
businessinsider.com/the-case-for-3d-printingstocks-2014-8, accessed April 2, 2015.
13. Stacey Higginbotham, Ford engineers have
3D printers on their desks. When will you get
one?, Gigaom, December 21, 2012, https://
gigaom.com/2012/12/21/ford-engineershave-3d-printers-on-their-desks-whenwill-you-get-one/, accessed April 2, 2015.
14. Aaron Tilley, Autodesk wants to show the
world how to make thingsto sell more software, Forbes, September 10, 2014, www.forbes.
com/sites/aarontilley/2014/09/10/autodeskmakes-hardware-too, accessed April 2, 2015.
15. 3D Systems, Learn how turbine technologies cuts prototyping time and production
costs by 90% with MultiJet 3D printing,
http://3dprinters.3dsystems.com/turbinetechnologies-multijet-3d-printing-webcastlp-thanks-pdd/, accessed April 2, 2015.
16. Barney Jopson, New stamping ground
for Nike and Adidas as 3D shoes kick off,
Financial Times, June 9, 2013, www.ft.com/
intl/cms/s/0/1d09a66e-d097-11e2-a05000144feab7de.html, accessed April 2, 2015.
17. Wind tunnel testing with PolyJet or FDM
parts, Stratasys, www.stratasys.com/
applications/functional-prototyping/windtunnel-testing, accessed April 2, 2015.
18. Christina M. Fuges, 3D printing for better
customer communication, MoldMaking
Technology, April 16, 2012, www.mmsonline.
com/articles/3d-printing-for-better-customercommunication, accessed April 2, 2015.
19. Todd A. Grimm, Direct digital manufacturing: impact and opportunity, part
1Freedom to redesign, T. A. Grimm
& Associates, 2006, http://files.asme.org/
MEMagazine/PaperLibrary/29276.pdf.
20. Fit to print: New plant will assemble
worlds first passenger jet engine with 3D
Printed fuel nozzles, next-gen materials, GE Reports, June 23, 2014, www.
gereports.com/post/80701924024/
fit-to-print, accessed April 2, 2015.

A Deloitte series on additive manufacturing

21. Kevin Bullis, GE and EADS laser printing process, MIT Technology Review, May
9, 2011, www.technologyreview.com/
photogallery/423953/ge-and-eads-laserprinting-process/, accessed April 2, 2015.
22. Tilley, Autodesk wants to show the world
how to make thingsto sell more software.
23. See, for instance, Erin Catalano, D-Tech
Me to offer Disney princess figurines at
world of disney in Walt Disney World
Resort for a limited time, Disney Parks
blog, August 7, 2012, http://disneyparks.
disney.go.com/blog/2012/08/d-tech-me-tooffer-disney-princess-figurines-at-worldof-disney-in-walt-disney-world-resort-fora-limited-time/, accessed April 2, 2015.
24. Glenn H. Snyder, Mark J. Cotteleer, and
Ben Kotek, 3D opportunity in medical
technology: Additive manufacturing comes
to life, Deloitte University Press, April 28,
2014, http://dupress.com/articles/additivemanufacturing-3d-opportunity-in-medtech/.
25. Wohlers, Wohlers Report 2014.
26. Eric Mack, Smithsonian now allows anyone
to 3D print (some) historic artifacts, Forbes,
November 11, 2013, www.forbes.com/
sites/ericmack/2013/11/13/smithsoniannow-allows-anyone-to-3d-print-somehistoric-artifacts/, accessed April 2, 2015.
27. TJae Gibson, Army research lab, Purdue Explore 3-D printing to fix deployed equipment,
cut maintenance costs, www.Army.mil, August
13, 2013, www.army.mil/article/109144/
Army_Research_Lab__Purdue_explore_3_D_
printing_to_fix_deployed_equipment__cut_
maintenance_costs/, accessed April 2, 2015.
28. Utilizing direct metal printing to improve
existing equipment, 3D Systems, December
2013, www.3dsystems.com/files/dms-bakerydec2013-nrr.pdf, accessed April 2, 2015.
29. Wohlers, Wohlers Report 2014.
30. Rakesh Sharma, The 3D printing
revolution you have not heard about,
Forbes, July 8, 2013, www.forbes.
com/sites/rakeshsharma/2013/07/08/
the-3d-printing-revolution-you-have-notheard-about/, accessed April 2, 2015.
31. Jacobson, Hype cycle for leaders of
manufacturing strategies, 2014.
32. Ashley Zito Rowe, Demand for 3D
printing skills soars, Wanted Analytics,
September 4, 2014, www.wantedanalytics.
com/analysis/posts/demand-for-3d-printingskills-soars, accessed April 2, 2015.

33. For a deeper discussion of the role of

crowdsourcing in the business world, please
refer to the DU Press article Industrialized
crowdsourcing, in which Marcus Shingles
and Jonathan Trichel explain how technology is making crowdsourcing possible on an
industrial scale, with potentially disruptive
impacts on both cost and innovation. Marcus
Shingles and Jonathan Trichel, Industrialized
crowdsourcing, Deloitte University Press,
February 21, 2014, http://dupress.com/
articles/2014-tech-trends-crowdsourcing/.
34. Rich Brown, 3D printing and the future
of product design: Inside Quirky, CNET,
February 9, 2012, www.cnet.com/news/3dprinting-and-the-future-of-product-designinside-quirky/, accessed April 2, 2015.
35. GE jet engine bracket challenge,
GrabCAD, June 11, 2013, http://grabcad.
com/challenges/ge-jet-engine-bracketchallenge, accessed April 2, 2015.
36. Helen Thompson, Why are scientists
trying to make fake shark skin? Smithsonian.com, August 11, 2014, www.
smithsonianmag.com/innovation/why-arescientists-trying-to-make-fake-shark-skin180951514/?no-ist, accessed April 2, 2015.
37. Peter Zelinski, Additives idiosyncrasies,
Additive Manufacturing, January 23, 2015.
38. Ellie Zolfagharifard, Breaking out of the
mould, The Engineer, January 21, 2014,
www.theengineer.co.uk/manufacturing/indepth/breaking-out-of-the-mould/1017858.
article, accessed April 2, 2015.
39. For a more complete discussion of this
issue, see Mark Cotteleer, 3D opportunity for production: Additive manufacturing
makes its (business) case, Deloitte Review,
July 2014, http://dupress.com/articles/
additive-manufacturing-business-case/.
40. Ken Elkins, Next step for U.S. manufacturing is mass customization, Siemens
exec says, Charlotte Business Journal,
March 12, 2014, www.bizjournals.com/
charlotte/blog/outside_the_loop/2014/03/
next-step-for-american-manufacturingmass.html, accessed April 2, 2015.
41. Matthew W. Lewis, Aimee Bower, Mishaw
T. Cuyler, Rick Eden, Ronald E. Harper,
Kristy Gonzalez Morganti, Adam C. Resnick,
Elizabeth D. Steiner, and Rupa S. Valdez.
New equipping strategies for combat support
hospitals, RAND Corporation, 2010, http://
www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG887.

19

3D opportunity for product design: Additive manufacturing and the early stage

42. Jonathan Bloom, World of dentistry has hightech, comfort gadgets, ABC7 News, September
5, 2014, http://abc7news.com/technology/
world-of-dentistry-has-high-tech-comfortgadgets/297211/, accessed April 2, 2015.
43. Bonnie Wertheim, UPS offers 3D
printing in stores, Mashable, August 1,
2013, http://mashable.com/2013/08/01/
ups-3d-printing/, accessed April 2, 2015.
44. New details on Project Ara and the future
of modular phones, 3D Systems, April 30,
2014, www.3dsystems.com/blog/2014/04/
new-details-project-ara-and-futuremodular-phones, accessed April 2, 2015.

20

A Deloitte series on additive manufacturing

Contacts
Joann Michalik
Deloitte Consulting LLP
+1 617 437 2273
jmichalik@deloitte.com
Jim Joyce
Deloitte Consulting LLP
+1 617 585 4869
jjoyce@deloitte.com

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