On the social impact of 3D Printing and why it matters
Our primary work through Women in 3D Printing is to address diversity in terms of gender distribution. It is obvious to me, though, that we need to address diversity in a broader sense as well. As Wi3DP Board Director Sarah Goehrke puts in our 2019 Diversity for Additive Manufacturing report, “To bring more diversity into this industry, we need to normalize the presence of diversity. To normalize diversity, we need to see diversity. To see diversity, we need to make the effort to encourage a more diverse workforce.”
With that, what steps can an organization like Women in 3D Printing take in order to normalize diversity?
1. As a leader in the industry, I will use my voice, and I encourage other leaders to do so, especially if you are white, especially if you are a man,
2. I will continue helping organizations I believe in, such as 3DAfrica, in delivering on their missions for more inclusiveness,
3. As the head of a global organization with chapters in 25+ countries, I will encourage more cross-locations discussion,
4. With only 1 chapter in Africa, I will actively work on developing our presence on the continent,
5. Whenever a speaking opportunity arises, I will make a point in finding not only women but individuals who are part of underrepresented communities to include their perspective in our narrative.
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As the founder of Women in 3D Printing, I am often asked two questions:
- Why did I start this platform in the first place?
- In my 10 years working in the additive manufacturing industry, have I seen any positive change in terms of gender equality and more broadly, the social impact of 3D printing?
As someone who was a model student who never ever missed school, never had a traffic ticket, always pays her tax in time and studied law because she wanted to do right by the world, I am always deeply offended when I see an injustice, someone cheating, cutting the line, and simply not playing by the rules.
More than offended, I’m miserable and it can get ugly. Yeah, you don’t want to sit next to me when I watch the news. It gets ugly really fast, especially today.
We should do a better job
When I fell for 3D printing, it was not only for the technical aspect of it — sure, seeing a 3D printer in action is something beautiful — but to me, what’s even more interesting to witness is the societal, economical, environmental impact this technology can and should have.
So, when I realized back in 2014 that additive manufacturing and 3D printing were not delivering on all the promises I could see for it, I decided that rather than being miserable, I’d try to do something about it. I do sincerely believe additive manufacturing is one of the tech industries that should lead by example in terms of gender equality. There is absolutely no reason for the poor number of female professionals in additive manufacturing (barely 13%!). This is such a new sub-industry compared to the global manufacturing industry, the page is almost blank. And the number of female graduates from engineering school shouldn’t matter as the barrier to entry is not on the level nor the type of degree you have.
When I started the Women in 3D Printing community, I decided to tackle an issue that was close to me and concerned me directly: gender equality in additive manufacturing. But there is so much potential for additive manufacturing to have an even bigger social impact:
- Diversity in a broader sense: the tech and manufacturing industries are both lacking diversity. We are no exception, far from it. We don’t even have any data to show for it. How do we address that?
- Environmental-friendly materials and processes: Sure, 3D printing is a greener technology than most, but let’s be honest, it is still far from perfect. How do we come up with technologies and materials that have zero negative impact on the environment?
- Society & Economics: It’s no news that additive manufacturing, especially because it’s an easy tool to use when it comes to desktop machines, and because software has been democratized widely over the last few years, is a fantastic tool for beginners. But how can we do an even better job at enabling new business creation, especially in remote areas?
Where is my flying car?
Our world is moving fast, no doubt about it, but this pace is mostly modeled on how fast software goes. Innovation in manufacturing and hardware is still too slow. This is 2020: If I’m honest, I was expecting flying cars by now…
Our overly complex supply chains were modeled in the 90’s and haven’t evolved much since then: supply chain management seeks to match demand with supply while keeping a minimal inventory, but as the demand grows and is more globalized, inventories and logistics become monsters of their own, leading to high costs in warehousing and shipping, longer downtime, tons of unnecessary waste, an explosion in CO2 emissions, and a headache to anyone who tries to wrap their head around this.
And all this happens while we have an-almost-perfect tool widely available. Distributed manufacturing should not be a question but rather a reality already. And for some, it is: From service bureaus who are enabling industrial-grade manufacturing of parts from anywhere (yes, shipping is still involved, but these services do a great job at offering a variety of industrial-grade solutions and an unbeatable turnaround), to digital warehousing and distributed manufacturing solutions.
As Ivaldi Group designed and manufactured the ‘world’s first commercially available’ 3D printed scupper plugs a few months ago, I was lucky enough to witness firsthand how a strong distributed manufacturing network can lead to a better plan in addressing planned obsolescence in heavy industry.
From green to greener
How does this have anything to do with social impact? Thanks for asking. In my opinion, planned obsolescence is an environmental hazard that needs to be fixed. While there is no data accounting for the carbon footprint of global trade of spare parts only, we know “shipping accounts for somewhere between 2% and 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions — it’s often compared to Germany in terms of the scale of emissions”, according to the World Economic Forum. If we can reduce, even slightly, global shipping, there is no doubt it should have a positive impact on CO2 emissions.
As mentioned above, additive manufacturing is more environmentally-friendly than subtractive manufacturing, for all the reasons we know (less waste essentially), and because it enables distributed manufacturing. The newly formed Additive Manufacturing Green Trade Association led by Sherry Handel, is doing a great job of promoting the environmental benefits of additive manufacturing. That being said, we need to talk about our own materials and processes: How come we are considering additive manufacturing for space exploration and colonization of Mars but aren’t able to come up with greener materials than polymers down here on Earth? PLA is great, but it’s not perfect and it’s not always a suitable option for everything-3D printing. Metal options can be good alternatives as the parts usually sustain longer than polymer’s, but metal 3D printing processes aren’t quite environmentally-friendly unfortunately. Could ceramics be the answer? Post-processing probably needs to be optimized and applications more widely tested, but it is a solution worth exploring.
3D printing is an enabler
I have always been impressed with Muhammad Yunus’ microfinance model. It might be a tiny bit far-stretched, but I do actually see a parallel between financial self-sufficiency enabled by microfinance and manufacturing self-sufficiency enabled by 3D printing.
I keep seeing examples of career shifts and businesses being created or scaled up thanks to additive manufacturing.
I recently came across Melissa Guerrero’s story, who will shortly be shared on the website: She created the Facebook group Dallas3DPrintersClub as a local response to the shortage of PPE during the COVID-19 crisis, even though she was not an additive manufacturing professional. She is now considering a career in additive manufacturing.
There are hundreds of similar stories of course, and some of them can be found through 3DAfrica’s programs. 3DAfrica’s tagline, “Transforming the Continent from ‘Aid to Africa’ to ‘Made in Africa’” is revealing of their mission. I found the story of Afoma particularly empowering: Afoma, the owner of Hair Wizard in Nigeria, designed a 3D printed rechargeable, detachable, cordless hairdryer. Because she can manufacture it locally, she doesn’t need to travel to China every year to purchase standardized products in bulk anymore. She even found an opportunity to sell this new product to other cosmetologists in Nigeria.
My key takeaway from these two stories is that 3D printing is an enabler.
Neither Melissa nor Afoma were into manufacturing before embracing 3D printing. Afoma learned the skills she needed to answer her supply problem from 3D design and 3D printing classes provided by a local program, while Melissa took in as much as she could from the Internet.
Writing these words in 2020, I cannot ignore how COVID-19 is impacting our way of working. As we’re attempting to go back to business-as-usual, for some, the new normal will be entirely different from what we’ve known so far: Facebook announced recently it will shift most of its workforce to remote work, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we hear more of these announcements in the coming months. But remote work is not a universal option, especially for those working in manufacturing. So, my question to the software providers, additive manufacturing workflow solutions, and 3D printer OEMs is: How can we support distributed manufacturing while maximizing remote work for operators?
In line with new ways of working, additive manufacturing is also an enabler for faster work, and I am looking forward to seeing more applications of concrete 3D printing in housing construction but also more mainstream and accessible applications in bioprinting.
From community to industry
An interesting fact about additive manufacturing as we know it is that we grew from being a community of makers to an actual professional industry. There is still a community of makers at heart, but quite a few of the businesses who started on the B2C market switched over the years and are now clearly pursuing B2B models: service bureaus Sculpteo and Shapeways, but also makers-at-heart companies such as MakerBot and 3D Hubs have operated these soft transitions.
Even though, as we’ve witnessed with the number of COVID-19 3D printing responses and our attachment to industry trade-shows, we keep our sense of community in everything we do. I have to say, we have great communities to thank for that: E-nable, 3DHeals, AMUG, Prusa… and so many more!
I am beyond thankful to our amazing community at Women in 3D Printing of course. I keep being impressed and empowered by all the female leaders who are sharing their stories with us every week, but also by our 80 ambassadors who are bringing Women in 3D Printing closer to their homes. If you are interested in pursuing the discussion on additive manufacturing’s social impact in a broader sense while celebrating Women in 3D Printing’s achievements, you are invited to join us for our first annual conference, TIPE 3D Printing, with tracks covering Technology, Industry, People & Economics.
#BeTheTIPE
