How collaboration in 3D Printing communities is beating the old R&D
R&D is the old school. 3D printing is the new black
In recent years, 3D printing has been taking over different industries and production models. As an increasingly affordable tool for design and prototyping, these new printers have optimized the creation process through acceleration and cost reduction. Although we can easily identify efficiency gains associated with 3D printing, we are interested in how this new technology affects a particular stage of the production lifecycle: research and development (R&D).
R&D, why so serious?
The R&D paradigm for developing products and services has been hegemonic for a long time. Basically, large technology companies used to mobilize a lot of resources to go to the market, starting with R&D. Then a long period of exploration and analysis followed. R&D teams took a lot of time to address certain challenges. After that, they looked to build a solution to support their analysis. Once the product passed through several gate reviews, massive and large-scale production would be set in motion.
Of course, this framework sounds well-structured. And that’s the problem. It became so rigid that alternative routes to production were pushed aside, and it also took years, sometimes decades, to go from concept design to product. That sort of time frame is too long to be applicable today. Apart from this time offset, we should highlight two main aspects: (1) R&D is extremely expensive in most industries, even the biggest companies don’t plan to hold onto such areas where the ROI is not ensured. (2) On the other side, R&D is typically a closed-platform development, where knowledge generation is slow and restrictive.
3D printing: where have you been all this time?
As we said previously, 3D printing is an attractive process for many reasons. First, considering its benefits in comparison with traditional R&D, we can emphasize 3D printing’s low-cost and time to produce. With 3D printing, it’s easier and faster to prototype and produce the first sketch. Otherwise, in R&D, sketch production is an expensive decision that costs you money.
Is it only about money every time? Not at all! Producing sketches and prototypes faster and easier gives you the opportunity to test your product and make it better. You have the chance to produce more prototypes and compare, promoting iteration and experimental research.
There is one more fundamental aspect to this: the collectivization of production. As we said today, an R&D area is too expensive and almost non-commercial, which makes it unattractive and out of reach for the majority of producers. With 3D printing, a little investment allows you to build your little factory to make on your own.
That’s why 3D printing is so attractive. Everyone could access its potential benefits. And, as an open-source project platform, it generates a whole community that shares its knowledge, prototypes, and goods produced. This, in turn, allows for a quick optimization of any product that is developed. As it is done collectively, everyone could interact and be part of the process, which increments the iteration and discoveries for obvious reasons. More heads are better that one. And faster, too.
The Collaborative Communities of Knowledge
The real value of 3D printing is not only that it is cheaper, the value resides in the communities that are born from it.
The great examples are Prusa and RepRap, collaborative communities of knowledge that became productive, or rather Prusa came from RepRap because it was one of those who best understood its community and what it needed.
Prusa is open source, you can use the plans and build your own with what you have at hand or get. You can also buy it to assemble or already assembled and ready to use.
The community learns and generates knowledge that feeds back and there’s what makes it so powerful.
3D: Printing the future R&D
As we saw in this article, 3D printing offers a lot of benefits to R&D practices. Traditionally, research and development offered a lot of knowledge, methodologies — and fails too — that we can learn from. Now, with 3D printing facilities, it’s time to step up and improve our production methods in a way where everyone can access and collaborate on innovations.
It’s time to stand up and walk in a different way.
