How 3-D Printing Could Disrupt Your Supply Chain

A quick search on Google Trends will reveal the meteoric rise in interest the world has in 3-D printing—and for good reason. 3-D printing is truly innovative with endless product design possibilities. While current media coverage tends to focus on the benefits of prototyping, we believe its greatest potential lies beyond this, in its capability to challenge many traditional supply chain constraints and open up new opportunities.From a supply chain perspective the Big Picture question is whether 3-D printing has the potential to become a disruptive technology, or will it be just another incremental step in the supply chain evolution?What is clear from the outset is that 3-D printing is not the solution to all manufacturing problems and consideration needs to be given to each company’s operating environment, manufacturing capability and product portfolio.