Turns out, there are benefits to hiring a local 3D printer!
3D printing’s importance in today’s manufacturing economy cannot be overstated. As a key component of the “maker movement”, 3D printing (also known in the industry as “Additive Manufacturing”) is adding new products, new companies, and new jobs to the economy with each new object produced. Ideal for creating prototypes and fixtures & tooling,
3D printing is perfectly suited for short-run manufacturing and small production jobs.
The local Georgia economy may seem like a fertile place for the growth of a 3D printing company, being positioned as the major economic and manufacturing center of the south. However, 3D printing companies in the Georgia or Atlanta area, like Automatic MFG, are scarce, and almost all the 3D-printing companies in the state act as a middleman, farming the real printing work out to larger service bureaus. You may place your order locally, but the part you’re having made is being produced at a completely different facility in another state or country entirely.
This is understandable and a natural part of manufacturing-sector growth. The industry website 3DPrintingIndustry.com recently attempted to predict the future and wrote, “The 3D printing experts we surveyed see additive as a vital technology behind improved healthcare, transport and a future where environmental or green concerns are addressed…”. For the industry to truly dominate, additive manufacturing will undoubtedly need print-farms and factories. There’s nothing inherently bad about 3D-printing farms or factories. But the downsides of 3D-printing factories are similar to other mass-produced efforts and highlight the benefits of localized 3D printing.
What’s the downside to 3D printer farms?
- You have no idea who is actually making the object. This means no matter how much you communicate to your middleman, there is a limited amount of hands-on attention.
- It’s impossible for your middleman to fully focus on customer service if they’re not the one producing the service!
- You can’t get or give real-time feedback in the same way.
- Are the manufacturing standards consistent from vendor to vendor? What about material quality and machine maintenance?
- Did your requirements get passed on to the company producing your parts? Will you know until a part fails?
Automatic MFG is an exciting new player on the Georgia 3D-printing scene. Automatic MFG has its sights set on being the local, hands-on choice for businesses who expect the best from 3D printing and are looking to have a great customer service experience while doing it. The minds behind Automatic MFG come from the engineering community and know what it’s like to search for a vendor with no guidance on who you can trust. That’s what inspired them to start Automatic MFG and it’s what guides them –the best customer service experience in 3D printing.
Automatic MFG’s Griffin Harrison explains the type of bad experiences that many in the industry have come to know as their story. “The company trying to bring a product to market, through ignorance or to save money, they order prototypes off a companies website. Their goal is to validate their design and they clearly communicate their requirements. But the middlemen disregard these requirements and never check the parts produced. The prototypes fail and the company wastes time and resources attempting to understand what happened. Worst case, they never get to bring their product to market.” These are the types of stories Automatic MFG wants to bring to an end with a more localized and one-on-one relationship with the companies with which they work.
Now is the perfect time to develop a relationship with local 3d-printing experts like Automatic MFG. Naresh Shanker, Chief Technology Officer at Xerox, reminds everyone to think about the bigger picture that’s coming: “It’s about more than just manufacturing: 3D printing is going to be at the core of our on-demand, instant-on, highly-customized economy, also changing the way we approach design, inventory, logistics, and fulfillment, delivering powerful economic and environmental benefits alike.”
Automatic MFG is ready to be your go-to 3D printing service in Georgia and show you what a personalized, hands-on touch brings. Automatic MFG is the 3D printer for companies and clients that understand the business and are ready to get to work. Contact Automatic MFG today and let us show you the upside to having a local 3D printer.