Leading Edge
be especially true if the expected benefits to innovation are not only magnified by cost reductions but also bring into scope whole new industries and product categories. CEOs and COOs above all need to examine the readiness of their companies for a future in which a range of integrated digital technologies (of which 3-D could be one of the most significant) will dominate manufacturing and competitors will probably be building additive manufacturing into their value chains. That means focusing on better organizational cohesion and considering partnerships with external organizations (such as local contractprinting bureaus) that have the necessary technical expertise.
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The coming years will bring new opportunities and challenges. Companies with savvy executives who raise awareness, fill talent gaps, and build the necessary organizational capabilities will be well positioned to benefit from this breakthrough technology. 1 Joe Jablonowski, Nancy Eigel-Miller, and Steve
Kline Jr., The world machine-tool output & consumption survey, Gardner Research, 2014, gardnerweb.com.
2 Additive manufacturing and 3D printing, State of
the Industry, annual worldwide progress report, Wohlers Associates, 2014, wohlersassociates.com.
3 For instance, electron beam melting (EBM),
selective laser sintering (SLS), and direct metal laser sintering (DMLS). These additivemanufacturing approaches are arguably more relevant for manufacturing than filament extrusion (known as FDM) or inkjet techniques.
Beyond the C-suite, companies should The authors wish to thank Chandana Asif, Alessandro Gentile, Roberto Migliorini, build a group of executive champions within the engineering, quality, operations, and John Persaud for their contributions to this article. and procurement units. Some aerospace and medical-device companies, for Daniel Cohen is an alumnus of McKinsey’s example, already have teams scanning New York office, Katy George is a director their entire design portfolios for parts that in the New Jersey office, and Colin Shaw could benefit from this technology. is a principal in the London office. The Furthermore, the introduction of 3-D arguments in this piece are mainly derived printing into complex manufacturing from a previous article by Daniel Cohen, environments would require big changes “Fostering mainstream adoption of industrial in quality-assurance and control 3D printing: Understanding the benefits and processes: companies would have to promoting organizational readiness,” 3D replace old protocols relying on Printing and Additive Manufacturing, June 2014, Volume 1, Number 2, pp. 62–9. extensive up-front testing and validation of traditional production tools, such Copyright © 2014 McKinsey & Company. as molds. Since additive manufacturing All rights reserved. reduces or even eliminates the need for these tools, organizations must understand the steps needed to satisfy their quality requirements in the future.