The next dimension for small business
Product design and development is being made cheaper and simpler with 3D printing
For Sebastian Morgyn James, the gift he received for his 19th birthday was life-changing. Over a year ago, his family helped him purchase a MakerBot Replicator 2 — a 3D printer.
The present enabled him to open his own small business, BalloonChair.
Using the basic drafting skills that he learned in high school, James began prototyping his designs and selling them online.
Through his Etsy shop, customers can custom-order 3D-printed planters, masks, even earrings featuring Rob Ford’s noggin.
Being able to manufacture his own products changed James’ career path.
“Having a 3D printer is a huge educational tool for me,” he says. “I had always wanted to start a small business and I come from an artistic background, so it was kind of perfect.”
James is one of many Canadian small business owners embracing additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, as a cost-effective method of bringing products to market. Additive manufacturing is a $4.1-billion industry, with a growth rate of more than 33 per cent per year, according to a 2015 report by Wohlers Associates.
“It reduces the barriers to entry for manufacturing,” says Matt Compeau, co-founder of Hot Pop Factory, a Toronto studio that helps businesses design and fabricate 3D-printed products. “Previously, if you wanted to bring your product to market, you needed millions of dollars to build moulds and dyes, and to get it manufactured overseas.”
Compeau understands this process firsthand. In 2012, Compeau and business partner Bi-Ying Miao launched a line of 3D jewelry, printed from their living room.
“It was a really interesting idea that we could design something, manufacture it and distribute it over the Internet from our apartment, with basically zero start-up capital,” he says. “That was pretty revolutionary in our eyes.”
Today, Hot Pop Factory works with small businesses to help design and launch new products. Their clients include fashion designers whose textile designs would be impossible to recreate by hand; industrial designers who make wearable technology and accessories; and software and hardware startups building consumer electronic products.
The real benefit of 3D printing, says Campeau, is being able to create a realistic prototype — an invaluable tool, particularly for startups launching their ideas on crowd-funding sites. “For a few hundred dollars, if you have an idea for a product, it’s possible to get it prototyped and hold it in your hand,” he says.
Elizabete Ludviks, who specializes in handmade silver jewelry, is one of the business owners with whom Hot Pop works. Her 3D designs are painstaking to make and the price tag reflects the labour involved. Her silver triangle necklace, for example, retails for $440. Additive manufacturing enables Ludviks to recreate her products at a substantially lower cost; the nylon 3D-printed version of the same necklace is only $138.
Creating an item available to more and more consumers means appealing to a wider range of retailers. Since launching the product 2 1⁄ years ago,
2 Ludviks’s wholesale business to North American design and museum stores has tripled.
“It allows the regular customer to say, ‘I love the design of that, but I can’t afford to pay hundreds of dollars — yet, hey, I can totally pay $25 for a set of earrings that are 3D printed,’ ” she says.
Ludviks admits novelty was a big part of the sales pitch — something that is starting to fade. According to Darren Meister, associate professor of general management (entrepreneurship and innovation) at the Ivey Business School, it will be another two to three years before the technology becomes an affordable solution for most business owners.
“It’s useful in design of prototypes of relatively small one-offs, but it’s not at the point for production of general commercial-scale items. It’s still better to make it through other manufacturing processes,” says Meister.
He adds that while there are still glitches to work out — 3D printers (which cost between $2,000 and $5,000 each), for example, print products with rough edges; and sturdier materials, such as metal, are still expensive — now is the time for small businesses to embrace the technology.
“Change is coming at such a rapid rate that you just can’t sort of say, ‘It didn’t work today, it’s not worth it tomorrow.’ Additive printing will eventually beat the other forms of printing because it’s just fundamentally better,” Meister says.
For small business pioneers such as James, they’ll be ready when this change comes.
“3D printing gives me a lot of freedom; it makes me my own boss and it gives me almost an infinite amount possibilities — I can do anything with form,” says James. “The possibilities seem to be endless and I’m constantly amazed by that.”