3D Systems announced a sweeping change in strategy this week.
The company, one of the original 3D printing companies after their invention of the SLA process back in the 80’s, has faced stiff competition in recent years. This has eroded their position, which they hope to recover as a result of the announced changes.
What’s changing? Well, let’s see what they said:
“Primary focus on leveraging breakthroughs in AI to improve part quality, speed the design process for additive manufacturing, optimize manufacturing workflows and enhance ease-of-use in factory operating environments.
Company to expand capabilities of 3D Sprint® for polymer production systems by leveraging AI and machine learning models, informed by data from industry’s largest installed base of production printers.
Hubb Global Holdings to assume leadership for industrywide, printer-agnostic software platforms through acquisition of Oqton® Manufacturing Operating System (MOS) and 3DXpert® software platforms. Objective is to accelerate adoption of production-scale 3D metal printing by providing faster design-to-manufacturing through automation and streamlined workflows as well as to efficiently operate mixed fleets of metal printers as needed for globally distributed manufacturing operations.
Companies to establish a strategic relationship to support continued growth of 3D Systems’ metal printing solutions incorporating 3DXpert® software.”
This appears to be the conclusion of the acquisition strategy that the company first initiated over ten years ago. Over those years the company acquired countless other 3D print-related operations, most of which faded away. The divestment of Oqton and 3DXpert allows 3D Systems to focus on what is now their core business: efficient additive manufacturing.
They don’t mention physical additive manufacturing technology at all in their announcement, suggesting that they believe their technology is suitable going forward. Instead, they’re focusing on the “everything else” part of the manufacturing workflow.
This is very likely a good strategy, since the physical additive manufacturing technologies themselves have mostly plateaued. Instead, they intend on making them easier and faster to use.
A key tell in their announcement is “breakthroughs in AI”. There are a lot of companies “going AI” these days, and that’s not surprising given the incredible power of that technology, which can only get even more powerful in coming years.
Sometimes “going AI” is a mistake, but I don’t think that is the case here. The workflows that lead up to and beyond the 3D printing step are complex, inefficient, labor intensive and costly. The cost of a 3D printed part is mostly the labor required to do this handling.
If 3D Systems were able to develop systems to simplify and optimize those efforts, they could be on to something big. Presenting customers with a massively optimized manufacturing process could be extremely attractive.
They’re targeting one of fastest growing markets in 3D printing: metal part manufacturing. They’ve correctly identified that many organizations operate multiple types of metal 3D printers in distributed locations, and intend on making solutions for those environments.
This is a very good move for 3D Systems. For many years they’ve been trying to get ahead by doing many of the same things, over and over. It hasn’t worked, and now they face even greater challenges with growing competition.
By dropping some products and establishing a clear focus, they should be able to focus their resources on the new solutions they believe their future customers need.
Via 3D Systems
