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London - Rapid prototyping technologies should be viewed
as enablers of new business strategies, according to a new management
report.
The report concludes that companies
should be looking at fundamental issues and addressing how they
can apply the technologies to support expansion into new markets,
to increase market share, differentiate from competitors, modify
the basis of competition and develop more innovative products.
Given the high capital costs
of some rapid prototyping machines, especially the larger ones,
and the hidden costs such as maintenance agreements, organizational
changes, CAD system upgrades, etc, these innovative applications
are probably very important to the successful and cost effective
use of the technologies.
It may be the case that rapid
prototyping will only be seen as financially viable when these
wider potential benefits are taken into account.
Rapid prototyping technologies
are very flexible, being both relevant to supporting new product
development as well as manufacturing. The technologies are also
in a state of flux, with new developments appearing on a fairly
regular basis. Because of this they pose some unusual difficulties
to potential users.
Before investing in these technologies,
strategic, technical and organizational issues should be examined
to gain a better understanding of costs and benefits.
The process used to evaluate
and implement the technologies needs to be responsive to the
continuing technological change occurring in this field, and
technologies and organizational structures selected and implemented
so that they can be easily reconfigured to accommodate new developments.
The strategic, organizational,
cost/benefit and implementation issues surrounding rapid prototyping
are explored in detail in the report.
For further details contact Paul Kidd, Phone: +44 (0)1625
619313; Fax: +44 (0)1625 619060; e-mail: enquire41@cheshirehenbury.com). |