"Following intensive analysis of the current market conditions, EOS has identified a central dilemma which leads to many customers still not fully exploiting the full potential of AM in their value creation chains,” said Güngör Kara, head of global application at EOS.
The hype surrounding the topic of industrial 3D printing has led to an unparalleled run on this new manufacturing technology over the past few years. It is clear that a company can achieve significant competitive advantages based on this technology. Nevertheless, many top managers of multinational companies still find it difficult to derive concrete profitable application fields for their own business and only evaluate the AM technology based on their own requirements. “What is decisive, however, is to evaluate AM from the view of the companies' customers, to think ahead about their requirements and challenges and to express these clearly,” the company said in a press release.
AM requires certain investments in technology and a specific knowledge base, a new way of approaching design and manufacturing and also often entails new business models which can only be implemented with the support of a company's management board, according to EOS, stressing that changes to the process should be made at the design stage.
