The prime concern of any management is to maintain and, where possible, improve profitability. We are all aware that profits accrue when income from sales exceed total cost and that profits can be increased by improved sales or reduction in costs, or both.

Many technologies have been developed which have been successful in reducing the labour content, which, in most cases is the major cost.

Rapid prototyping is only some eight years old and is already proving to be a very cost-effective way of producing models/patterns.

There are over 500 SLA machines installed world wide (approximately 20 in the UK) to famous companies such as :-

Of the 500 systems sold world-wide, about 15% are being used by RP bureaux, operating on a sub-contract basis. In the UK this number is significantly higher at 50%.

All the companies are exploiting the power of RP to increase their profits as discussed below.

Increasing Sales by

• Producing visual models for market research, publicity, packaging etc.
• Getting to market sooner.
• Generating customer goodwill through improved quality.
• Expanding the product range.
• Reducing the cost and fear of failure.

Visual Models

• Consumer product manufacturers find value in having tangible models of their proposed products to show to customers.
• IBM used SLA to produce operating display units of its ThinkPad tablet computer for the annual COMDEX show.
• Key Tronics, who manufacture computer keyboards, create physical parts for customer approval.
• Logitech, the worlds largest manufacturer of pointing devices, was asked, by a "blue chip computer company" to quote on a unique two-button mouse; in less than two weeks from the initial request Logitech’s team returned with a functional SLA prototype. The customer’s reaction was one of ‘disbelief '. Part quality was so superior that the computer giant awarded the contract on the spot. It is thought that this single order paid for the SLA system.
• Coca-Cola used RP to design the nostalgic (coke bottle) curves into a contemporary 20 ounce plastic Coke bottle.

Getting to Market Sooner

• The phrase "Time to Market" is first thought to have been used in a classic 1983 article by McKinsey & Co on product development that stated:

  "Six months of delay can reduce a product’s life cycle profits by 33%".

• The author of that article has since written: "The first product to market has a 100% share of that market in the beginning. The earlier a product appears, the better are its prospects for obtaining and retaining a large share of the market… For each month cut from a product’s development cycle a month can be added to its sales life, representing an extra month of revenue and profit… It gains more customer loyalty due to the cost of switching to another product… A third benefit is higher profit margins. If a new product appears before there is competition, the company will enjoy more pricing freedom, making higher profit margins…"
• DePuy, the surgical implant manufacturers, state: The major goals are decreasing the time to develop a product, while allowing manufacturing to launch the product quickly, resulting in a larger return on investment… The return from launching a single product several months early pays for the entire technology investment."

Generating Customer Goodwill through Improved Quality

• The end result has been less re-design, improved products and most importantly, greater customer satisfaction. This has lead to many companies in the USA producing a RP model with every quote.

Expanding Product Range

• Today’s market place is characterised by more frequent introductions of more product variants each having a life cycle than the previous one. In addition, lead-times demanded are shorter than ever before.
• Clearly, RP makes a positive contribution here, by compressing development times, thus making it possible to respond to the demands of the niche markets and to introduce new products more frequently.

Reducing the Cost and Fear of Failure

• It takes a very confident person to allocate / sanction large amounts of money and resources on tooling for a product that might not make it on the market. This will inevitably make people cautious and restrict their design flair to those tried and tested shapes and systems. Where a relatively cheap model can be produced quickly it reduces the fear that traditional methods attract allowing the designer to be more adventurous.