Time to market, Thermoplastics -- Product development, Product development, and 3D printing

The laborious process of product development is changing. The evolution of rapid prototyping, 3D printing, and additive manufacturing will continue to affect the process for the better, developing accurate and [...]

Government regulation, Company business management, Human services -- Laws, regulations and rules, Human services -- Psychological aspects, Pilot projects -- Management, Pilot projects -- Psychological aspects, Policy sciences -- Methods, Policy sciences -- Psychological aspects, and Prototypes (Psychology) -- Analysis

"I didn't know it would take this long, or what the next stepes were. I waited a long time and had to hurry to complete some forms before a deadline. [...]

3D printing -- Methods and Evolution -- Methods

Keywords Branching path; Trajectory; Innovation pathways; Paradigm; Industry scenario; Meso-level Highlights * New technology fields can be represented as paths that build momentum, fork and evolve. * Forecasting Innovation Pathways (FIP) require a further developed theory of path emergence and evolution. * 3D printing can be represented by a dominant design: a tri-partite configuration that is filled in a variety of ways. * 3D printing is a field which evolved first around prototyping applications and has branched out to new applications. * The interplay of foreseen applications and the filling of the tri-partite schema motivate branching from rapid prototyping. Abstract In recent years, the Forecasting Innovation Pathway approach (FIP) has shown to be a promising set of tools to capture potential developments in emerging fields through capturing indications of endogenous futures. However, the FIP approach is reliant on a clear demarcated area to study, a challenge for emerging technology fields where uncertainty and rhetoric abound. This paper presents an addition to the FIP toolbox that helps characterise and demarcate boundaries of emerging fields to allow for deeper analysis through other FIP methods. We illustrate this approach through an exercise for 3D printing technology (also known as Additive Manufacturing). We show that 3D printing can be represented by a dominant design: a tri-partite configuration of printer, material and digital design software. In the past decade we have seen significant branching from applications in rapid-prototyping to medical, fashion, aeronautics and supply chain management with a variety of elements coming together in tri-partite configurations. The paper adds to the current FTA literature an approach building on evolutionary theories of technical change to help with such situations -- emerging, evolving and branching 'innovation pathways'. Moreover, we developed a methodology to construct these innovation paths. Author Affiliation: (a) Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Sciences Innovations Societes (LISIS), CNRS (UMR 9003), IFRIS, Universite Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallee, France (b) Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, University College London, UK (c) Copernicus Institute, Utrecht University, Netherlands * Corresponding author at: Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Sciences Innovations Societes (LISIS), CNRS (UMR 9003), IFRIS, Universite Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallee, France. Article History: Received 31 January 2018; Revised 4 June 2018; Accepted 11 July 2018 Byline: Douglas K.R. Robinson [contact@douglas-robinson.com] (a,b,*), Axel Lagnau (a), Wouter P.C. Boon (c)

Time to market, Backup software, Backup software -- Product development, and Product development

Rapid prototyping is synonymous with additive manufacturing. The digital process, also known as 3D printing, is especially valuable because it inverts the economics of product development by generating rapid design [...]