Graphics Reference
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Product optimization takes many forms. A cleverly designed part can last
longer or save energy thanks to the fact it's specially designed for its environ-
ment. 3D printed custom engine parts, for example, can be designed to carry
larger volumes of cooling air or to bear more weight.
Another way to optimize a product is by making it in fewer pieces, or even
in a single piece. A general rule of thumb in manufacturing is the more parts in
a product, the more resources it takes to make. The more parts that need to
be assembled, the longer the supply chain and the larger the inventory.
Thanks to their unique fabrication process, 3D printers can make objects in
a single “print job.” If future manufacturers could print parts whose designs
were optimized for less assembly, the result would be less environmentally
costly overhead. A streamlined manufacturing process would involve shipping
or fastening together fewer separate parts.
Aerospace manufacturer Boeing found it could 3D print a duct for a ighter
jet that in the past was made of 20 separate parts. Once the duct was printed
as a single, already assembled piece. Boeing found it could streamline its
inventory. Storing the design iles and printing parts on demand (rather than
storing and tracking an inventory of physical parts) consumed less inventory
storage space and reduced administrative overhead.
Cutting links from the supply chain
Many people, weaned on images of toxin-spewing factories, don't realize that
perhaps more devastating than factory pollution is the slow burn of fossil
fuels consumed by supply chains. The process of moving materials and parts
around the world generates large amounts of pollution. Wal-Mart estimates
that about 80 percent of its corporate carbon footprint is generated by its vast
and global network of suppliers.
Global supply chains move raw materials to the factory, then to the assem-
bly line, and inally, to the last stop, the consumer. All of us rely on the low
of global supply chains. Nearly every mass produced object we live with,
purchase, consume and throw away—from the most humble plastic toy to
the medical device that saves lives in surgery—is the product of a long and
winding supply chain. Supply chains have a huge carbon footprint because of
fuel emissions from industrial armies of trucks, planes, and ships that move
things from place to place.
 
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