Disruptive Technology

Disruptive Technology

Question 1

The academic definition of a disruptive technology is when a technology enters the market and is initially viewed as an inferior technology and tends to be ignored by the bigger business, but then eventually grows into a success and starts to pull customers away from market/industry leaders.  Initially I read the word and assumed the common public perception that disruptive technology is something that is invented and is an immediate game changer.  Reading the discussions that week helped me understand that disruptive technologies are actually not immediately successful and are no secret to other well established companies in that market.  Those companies as well as customers will not immediately buy into the technology and will favor more traditional options.  The reason it is important for businesses and students to use the correct definition is because as we saw in class many people started naming several examples of innovation but were describing incremental and radical innovations.  The term disruptive technology is something that most businesses need to be on the lookout for because those are the technologies that can put them out of business (i.e Netflix vs Blockbuster).

Question 2

Additive manufacturing is the process of using data of a digital three dimensional design to build an item by depositing material in layers.  This technique also known as 3D printing is vastly different than what we consider traditional manufacturing.  Traditional manufacturing is taking a block of material and removing pieces of that material by chipping, cutting, burning, etc. until the desired shape is formed from the remaining block.  Additive manufacturing is essentially the complete opposite in that like in its name it is adding material onto itself, which ideally helps prevent waste since material is being added rather than subtracted, also with 3D printing you can build items within each other simultaneously.  Furthering the advantage of AM is that there are many different techniques which allows for better AM results depending on what product is being manufactured. A few AM techniques include material extrusion which is the process to create objects of a fixed cross-sectional profile and material is pushed through a die of the desired cross-section which is what we witnessed in the class demonstration.  Vat photopolymerization is the process of exposing liquid polymers to ultraviolet light to turn liquid into solids.  While this process is being accomplished a platform moves the object being made down after each layer is treated.  I tend to associate this technique with building machine parts from the videos I watched.  Powder bed fusion is a technique in which energy selectively fuses regions of a powder bed which I witnessed in one of the first videos posted in this class where they build an exact replica of a wrench but changed the color of one part.

Question 3

Answering the first part of this question is why businesses are applying additive manufacturing and after taking this course that answer is simple in that AM provides too many advantages to manufacturing it cannot be ignored.  As we learned earlier it is absolutely vital for companies to apply incremental innovation to their business so as not to get left behind by other companies that are constantly improving their business model to appeal to consumers.  While not all companies have switched yet many are trying to incorporate this technology into their business model moving from a manufacturer-centric to consumer-centric model where appropriate.  The good example would be pulled from my project in regards to shoe companies creating custom shoes designed around the customer.  Most companies still operate under manufacturer-centric in that they build the same shoe thousands of times and only alternate the size.  Companies like Feetz are going in the opposite direction behind a consumer-centric model where every shoe is designed to fit the customer’s unique foot.  Essentially building the shoe around that customer’s 3D foot.  When looking at the Cotteleer and Joyce (2014) model Feetz would fall in Path 3: Product evolution.  They are hedging their bet that consumers will respond to customization and improved functionality.  Adidas on the other hand announced that they are using AM to creating an improved running shoe and will be using AM to mass produce these shoes focusing on functionality over customization remaining in the manufacturer-centric business model and squarely in Path 2: Supply chain evolution of the Cotteleer and Joyce model.  Many manufacturing businesses seem to be creating if not experimenting on how to apply AM technology into their business because of the advantages in build time.  Many products can be built in one step.  AM also as previously stated saves businesses money in not having so much waste in material compared to traditional manufacturing.  Also AM is already being taken to the front lines in the medical field to provide on-site medical prosthetics customized for patients that otherwise would not receive those products or require being flown out to possibly another county to receive the product.  This technological innovation is forcing businesses to adapt their business models.  Companies can and are reducing operational scale transforming their supply chain as well as utilizing AM’s superior flexibility to drive product innovation and reduce changeover cost.