3D-Printing: A Revolutionary Step In Manufacturing – Impacts On Employment, Environment, Security

3D printing, a revolutionary step in manufacturing

Describe about the Report for 3D-Printing as a Revolutionary Step in Manufacturing.

The human history has seen much revolutionary discovery and invention which have transformed the human life. Such discoveries have changed the human life invariably, one of such invention is the ‘Internet,’ and even the inventor wouldn’t have imagined the implication of the technology. In the present time, 3D printing is gaining the traction and this emerging technology is set to disrupt the way things are manufactured currently (Birtchnell & Urry 2016). The technology is set to have a profound impact on politics, economics, security and environment. This essay is designed to understand the impact of 3D printing on the life of normal human being and will help in understanding the various implications of the technology. For the ease of understanding the initial section explains the technology, followed by its impacts and finally the conclusion.

The 3D printing technology has been termed as disruptive technology by Petrick & Simpson (2013 .pp:12). It has been aptly stated by the authors that the industrial revolution has created a disruption in the society through the introduction of machines which didn’t only reduce the time of manufacturing but were also capable of producing materials at much faster rate. Similarly, the 3D printing technology will remove the dependencies on the supply chain and will move the power to the designer and the consumer removing all the mediators. On a similar note, Campbell et al. (2011) have presented the same trend with the advent of the 3D printing technology which will affect various aspects of the life ranging from economics, politics, environment, and security. Although Berman (2012) have agreed to the fact that the technology is the next industrial revolution but have presented the technology on a positive note, which stresses mostly on the advantages of the technology.

The disruptive nature of the technology is because it totally changes the dynamics of the society and has a very deep impact on the citizens. Rayna & Striukova (2014) have stated in their work that good planning is mandatory for any execution and have presented the impact of the technology on the business model innovation, thus helping in the creation of the structure based on the disruption that has been created due to the technology. It has also been stated that the employment that will be created for the designing the object and making are printable will also be significant. Furthermore, Garrett (2014) too have emphasized the importance of the strategic planning for the implementation of the technology so that its disruptive effects are nullified with proper planning. Hence it can be understood that the 3D printing technology is indeed disruptive in nature and if not implemented with proper planning in mind could prove disastrous to many aspects of the human life like the economy, policies, health, etc.

Unemployment Rates and Economic Implications

In the previous section, the disruptive nature of the technology have been presented which affects many aspects of human life and the most important of them is unemployment created due to the change of roles. According to Rifkin (2012), the two industrial revolutions have created unemployment and with the third revolution on its way in the form of 3D printing is set to create more unemployment and distributed capitalism which will affect the rate of employment in the world. On a similar note Peters (2016) have expressed concern about the effect of 3D printing on the various economies around the world. It has been presented that the automation industry is continuously eating up the jobs of the country and to add to that 3D printing will totally destroy employment. A similar fear has been expressed by Weller Kleer & Piller (2015) who have mentioned that “3D printing is a two-edged sword for the developing countries”.

Employment is extremely important for a country and to counter the effects of the various technology methods have been presented by several authors. According to Rifkin (2012), the previous industrial revolutions, on the one hand, has reduced the staffs on the factory premise but has created employment in the different areas thus creating a more sophisticated workforce, similar things will also result due to the advent of the newer technology, and for that the humanity should be well prepared with the necessary skills. The need of the well-trained personnel will increase with the technology and will generate employment in a different arena. The student will be benefitted most with the advent of the technology as it will help them understand the basics of the construction with extreme ease (Schelly et al. 2015). However, it should be borne in mind that the implementation of the technology will create dedicated job only for the skilled personnels.

The ease of manufacturing with the help of the 3D printers have created a lot of issues regarding the security of the community as the technology can be used for the production of various products which can be used against the society. According to the report that has been published in The Guardian (2016), sophisticated weapon manufacturing facility has been unearthed during the raids across the Gold Coast. The main catch of the news is, the weapons were manufactured at the facility with the help of 3D printers. The advantages of such guns are many which include, lightweight, lethal, and are not detected by metal detectors.  According to Lindstrom (2014), drones can also be created with the help of the printers which can be used in advanced warfare. Thus it can be easily seen that the 3D printing technology can be effectively used against the people or the country for harming them. Hence the use of the printers should be supervised to ensure the security of the subjects of the country.

Environmental Impact

The security should be given the foremost priority among all to ensure the technology doesn’t create an issue for the other citizens of the country. To ensure the maximum utilization of the resources, and avoiding the exploitation, the rules and the regulations of the land should be very strong and enforcing agencies should be well equipped to counter any contingency. According to Pierrakakis et al. (2014), the regulations around the world should be more stringent to ensure information doesn’t land up in the wrong hands. The issues with the technology are also very different as the files containing the information of the manufacturing is more necessary compared to the infrastructure thus making the act of prevention more difficult compared to the physical objects. A similar fear has been expressed by Little (2013), who have shared that the 3D printing technology should not be made public as the security implications will surely create a disaster in the society as the gun control law won’t be very effective with its implementation. Hence it is highly recommended that the technology should not be made public as it is not yet mature and the laws of the land should be well prepared for the implication of technology.

Conclusion

In this report, a detailed discussion has been presented to understand the 3D printing technology and its impact on society. For this study, the various aspects of the technology have been scrutinized and have been presented for a better understanding of the technology. In the following section the disadvantages of the technology have been presented, which are its disruptive nature, unemployment rates, environmental impact, security, etc. and finally the recommendation has been offered in each section to contain the technology for future and simultaneously create the workforce depending upon the technology to reduce its negative effects, which will not only allow a healthy environment for all but will also help in creation of healthy technology with everyone in mind.

References

Birtchnell, T. & Urry, J., 2016. A New Industrial Future?: 3D Printing and the Reconfiguring of Production, Distribution, and Consumption. Routledge.

Petrick, I.J. & Simpson, T.W., 2013. 3D printing disrupts manufacturing: how economies of one create new rules of competition. Research-Technology Management, 56(6), pp.12-16.

Campbell, T., Williams, C., Ivanova, O. & Garrett, B., 2011. Could 3D printing change the world? Technologies, Potential, and Implications of Additive Manufacturing, Atlantic Council, Washington, DC.

Berman, B., 2012. 3-D printing: The new industrial revolution. Business Horizons, 55(2), pp.155-162.

Rayna, T. & Striukova, L., 2014. The impact of 3D printing technologies on business model innovation. In Digital Enterprise Design & Management (pp. 119-132). Springer International Publishing.

Garrett, B., 2014. 3D printing: new economic paradigms and strategic shifts. Global Policy, 5(1), pp.70-75.

Rifkin, J., 2012. The third industrial revolution: How the internet, green electricity, and 3-d printing are ushering in a sustainable era of distributed capitalism. World Financial Review, 1, pp.4052-4057.

Peters, M.A., 2016. Technological unemployment: Educating for the fourth industrial revolution.

Weller, C., Kleer, R. and Piller, F.T., 2015. Economic implications of 3D printing: market structure models in light of additive manufacturing revisited. International Journal of Production Economics, 164, pp.43-56.

Schelly, C., Anzalone, G., Wijnen, B. and Pearce, J.M., 2015. Open-source 3-D printing technologies for education: Bringing additive manufacturing to the classroom. Journal of Visual Languages & Computing, 28, pp.226-237.

Lindstrom, G., 2014. Why Should We Care about 3-D Printing and What Are Potential Security Implications?. Geneva Centre for Security Policy, Policy Paper, 6, p.2014.

Pierrakakis, K., Kandias, M., Gritzali, C. and Gritzalis, D., 2014. 3D Printing and its regulation dynamics: The world in front of a paradigm shift. In Proc. of the 6th International Conference on Information Law and Ethics.

Little, R.K., 2013. Guns Don’t Kill People; 3D Printing Does: Why the Technology Is a Distraction from Effective Gun Controls. Hastings LJ, 65, p.1505.