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This week we talk with Rob Bodor VP and GM of Proto Labs a 16 year old company in the US focused initially on prototype manufacturing. Today that has expanded to short run and production delivery of a range of components for industries as varied as healthcare to industrial to consumer.
IOT is about Things, and sooner or later someone has to design, prototype and build those ‘things’. When this turns to plastic, silicone rubber or metal, the traditional design, development, production models just aren’t nimble enough, they ignore the speed, cost, and customer demands that are showing up in the IOT space.
Rob also comments on the localized manufacturing he is starting to see from their customers, both due to personalization and logistics considerations, but also in order to provide late stage flexibility so that a manufacturer can even change the design while the product is going through approvals.
As we all start to see 3D prototyping in the home in the same way ink jet printers changed our home office I believe we will continue to see rapid development in soft and hard manufacturing processes which will all benefit the designer and the from there the consumer.
IOT is about changing the way devices are used – and also the data they collect. Providing flexibility in the design of the product is as necessary as us all becoming used to software that performs automatic updates.
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