A new wrinkle for manufacturing

So this concept of making single products by building them up a layer at a time might become feasible.

Does this mean that a ship could start from China simply full of raw material, and actually make the individualized products en route, customized to the orders that are coming in?

It would kind of take the pain out of the long steaming times. You would not even have to have orders till you started out. There’s a bit of similarity with the frozen fish business, where the mix of packages can be determined as the fish is caught and processed on board.

Print me a Sheep: 3D printing « The Operations Room