Crossing the 3D Printing Chasm: On Marketing Additive Manufacturing for Mass Adoption

[caption id="attachment_234677" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Image: peshkova/stock.adobe.com[/caption] Additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, is not new nor is it hype: It promises gains in product optimization, as well as cost and waste reduction. While it has been widely adopted by some industries, most notably dentistry, others, including O&P, have been slower to adopt the technology. There are without a doubt a few good reasons for the slower rate of adoption in O&P. “3D Printing: Making It Work” in the July 2021 issue of The O&P EDGE presents several perspectives of those who have pioneered the adoption of 3D printing in the profession. The article discusses a need for education and increased awareness of the technical details relating to 3D printing materials and capabilities, which is tied to another topic—the importance of developing design skills. While I consider those barriers to be valid, we may benefit from taking an innovative marketing perspective in addition to the technical experience of early adopters to facilitate adoption by a broader user base as inspired by Geoffrey Moore’s book Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers. With that in mind, this article will take a step back from the clinical perspective and investigate how more O&P providers may be nudged to adopt 3D technologies. Be the Big Fish in a Small Pond Innovators and marketers must select a very specific market for their big aspirations. It does not suffice to market 3D printing as a technology anyone can use, for anything they may dream of. Defining a market goes beyond selecting an industry. First define the problem and who it affects: What are their values, what do they care about, what do they not care about? For example, individuals needing to prototype a prosthetic device may benefit from a different solution than those wanting an end-product manufacturing process. Beyond product optimization, selecting a specific market enables the word of a successful product to spread through the network of individuals more easily. Although international conferences and the internet may lower the barriers for communication between professionals on different sides of the planet, word of-mouth remains highly influential, and marketing strategies must take this into account. It is also important to establish trust between innovators and users. If your goal is innovation and whole product delivery, you must establish your organization and its products as the market authority—the developer of a highly tailored product that meets the needs of a user base that leads growth through word of mouth. Whole Solutions A successful innovation, including its adoption and spread through the market to become the status quo, requires it be shaped around a specific problem—a pain point. By satisfying such a need—at a reasonable cost—value is created and trust is built. As such, we are poised to ask: what sets of solutions are needed by orthotists and prosthetics to achieve their goals? The whole product can either be fabricated in-house by creating a one-stop-shop (which can be done for a very specific segment and problem, with a tremendous amount of resources, as demonstrated by the Arize platform offered by HP), or through partnerships between organizations that each offer different parts of the solution and are banded together through joined processes. Historically, these types of solutions have led to mergers and acquisitions as the value of the partnerships solidify. As described by Moore, early adopters of a technological tool have different personas than most of its users. The latter rely on practical gains offered by the tool and need the entire solution to be delivered; they search for established solutions and will wait for competition to be established to identify the most well supported course of action. I believe there is a great need to further support the different steps and transitions between them. For a start, we must support the design process further. The contributors to The O&P EDGE article point to design skill development as a strain on the adoption of 3D printing, but what if we were to remove this step from the process? Craftsmanship is a value held dear in O&P, so practitioners may want to control the design process, whether through manual or digital processes. The repetitive and tedious tasks of design could be automated, while the process of optimizing the product to meet the personal needs of a patient can be made the responsibility of the practitioner, through semi-autonomous design, improved user interface, and/or collaboration with a design firm. Alternatively, the manufacturing and post-processing of the device could be assigned to the practitioner’s office to leave some of the craft to them. It will be critical that we remove the tedious steps of adjusting a design to fit the patient to maximize practicality of solutions, and we should avoid having practitioners designing the products from scratch. Where then is the middle ground? Inadequate patient compliance to device use serves as a signal that there are improvements to be made to the system and devices. Since there are massive functionality gains to be achieved through 3D printing and associated technologies, there is a need to facilitate its adoption. Innovators developing such solutions must take the “whole product” approach and ensure the process is complete, while leaving enough craft on the table. Call It What It Is: Disruptive 3D printing is not just a tool. Sure, along with its associated technologies, it is a tool in the sense that it helps to achieve a goal. Yet it is revolutionizing the way in which this is accomplished by unlocking greater freedom of design and creativity and enabling new ways of operating. For example, as discussed in the The O&P EDGE article, the use of scanning technologies can allow work on-the-go, changing how we operate with clients and cutting travel time and costs. As such, 3D printing in O&P is a disruptive innovation as it changes the way we behave, and even the way we think of what is possible. Unfortunately, many fear change that comes with disruptive innovations. Associated with a long learning curve, disruption is not inherent nor the fault of the innovation or to those adopting them, but they are the result of poor innovation marketing. I am passionate about medical innovation to improve patient care, yet gaps remain in how we make innovations, and I am thus committed to addressing the issue through authentic marketing based on user experience and whole products that create true value. Invention does not suffice, we must get it in the hands of end-users and strive to have an impact, and only then can we call it innovation. Case Studies HP entered the 3D printing market in 2016 and has quickly become a major stakeholder. Their Multi-Jet Printing technology offers several benefits and has been employed by various industries. However, HP seems to have strategically focused their developments on specific verticals where their printers offer the greatest value - i.e. the field of orthotics and prosthetics, and more specifically that of pedorthics. They have created a centralized workflow they call Arize that combines various processes involved in the practice of pedorthists; from equipment and software to create a digital file of the patients’ foot, to writing a prescription, ordering, manufacturing, and delivering the insole. ---------- Another company that has banded whole solutions together is another Silicon Valley-based company - Carbon. Known for their 3D printing technique called Digital Lights Synthesis and their numerous commercial products, such as the custom 3D printed CCM hockey helmet liner and the Adidas 4DFWD 3D printed shoe, Carbon is an industry leader. Their products range from 3D printers to post-processing equipment and from software to training programs. To ensure all can access their technology, they also offer a printing service or can partner with an outsourcing production center equipped with their printers. An interesting aspect of the Carbon offer is the payment plan they utilize. Rather than requesting a substantial upfront cost requiring substantial commitment from the client, they chose to function through a subscription model. They claim this leads to several advantages, including better maintenance and continuous improvements to the technology through remote updates. Overall, they have studied their market and understood the pain points of those trying to operate 3D printers. Through their line of products and services, it is becoming evident with the line of commercial products they are affiliated to that they are indeed crossing the chasm, if they have not already. ----------------- The CCM Super Tacks hockey helmet is the first in the world to feature a custom-fit 3D printed liner. Composed of a lattice structure, it balances optimal mechanics, breathability and comfort, to address the literal and figurative pain points of previous helmet designs. Not only is it highly advanced and pushes the boundaries of performance equipment, but it also introduces new behaviors in the market. From the scan of the athletes head, to bespoke and just-in-time manufacturing, new needs are created with players joining to link together to form a new value chain. Jacob Lavigne, PhD, is a graduate from the program of experimental surgery at McGill University. His focus was on outcomes research relating to orthopedic surgery and he is now focused on robotic surgery technologies. As a researcher, he developed a passion for commercializing innovation and is now working as a marketing specialist for robotic surgery at Minogue Medical, Montreal, Canada.

Crossing the 3D Printing Chasm: On Marketing Additive Manufacturing for Mass Adoption

Editor’s Note — February 2022

Össur Reports 4Q, FY 2021 Results

Össur Reports 4Q, FY 2021 Results

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Crossing the 3D Printing Chasm: On Marketing Additive Manufacturing for Mass Adoption

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Editor’s Note — February 2022

Össur Reports 4Q, FY 2021 Results

Össur Reports 4Q, FY 2021 Results

RECENT NEWS

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O&P JOBS

Orthotic/ Prosthetic Technician

Certified Prosthetist Orthotist (CPO)

Idaho Business for Sale

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