The need for large production runs has been a barrier to entry in many businesses since the industrial revolution. Low cost-per-unit for plastic and metal products was only available when thousands or millions of units were being produced. New technology, however, has made small production runs feasible in many arenas, enabling new competitors to challenge long-established companies.

3-d Printing

The most exciting development is 3-d printing. For less than $2,000 you can have a home printer that will make doll-house furniture or a handgun, whichever you choose. In factory settings, 3-d printing in metal or plastic has been used for rapid prototyping. The idea is that engineers and designers can alter a product’s specifications and get a working model quickly. Once all the bugs are worked out, traditional manufacturing methods produce large quantities at low cost per unit.

As 3-d printing has come down in price, and as users have become more comfortable with the software, 3-d printing is now being used for production runs. Let’s say that your product is a center console divider system for cars. It keeps all the junk in your center console organized, so the chewing gum and the Chap Stick have their own little cubbyholes. An after-market accessory like that would have to be compatible with dozens, maybe even hundreds, of different cars. 3-d printing lets you make the products to order. The old alternative would be to make large production runs for each car, storing inventory until orders come in.

Jeffersontown High School student Philip Brown explains 3-D printing to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan.(AP Photo/Dylan Lovan)

Digital Printing

Just as 3-d printing is revolutionizing manufacturing, 2-d printing is changing publishing. Print-on-demand allows publishers to avoid large production runs. It also enables rapid updates of books whose content is changing quickly. In addition, custom orders are cheap. Let’s say that you’d like to give a copy of The Flexible Stance to each of your employees and customers, with a personalized message from your CEO. No problem with digital printing. In fact, you could set up a print run with the name of the recipient on the dedication page, just as you’d do a mass mailing using Microsoft Word’s mail merge function.

CAD-CAM

Within traditional manufacturing, computer-aided manufacturing is also enabling shorter production runs. The old metal-working method required a skilled machinist to make precision cuts or holes. Set-up involved creating jigs and patterns so that the product came out to very tight tolerances. Modern methods involve a computer that controls the tools. The user can easily switch from one pattern to another with minimal change in the setup. Short production runs are hardly any more expensive than large runs, at least within certain bounds.