The use of 3D printing-digitally controlled additive manufacturing-is growing rapidly. Consumer models of 3D printers allow people to fabricate small plastic objects, from cabinet knobs to wedding cake toppers. Industrial uses are becoming widespread, as businesses use the technology to fabricate prototypes, spare parts, custom-fitted prosthetics, and other plastic or metal items, often at lower cost and with greater efficiency than standard manufacturing. In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, John Jordan offers an accessible introduction to 3D printing.
Jordan outlines the stages of 3D printing, from idea to software model to a printable file that slices the planned object into printable layers to the finished object itself. He describes additive technologies, consumer 3D printing in homes and schools, mass customization, and industrial uses. He considers the possible unintended consequences of 3D printing on jobs, as companies scramble to find employees with an uncommon skill set; on business models and supply chains, as manufacturing is decentralized; and on patent law, as machines can be programmed to copy protected property. Finally, Jordan looks at new and emerging uses, including bioprinting, building construction, and micromachines.

The book is organized into 4 parts.  First, some basic facts about information economics, human behavior, technology platforms, and other facts of contemporary life are examined to set some context.  Second, particular technologies’ trajectories are briefly sketched, with a focus of implications rather than mechanics.  The third section is concerned with how humans organize resources and do work in the changing landscape.  Finally, business model disruption and innovation will be the focus of seven case studies in section IV.    Traditional MIS curricula are being confronted with the need to explain non-technical criteria behind such dynamics as Facebooks explosive growth or the impact of mobile phones on developmental economics.  Traditional strategy formulations, meanwhile, fail to explain Linux, Apples App store, Groupon, or GPS.  This book attempts to bridge that gap, tying the technology to the business and social environment in an approachable, informed manner.

This book will show organizations how business model innovation should be a key focus area in today’s global economy. It features cases from businesses around the globe who have developed their own business models to achieve high levels of performance and interviews from key executives. A primary focus in the book will be on the role of technology in driving and enabling changes to fundamental facets of a business. Business model innovation is occuring around the world, in essentially every industry and in processes ranging from RD to MA, supply chain, and marketing. Case examples will be included from ABB, IKEA, Apple, Tata, SHARP, Daudi Aramco, DeBeers, Telefonica, Valero Energy, LEGO, Procter Gamble, among others.

Robots are entering the mainstream. Technologies have advanced to the point of mass commercialization — Roomba, for example — and adoption by governments — most notably, their use of drones. Meanwhile, these devices are being received by a public whose main sources of information about robots are the fantasies of popular culture. We know a lot about C-3PO and Robocop but not much about Atlas, Motoman, Kiva, or Beam–real-life robots that are reinventing warfare, the industrial workplace, and collaboration. In this book, technology analyst John Jordan offers an accessible and engaging introduction to robots and robotics, covering state-of-the-art applications, economic implications, and cultural context.
Jordan chronicles the prehistory of robots and the treatment of robots in science fiction, movies, and television — from the outsized influence of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot (in which Asimov coined the term “robotics”). He offers a guided tour of robotics today, describing the components of robots, the complicating factors that make robotics so challenging, and such applications as driverless cars, unmanned warfare, and robots on the assembly line.
Roboticists draw on such technical fields as power management, materials science, and artificial intelligence. Jordan points out, however, that robotics design decisions also embody such nontechnical elements as value judgments, professional aspirations, and ethical assumptions, and raise questions that involve law, belief, economics, education, public safety, and human identity. Robots will be neither our slaves nor our overlords; instead, they are rapidly becoming our close companions, working in partnership with us — whether in a factory, on a highway, or as a prosthetic device. Given these profound changes to human work and life, Jordan argues that robotics is too important to be left solely to roboticists.