3D Printing Service SWOT Analysis
Strengths
One of the strengths, at the moment, is that there are not many 3D printing services in operation at this time. This is still a nascent industry, and the number of market suppliers has not yet caught onto the demand for 3D printing services. This industry is expected to grow tremendously over the next five to ten years as more people turn to 3D printing to develop unique products.
Additionally, prototyping using 3D printing technology has become very popular among engineering firms. As such, one of the greatest strengths of this business is that a well run business can rapidly expand within this market.
The margins generated from 3D printing services are extremely high, and these businesses - once the begin to generate revenues - reach profitability very quickly.
Weaknesses
It is expected that more companies will enter the market with 3D printing services, which is one of the weaknesses for this business. Additionally, the technology that is used by 3D printing services is expensive and rapidly changing. As such, the business will need to continually expand and improve its inventory of 3D printing equipment.
Opportunities
The primary opportunity that 3D printing services has is that they can easily acquire additional and larger scale equipment in order to accommodate specialized printing orders. Another opportunity for these businesses is that they can easily acquire other 3D printing services that are in operation.
Additionally, the 3D printing service could expand by offering a number of prepackaged designs that third parties can use. This will substantially increase the amount of printing completed by the business.
Finally, the Company can expand by heavily reinvesting into marketing campaigns (especially on the internet) that will drastically expand the number of people visiting the 3D printing services' website. This is one of the foremost ways that these types of companies expand over a three to five year period. However, a rapid expansion of the marketing campaigns for these businesses can impact the profit and loss statement.
Threats
As stated above, the primary threat faced by the business is that 3D printing equipment is continually changing. Additionally, the costs related to small equipment is plummeting. This may be a threat for 3D printing services that operate on a small scale basis. However, for companies that specialize in printing large scale 3D models, this risk is minimal as people are going to continue to outsource large scale printing. The costs related to large scale printing are expected to remain very high for the foreseeable future.
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