Foster Ferguson, vice president of industrial business at Stratasys, joins this episode of 5 Minutes with IEN to discuss how the company’s 3D printing technology can help manufacturers manage U.S.-enforced tariffs, support onshoring and nearshoring efforts, and make supply chains more flexible.
According to Ferguson, Stratasys has built a great foundation in manufacturing with an extended network of tech adopters within the Department of Defense, prime contractors and auto industry manufacturers at an enterprise level. When manufacturers are looking for ways to counter tariffs, they can leverage 3D printing technology to localize manufacturing and take on some onshoring and nearshoring initiatives that are part of corporate strategies to counter new macroeconomic situations.
Ferguson says Stratasys’s printers provide industrial-level accuracy and repeatability that can be extended across an entire enterprise. These systems can produce at a high volume rate, providing a scalable solution to manufacture components into the low thousands. He says the technology can also make supply chains more flexible by providing the ability to make parts rather than buy parts—a critical decision for supply chain executives.