Previous posts have made mention of the growing industry of service bureaus for 3D printing. Even as 3D printers lower in price and accessible to consumers it still requires a good deal of expertise to work through the details. This leaves an opportunity for experienced professionals to help part time and amateur designers turn their initial concepts into actual products. One company, SupplyBetter, is working to simplify that process and serve as an expert in the field, a sort of new breed of manufacturers representative. Their online service aims to quickly identify an appropriate and economical supplier for rapid prototype parts.
I had the chance to speak with SupplyBetter Co-Founder and CEO, Matthew Du Pont, about what the company offers.
3DEngr: Is SupplyBetter limited to 3d printing or is it open to other rapid prototyping methods? Who makes the decision the part is best suited for printing?
Supply Better: We’re best at 3D printing right now, but are open to other types of prototyping. 3D printing is free to the buyer, while other processes have a small fee to to the buyer, since we’re doing more manual work to find them the right match, and the supplier isn’t paying. We take a look at each order and contact the customer with clarifying questions if it’s not suitable for 3D printing.
3DEngr: If the service is free to the buyer how are you making your money? Is it a more modern form of manufacturing sales reps?
Supply Better: For 3D printing, we make money from the supplier, who pays us a small fee to bid on the job with a buyer they otherwise wouldn’t have exposure to. Suppliers only bid on jobs they think they’ll do well at, so they only pay for leads that fit them well.
3DEngr: There are obviously others ways to get 3D printed parts. Can you describe the type of benefit you offer to your customers that other organizations can not?
Supply Better: We had a client that needed ABS parts of production quality in their hands in under two days. Using our network of suppliers, we were able to find a service bureau that could process the order at a reasonable price and overnight ship the pieces in time. This level of quality and fast turn-around time just isn’t possible with the larger companies that… have multi-week lead times.
3DEngr: That is really fast! Overnight shipping is great, assuming you are in a location that it services, what about international locations and long term connections? Are there locations or regions where your service is focused and can people submitting use the site to make a local connection and build a relationship outside of supply better?
Supply Better: We’re strongest in the US right now, purely based on where we’ve seen the most customers, but have a worldwide database of suppliers and have helped people in Europe and Asia. If a local connection is important to you, definitely let us know, and we’ll make sure to only match you with suppliers in your immediate area.
There is sure to be a lot of competition in this space as the cost of printers continue to drop and more are machines are sold into the market only to sit idle. Supply Better, and others like it, are in a good position to help make the connection between the supply and demand of machine time while also offering an expert consultant to help ease the process. Best of luck to Matt and team in the future.