If this industry no longer requires "power users," then most of us will be
out of a job. Especially the internal model shops and service bureaus.
Look at the printing industry. There used to be tons of mom-and-pop shops
for printing and internal print shops for businesses. But since the advent
of "push button" copiers, many are now out of business or no longer needed.
The only print shops now are "production" facilities. And what we do
"ain't" production. If I were in charge of a big corporation and I could
buy "3-D printers" that hook up to workstations and print out accurate,
durable prototypes, I buy them. In the process, most of your model shops
and bureaus will dry up. But the bar goes up with the improvement of
technology. There will be another green pasture for those of us who like to
thrive in chaos. We start mowing those pastures a new way.
*****************************************
David K. Leigh ph (254) 933-1000
Harvest Technologies fax (254) 298-0125
Rapid Prototyping www.harvest-tech.com
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-rp-ml@bart.lpt.fi [mailto:owner-rp-ml@bart.lpt.fi]On Behalf
Of Elaine Hunt
Sent: Friday, September 24, 1999 1:37 PM
To: rp-ml@bart.lpt.fi
Subject: RP systems and power users
all the discussion about advances in systems, etc brought to mind the
following question...
if all rp systems become my ultimate push button machines..then will
everyone have the same competitive edge or will power users become
disenchanted and move on to other tools that provide them more options?
I guess the ultimate question is do we use RP for competitive advantage and
if so how do vendors assure that power users remain in the fold.I firmly
believe that if all systems do not retain, encourage, and promote power
users among their user communities then the technology will suffer greatly.
Microsoft may have 1000s of programmers today but 25 (1975) years ago they
did not exist....... we are working on our second decade in rp so there is
hope that vendors will grow, expand, and thrive......
Elaine
*******************************************************************
Opinions, suggestions, and other controversial matter VOID where prohibited.
******************************************************************
Elaine T. Hunt, Director
Clemson University Laboratory to Advance Industrial Prototyping
206 Fluor Daniel Bldg. Clemson, SC 29643-0925
864-656-0321 (voice) 864-656-4435 (fax)
elaine.hunt@ces.clemson.edu
http://rafiki.vr.clemson.edu/credo/persall/persall.html
For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/
For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/
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