Amazon’s plans to transform the delivery market don’t stop at same-day, with the e-commercegiant and notorious ‘disrupter’ considering near-instant deliveries of freshly manufactured
products via 3D printers in delivery trucks.The idea was among a number of options within patents filed by Amazon with the US Patent andTrademark Office (USPTO), which the agency published last week. However, the patent applicationswere apparently filed in late 2013, leading some observers to speculate that Amazon’s plans mayhave advanced further in that time.
While Amazon has declined to comment on the status of these plans, its ‘Providing ServicesRelated to Item Delivery via 3D Manufacturing on Demand’ patent application describes a system forelectronically taking an order, making it using 3D printing or similar manufacturing methods, andthen immediately delivering it to the customer.
According to technology website Geekwire.com, the mobile 3D manufacturing and delivery truck isdescribed as one of three possible options. In addition to creating products at a warehouse orpick-up location, “the third delivery method involves producing the MOD (manufactured on demand)item on an available 3D manufacturing apparatus located on a truck that can add the delivery to itspresent route,” such as a grocery delivery truck – presumably Amazon Fresh, Geekwire.comreports.
The 3D printers would allow drivers to produce products from right outside customers’ homes inthe same trucks already used to deliver other products – a change that could affect the industrialdistribution process directly in the appliance repair services industry, suggested manufacturingand product-development website Manufacturing.net. Noting that the technology would still need somerefining, it said that hypothetically, a technician could pull up to a house, identify a faultypart, print it or the materials needed for the part, and have it ready for installation shortlyafterwards.
It said the bigger benefit was that mobile 3D printing would allow repair services to cut downon stocking parts, or waiting for parts to ship from a warehouse, or risking delays, the goalstated by Amazon: “Time delays between receiving an order and shipping the item to the customer mayreduce customer satisfaction and affect revenues generated,” Amazon wrote in the patentapplications.
“Accordingly, an electronic marketplace may find it desirable to decrease the amount ofwarehouse or inventory storage space needed, to reduce the amount of time consumed betweenreceiving an order and delivering the item to the customer, or both.”
The Wall Street Journal suggested that customers could use the service to order replacement carparts and have them delivered in time to have them installed that same day, helping to eliminate ‘out of stock’ days.
