Consumers today are expecting high in terms of customization and diversity than before. As the product lifespan shortens, flexible innovation and time to market get critical to the strategy. Keeping this in mind, product design develops rapidly and product developers turn their attention from mass production to low volume manufacturing.

Low-volume batch manufacturing generally involves the production range of 50 to 50000 parts. Compared to the risks and costs associated with scaling too quickly to mass commercialization, the practice of low-volume manufacturing reduces risk, reduces time-to-market, makes design flexible, and even savesthe cost of production.

Generally, according to many manufacturing costs per unit should go down as volumes increases. Instance if you want to make less expensive parts, you should make more of them, correct? Not really. If one needs to mass produce parts – especially for pressure die casting then you must make a expensive investment in tool steel, which in turn needs to be hardened and heat treated to withstand the rigors of large-scale production.

Low-volume manufacturing ensures a faster time to market:

As of todays pace of technological change is increasing rapidly and with it the constant demand to innovate is needed. This puts product developers under real pressure to create new designs or modify existing products and get them distributed as soon as possible. Being the first to market can be the difference between success and failure. Low-volume manufacturing is the ideal way for you to make enough volume to be sellable without creating an unsustainable burden of inventory. In addition, with optimized supply chains for low volumes, the lead times are short with parts ready to go in a matter of days or weeks – not months – so you’ll have a quicker route to market.

Low batch manufacturing is cost effective:

When compared to a large factory set up for large-scale production, it carries a massive inventory of raw materials and equipment. Hence to cover this investment, they usually ask clients to place massive orders. 3D printing play an important role in low volume batch production which will not carry the same amount of bandwidth but will process the order faster and more economically without demanding any minimum order.