Case Write Up – MakerBot
Why the firm did well or not so well?
MakerBot did well because they introduced a low cost 3D printer in the market which could be assembled and would cost less than $1000. The other printers available in the market were large machines which were costing several hundred thousand dollars. Thus, MakerBot was able to cater to the customers who formed low end of the market and were very price sensitive. This helped MakerBot to sell a large number of printers and increased its customer base.
MakerBot also did well because it relied heavily on open source. The DIY (do-it-yourself customers) created and shared software/hardware innovations with the community. This helped in speeding up the innovations at MakerBot by learning
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On one hand it should try to increase its customers but on the other hand it should also try not to lose any of its current customers. MakerBot should work on creating network effects which lure the current customers to stay as loyal customers of MakerBot. It should further invest on Thingiverse and try to create a close knit maker community. It should also reach more universities by investing in MakerBot Starter Lab which focuses on educating university students about 3D printing and creating people who have 3D printing skills. This would help MakerBot make people familiar to its machines and hence will create a network effect.
The most important aspect which MakerBot should focus on is creating barriers to entry because if MakerBot is successful in creating barriers to entry, then it would become difficult for its competitors to copy its innovations or products. For creating barriers to entry, MakerBot should not rely solely on open source. It should focus more on creating proprietary hardware and software especially for mid and high end products. Thus, exploiting the mid and high end products market by creating barriers to entry but at the same time it can also exploit the low end market using open
How has something that has been for quite some time, suddenly become so popular? The recent fascination of 3D printing started at the 21st century, when 3D printer prices dramatically dropped from a few thousand dollars, to just a few hundred, and led to the majority of the new and advancing businesses to invest in them. Describ...
Adding to overseas sourcing so that lead time could be faster for design and production they could also divide the business up and have different locations for orders and new products to make business faster and
Their business grew from making 600 printers per year to making 600+ in one week. In less than 5 years MakerBot grew to a 400 million dollar business(Welch). In 2012, Bre Pettis won the Disruptive Innovation Award. He is a speaker and a favorite interview subject who has graced many magazine covers.(Life in… 3D) His passion is to build tools to empower creative explorers to innovate(Welch). Bre Pettis can make his 3D printers cheap and modifiable, revolutionizing the technological world. H try's to make all of his products affordable for people everywhere because he knows what it's like to be low on money. “We shared tools and collectively bought a laser cutter.” (I’m Bre Pettis) When Bre had just started his business he had little money and experience. He knows how it feels to be short on money and have something most people don't. “MakerBot makes the best printers, and they're open source”(I’m Bre Pettis). Bre Pettis’ MakerBot has created most of their printers to be open source or modifiable so people can make them better and so MakerBot knows what to put in their next build of the machine. Bre can relate to the technical community and is always trying to improve his
reputation of being the best in the industry. To do this they focused on and
The Company has invested its big portion on 3D printing equipment’s. Since technology has a limited life span, Whales’ need to upgrade its innovation very frequently.
New online manufacturer brand e.g. Dell.com - Entrepreneurs saw opportunities for developing online manufacturers' brands that took advantage of online technologies that enabled innovative new products to be adapted to customer preferences, and by using IT to enable efficient and effective operations such as assembly and logistics.
Furthermore, there are several things that make up Googles great organizational culture. Google’s culture is all about the people who make up of the company. Building great products depends on great people. There are more than 40,000 Googlers behind the tools that you use every day (Google.com n.d.). Google hires smart and determined individuals and favor ability over experience
Eliminating friction at every turn: ensuring change can happen quickly and efficiently Google’s approach to innovation is highly improvisational. Any engineer in the company has a chance to create a new product or feature.
My heart was pounding and my hands were sweaty. I couldn’t tell if I was nervous or excited. I watched breathlessly as my team-mates were in the field setting up the robot. Switching it on, precisely positioning it, and checking all the motor-controlling wires. Everything had to be done perfectly and properly otherwise the robot would be completely incapable when the match started. Finally, they fled the field and the buzzer rang indicating the start of the first practice match. The robot took off flawlessly, driving itself through the fifteen second autonomous This was only a practice match at UC Davis’s Sacramento Regional in the FIRST Robotics program, but that moment marked the culmination of six weeks of hard work. About a little over
that made the company one of the most recognized companies of the world. The dynamic
The advantage of plug and play open source spacecraft is that they cost much less than spacecraft built using proprietary designs because more than one company is allowed to build them at the same time. Like kitchen appliances, the more spacecraft that are built at the same time, the less each one will cost. However, just like commercial kitchen appliances, commercial spacecraft must be consistently safe and reliable when used. Otherwise, potential customers will not purchase them. In the case of spacecraft, consistently means that all of them are of the same level of high quality.
Employee focus (Google has a unique culture and policies to promote innovation. The company strives to employ the most qualified applicants and reward the greatest contributors, in order to promote good performance and facilitate hiring and retention)
GM- focused differentiation, medium pricing, breadth of product line is high. A strength is market share, and a weakness is styling and reliability and perceived quality.
The first part of our SWOT analysis is the strength attributes . What has Apple done successfully ? Well for one they have products that almost every member of every family can utilize . You have the very popular Iphone , Ipad , Ipod , Mac books and Ihome products . Their processing speeds are among the best. Apple has been successful in promoting a lifestyle beyond the products it makes . They have made mini versions of there products as well as implemented apps that kids can use so that parents can easily transition their device into a kid friendly tool .
The number of robots used in industry increases every year as more companies realize their many benefits. Robots are the future of the manufacturing industry. As the performance and flexibility of robots increases and their prices continue to drop, many companies will uses these added incentives to invest in the future. Soon every company that has an application for a robot will be forced to invest in one, to stay competitive in the world market.