- Cost of production from overseas suppliers
- Lead times to supply the product
- Scalability of production
- Research and development
Originally, Fleet Space's antennae production was outsourced to an offshore provider, resulting in issues such as lengthy delays of the manufactured parts. As in any industry, time is money and, if a part fails to perform at its best, the result is lost productivity and expensive downtime. Fleet Space recognised the many benefits of being able to control supply through in-house manufacturing, as there’s a significant need to scale capacity. Having the ability to rapidly prototype new designs of parts in between production of their RF patch-antenna, would have been impossible without in-house manufacturing capabilities.
Fleet Space's, Lead Assembly Technician, Dr Kristopher Kempt explained:
"3D printing drives down cost. Not just because you can produce a part without having to worry about a lot of additional machinery and time, but also because you don’t have to worry about other external costs, like all your courier transport and all of your consumables."
