Terry,
I agree, we have introduced RP to companies that never thought
about using this technology and have purchased equipment for in-house
use. But there still seems to be a lot of companies that have never
heard of
RP. Also, some companies are not using RP because of their experience
3 or 4 years ago. "Too expensive" or "The parts are only good for
concepts".
As soon as we show them how RP is versatile and inexpensive compared to
the alternative,
their attitude changes. The hard part is convincing them that they can
use RP.
We are still seeing a growth market in our area.
Do you know how many SB's have failed in the past year and were?
I have heard rumors that some of the larger SB's have consolidated
equipment
to central offices or closed some offices. Is the midwest and CA
saturated with SB's?
Thanks for you insight,
Jim Harrison
3Dimensional Engineering
954-972-9906
harrjp@juno.com
www.3de.net
On Wed, 27 May 1998 19:19:35 -0400 Terry Wohlers
<twohlers@compuserve.com> writes:
>Vern Carter wrote:
>
>> As most of us know, on Tuesday at the RP&M Conference, Terry Wholers
>ga=
>ve
>a
>> presentation about the state of the RP industry. In that
>presentation h=
>e
>> said one thing that I just can not understand.
>> =
>
>> I quote "THERE ARE TO MANY SERVICE BUREAUS" and "WE NEED TO LIMIT
>THE =
>
>> NUMBER OF SERVICE BUREAUS".
>> =
>
>> How is this possible and why?
>
>Did I really SHOUT this out? <grin> Seriously, ..... the supply of
>servi=
>ce
>bureaus and the capacity that they collectively represent exceeds the
>current demand. Part of the reason is that companies are bringing RP
>technology in house, similar to the way companies added large format
>scanners and plotters over the past decade. About 10 years ago, there
>we=
>re
>an estimated 2,000 scanning and plotting service bureaus, but now
>there's=
>
>only a few hundred. I genuinely hope the RP market grows sufficiently
>to=
>
>fill the capacity at these companies, but I fear that it will not. =
>
>Companies that go out of business tend to tarnish the image of this
>young=
>
>and somewhat fragile industry. If you ask SB customers whether they
>feel=
>
>that there are too many SBs, many will say "no." That's because when
>the=
>
>supply goes up, prices go down and customers want low prices.
>
>I certainly did not mean to imply that we should control or regulate
>the
>number of service bureaus, not that we could. I might have suggested
>tha=
>t
>limiting their number would not be all bad at this point in RP's
>evolutio=
>n.
> Additional SBs and capacity (without new and expanded markets) could
>cau=
>se
>others to sell off their RP businesses, which would produce "red
>flags" f=
>or
>people new to this industry. Consider the title of a story in the May
>19=
>98
>issue of SME's Manufacturing Engineering magazine. On page 32 it
>reads: =
>If
>RP Is So Hot, Why Are They Going Out of Business? What message does
>this=
>
>send to companies that are new to this industry and considering the
>purchase of RP products or services? The sad part of it for me is
>that I=
>
>was interviewed for this story, so I feel somewhat responsible for its
>title. I guess it makes for a catchy headline, so editors do what
>they
>have to do.
>
>As Vern suggested, it would be helpful to hear the thoughts and
>opinions =
>of
>others on this subject. =
>
>
>Terry Wohlers
>Wohlers Associates, Inc.
>twohlers@compuserve.com
>
>For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/
>
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