MakerBot: no more production in Brooklyn, the upcoming 3D printers could come from China

"At the market rules can not escape": this could be the easiest comments to the news coming from Brooklyn. MakerBot has decided to stop production of the molten filament printers that occurred in the suburb of New York entrusting the production to Jabil, a company based in the US, but that leverages factories scattered around the world, including China. Who will buy soon a MakerBot, which until now had adorned a US DNA, may be located on a desktop 3D printer built in China.

The first operation result is the closure of the facilities in Brooklyn, with the adjoining dismissal of part of the workforce. In a company blog post the CEO of MakerBot, Jonathan Jaglom, he explained that the decision was difficult, but it is a step towards positioning the company for the future and should be seen as a part of a long-term strategy . Will be its production workers those affected by the redundancies, while the areas of logistics, repair, quality control and operational expenses such as planning will remain active in the Brooklyn headquarters.

The next will be a transition period where MakerBot pass to Jabil its expertise in the field, while trying to capture those in the field of the production quality of the second. Quality is a point on which he has worked very MakerBot in recent times, especially after the acquisition by Stratasys (which had already led to a workforce reduction).

The 3D printing market is evolving rapidly, and MakerBot needs tools to be more agile in providing convincing answers to consumers. Not having the production at home, but they can lean on external suppliers is certainly an important step in this context, also considered the price war declared by the Chinese products and competitors. It is then a very volatile market, where you need to cut or increase production in a short time, without having to deal with fixed costs that are currently carrying out to support the New York factory.

When asked how this move can be reconciled with great pomp and statements about the intention to stay in New York last summer at the inauguration of a new pavilion, CEO Jaglom responded to look at how they operate other major US companies, Apple in the first place. "If we play our cards right, and I'm sure we're doing it" - told The Verge - "over time the company will continue to grow and through this growth will bring even more talent under our roof. Our DNA and our culture remain those in Brooklyn and we are proud to be here. "