An article on Wall Street Journal called, "3-D Printing Startup Seeks Niche in Low-Cost Prosthetic Legs". The article is about a startup company called SHC Design Inc. that is using 3D printing to produce custom-made polymer limbs. Mr. Ando lost his right leg right below the knee soon after he was born. When he heard of SHC Designs, he started working with them part time helping with patents. A prosthetic leg was designed for him with a space between his big toe and second toe so he could wear sandals, which is something he thought he would never be able to wear. What first drew me in to this article is 3D printing. This technology is so fascinating and SHC Designs are able to make prosthetic limbs for a fraction of the cost. While insurance generally pays the high cost of an artificial leg, there are not many options for the folks wearing them. The company also wants to provide the product to those in need. For example, there are about 350,000 people in the Philippines that need prosthetic legs and 90% of those folks cannot afford it. More than 100,000 of those people, who cannot work without a prosthetic, could get back to work if they had one. Tom Fise from the American Orthotic & Prosthetic Association sees potential durability issues compared to the standard legs since different materials are used. SHC hasn't had any durability issues in the trials so far but if the 3D printed leg did wear out, you would be able to print another one quickly and cheaply with the stored data. The textbook mentions four categories for competitive priorities: Cost, Quality, Time and Flexibility. I believe that SHC Designs is well on their way to meet each of these categories.
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