A calculation with every cost block — including the ones that rarely show up in vendor quotes. Plus a decision matrix, rules of thumb and the misjudgements that typically come with a first insourcing project.
Most companies ask the make-or-buy question once and then buy a machine. Three months later the printer is in the way, because nobody has time to run it, because purchasing the material was forgotten, or because the expected use cases turned out to be unworkable.
Make or buy is a structured decision that weighs utilisation, use-case quality, internal capacity and total cost of ownership against each other. The machine price and the provider's quoted price are not enough on their own as the figures to compare.
This page shows the decision matrix we use across more than 40 consulting projects with manufacturers.
Rate your use case against these seven criteria. The more of them apply, the more strongly the numbers argue for in-house capacity.
More than 30–50 print jobs per month make in-house capacity economical. Sporadic demand belongs with a service provider.
Prototypes within 24 hours don't sit well with a provider's five-day logistics. Speed forces the work in-house.
When CAD data for core products must not leave the building, the buy option is off the table. IP protection is a clear argument for insourcing.
Product development lives on fast iterations. If geometries are tweaked and printed every day, the printer belongs on your own site.
Fixtures, holders and end effectors recur and can be standardised. Parts like these are well suited to internal series production.
If you plan to run a print line in 24 months, start building internal competence today, before external know-how becomes the bottleneck.
All figures are based on FFF printing with high-performance printers (mid-range) vs. a typical German FFF service provider.
| Cost block | Buy (service provider) | Make (in-house) |
|---|---|---|
| Print price per hour | €3–12 (excl. handling) | €0.40–0.80 (material) |
| Setup & handling cost | €15–40 per order | 15–30 min staff time |
| Lead time | 2–7 days | Print time + 1h |
| Investment (5 printers) | — | €35,000–60,000 |
| Maintenance p.a. (5 printers) | — | €3,000–6,000 |
| Break-even (typical) | — | 14–24 months |
Reference values based on FFF. SLS, MJF and other processes have markedly different TCO profiles.
Buying a machine is the easy part. After that, orders need to be managed, print releases governed, material consumption recorded and utilisation evaluated.
From three printers on, doing this without software becomes a full-time job. From five machines on, a manufacturing execution system is a prerequisite for running the operation economically.
leanAM supports companies through the make-or-buy analysis, machine selection and building the print line. Whatever we recommend, we have run through it first in our own production operation.
