Read time: 9 mins.
Key highlights:
- Supply chain woes: Why the Neighborhood 91 concept came to be.
- Steady progress: How the N91 residents are working together.
- Payoff pending: Where do the residents see the economic benefit coming from?
This article was first published via the Additive Insight newsletter on May 1st, 2024.
In the back room of a facility north-west of the city of Pittsburgh, a plane glides past the window as it makes its descent. Five minutes later, there’s another. And another. And another.
It is not so much a distraction, as it is a validation.
Across the room, a slide show appears on the wall, with each page providing more detail as to why we are here. There’s some prose, a digital layout of the site we sit in, and more than a sense of the potential this concept holds.
John Barnes narrates.
“The campus that we sit on was put together with the thought process of hitting the economy by co-locating the supply chain. Metal additive is a little more exposed, or is very process intensive, compared to polymer additive. So, when the airport came to me, they said, ‘we want to do an Innovation Campus.’ [I said] ‘what does that mean?’ They’re like, ‘we don’t know...’”
Around the world in 24 hours
Representatives of Pittsburgh International Airport (PIA) might not have known what they wanted, but Barnes had an inkling of what was needed. He’d had stints with AlliedSignal, now Honeywell, as well as at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, working in Marine Engine programs at the former and in manufacturing exploration and development at the latter. He later occupied the role of VP, Advanced Manufacturing & Strategy at Arconic Titanium & Engineered Products. All this is to say he has extensive experience in riding the many challenges involved in manufacturing.
The Neighborhood 91 (N91) concept was first announced in 2019, with an intention to ‘condense and connect’ all the components of the 3D printing supply chain within a ‘powerful production neighbourhood concept.’ Its location is significant as PIA has the capacity and connections to transfer people and parts to anywhere in the world within 24 hours.
In early 2020, The Barnes Group Advisors (TGBA) released the results of an impact study into the Neighborhood 91 concept, suggesting production costs could be reduced by 25% for 3D printed parts manufacturers and 30% for powder manufacturers. It also claimed manufacturing lead times could be reduced by 80% and transport costs could come down by between 80-100%. Reductions to energy consumption and emissions were also to be expected, the report said.
Fast forward four years and four companies have settled into the campus, with Barnes’ Metal Powder Works being one of the more recent incumbents. But how much progress towards these headline projections has been made?
