Mobility group LM Industries forms as digital manufacturing powerhouse

Low-volume, 3D-printed vehicle and mobility device manufacturer Local Motors Inc. and collaborative product design platform Launch Forth are now housed under newly formed parent company LM Industries Group Inc.

The San Francisco-based mobility group is calling itself "the world's first digital original equipment manufacturer," taking concepts to production in less than a year by way of its access to Launch Forth's global community of problem solvers and Local Motors' use of microfactories and additive manufacturing.

The company said in a June 20 news release that bringing the two subsidiaries together under one group will provide customers with "a better alternative to mass manufacturing."

"The LM Industries solution is meant to be an end-to-end solution as a digital OEM and that starts with our Launch Forth group that does the co-creation and ideation all the way through the build of a [minimum viable product] or proof of concept," Gregory Haye, general manager and director of corporate partnerships at the company's microfactory in Knoxville, Tenn., said in a phone interview.

From there, the concept is handed off to Local Motors, which specializes in the commercialization and production efforts for the direct digital manufacturing of vehicles or mobility devices, usually via 3D printing, Haye said. The company is perhaps best known for 3D printing its self-driving electric shuttle called Olli.

From a supply chain perspective, LM Industries is aiming to shake up the manufacturing industry, especially in the mobility sector, by speeding up the development, validation and production process.

"The traditional automotive development cycle and amortization cycle is maybe somewhere between five and 10 years, depending on the vehicle application, and we're working on a cycle that's probably somewhere between six to 12 months," he said.

Haye described a situation where Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers have technologies that have been validated internally and are ready to be sold to an OEM for integration into a vehicle program, but sit dormant on a shelf due to the long development and amortization cycles of these products.

With the distributive manufacturing and "footprint light" model of LM Industries, Haye explained, the company has flexibility in the marketplace that enables rapid technology integration into a vehicle.

"With our ability to move much faster, we are able to introduce new solutions from our supply chain into the vehicle before others can," he said. "It's our advantage in the marketplace because we can keep the pace of technology in which it's being developed and integrate it into a vehicle system."

Moving forward, LM Industries will continue to create transportation, accessibility and mobility products with its two subsidiaries and through ongoing partnerships with customers such as German financial services provider Allianz Group, Airbus SE and the U.S. Marine Corps.

Through its partnership with Allianz, for example, Local Motors is looking to deploy its Olli vehicle in multiple cities. Other projects now in progress include a customizable accessibility device — a revamping of the wheelchair, so to speak — as well as a modular logistics vehicle and a driverless cargo system for the U.S. Marine Corps.

The group is also exploring the recyclability of 3D-printed thermoplastic composite parts, such as chassis made from carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastic, in vehicle applications.

LM Industries has an estimated 105 workers employed across its five locations in San Francisco; Tempe, Ariz.; Chandler, Ariz.; Knoxville, Tenn.; and National Harbor, Md.