Any single plant can use 3D printing to solve local production challenges. The greater opportunity comes when those solutions can be shared, reproduced and improved across a connected manufacturing network.
At General Motors, Stratasys FDM technology supports more than 20 manufacturing facilities, while teams collaborate across Mexico, North and South America, and with a GM design centre in India.
General Motors answered that question with a decision that sounds simple but has compounding returns: standardize on one FDM platform, validated material options, and shared design practices across the entire network. The platform they chose is the Stratasys F900.
The F900 gives GM a common manufacturing baseline at every site. With a build volume of 914.4 x 609.6 x 914.4 mm (36 x 24 x 36 in.) and compatibility with a broad portfolio of engineering-grade FDM thermoplastics, from workhorse materials like ASA and ABS-M30 to high-performance options like Nylon 12CF and ULTEM™ 9085 resin. It handles the full spectrum of applications GM encounters across its assembly network.
But the decision went deeper than just selecting hardware. GM standardized everything: the printer platform, the materials that feed it, and the design best practices that govern how tools are engineered.
"The biggest thing that we standardize is the Stratasys equipment," explains Moses Harris, an additive manufacturing applications engineer at GM. "What that allows us to do is not only standardize the printer itself, but also the Stratasys materials that feed into the printer."
The result is something manufacturers rarely achieve: true portability of solutions across a global footprint.
Standardization turns every solved problem into a multiplier. When one plant develops a fixture in ASA, a safety tool in ABS-M30, or a quality aid in polycarbonate, every other plant with a similar process can download and print the same part, with confidence that it will perform identically, because the machine and material are the same. This isn't theoretical. GM has built the infrastructure to make it work at scale: monthly global meetings, a shared digital parts database where additive leads can search for existing solutions, and plant user group sessions where high-impact applications are highlighted across the network.
The plant doesn't need to reinvent it. We can spread it across all of our assembly plants and duplicate that."
This isn't theoretical. GM has built the infrastructure to make it work at scale: monthly global meetings, a shared digital parts database where additive leads can search for existing solutions, and plant user group sessions where high-impact applications are highlighted across the network.
The F900's broad material compatibility, spanning commodity thermoplastics to high-performance polymers like ULTEM™ 1010 resin and Nylon 12CF, means a single platform can address every application class: ergonomic hand tools in ABS, UV-stable exterior fixtures in ASA, high-stiffness structural jigs in carbon-fiber-filled nylon, and heat-resistant tooling in ULTEM™. That versatility is what makes true network-wide standardization possible.
The standardization strategy has shifted GM's manufacturing engineering mindset. When new equipment is being designed for plants, engineers now factor in the distributed Stratasys FDM network from the start.
Odegaard says; "When we design equipment going into plants, we know we've got the distributed network. And now we can challenge our suppliers to look at additive so that we can look at our spare parts inventory."
The implications are significant: GM is digitizing its spare parts inventory, reducing the complexity and cost of maintaining physical stock across dozens of facilities. If a part breaks, the digital file is already in the system. Print it locally on the F900, install it the same day.
In Silao, Mexico, the team demonstrates what cross-border collaboration looks like in practice. It works closely with other GM sites in Mexico and North America, shares knowledge with colleagues in Brazil and Argentina, and collaborates with a GM design centre in India.
“We have strong collaboration - not just locally within all the Mexico sites, but also at a global scale,” says Victor Cabrera, Plant Executive Director, GM Silao Assembly. “We collaborate with our design center in India and closely with South America, in Brazil and Argentina. We share best practices, ideas and the benefits that come from cost savings and reduced downtime.”
The ability to print on demand, in exact quantities and at the point of need, has freed GM from component availability issues with external vendors and eliminated the friction of ordering small quantities of specialized parts.
GM's executives are candid about why the relationship with Stratasys specifically has worked: long-term commitment to the F900 platform, reliability in a production environment, and a shared understanding that this equipment needs to perform like any other piece of manufacturing capital.
That commitment runs both ways. GM treats its Stratasys printers with the same rigor as any other capital investment: uptime monitoring, utilization tracking, and a clear expectation of ROI. When capacity at a site maxes out, the response isn't to reconsider. It's to add a second machine.
The real power of standardization isn't in any single printer or any single plant. It's in the network effect. Every new solution created anywhere in the system immediately becomes available everywhere. As GM's additive footprint grows (they've recently expanded into South America), the value of that network compounds.
Watch the full GM story here How GM Scales 3D Printing Across Plants | Stratasys
In this blog series: The numbers behind GM's additive manufacturing program, from six-month payback periods to millions in documented cost savings.
