Lighting the way

Many companies aspire to bring manufacturing back to the United States. With one of the largest collections of 3D printers in the world, Ian Yang's Gantri just might pull it off.

- By Tyler Trykowski

Off I-880 in San Leandro, California, lies a warehousing district a stone’s throw from Oakland International Airport. Drive down a commercial corridor there, past self-storage facilities and welding supply shops, and within an ordinary beige concrete business park you'll find Ian Yang's vision of the future of manufacturing.

Here on the factory floor of Yang’s lighting company, Gantri, more than 1,000 3D printers whir away in a cavernous room, transforming plant-derived, biodegradable filament into plastic pieces in hundreds of shapes and sizes. One machine nears completion on a pleated, nine-inch-tall lampshade; others give form to less identifiable objects—boxy, oblong, and circular parts that will be assembled into one of nearly 5,000 variations of lamps.

It’s an inverse of the metrics of a traditional factory. While the typical assembly line will produce massive numbers of only one product at a time, Gantri’s factory can make thousands of different products at the drop of a hat. In a futuristic feat of just-in-time manufacturing, a lamp here comes to life only once a customer places an order. The finished item, priced between $200 and $500, is ready to be shipped directly to their door in an average of 10 days or less, in the exact color and style they choose.

Somehow, standing here surrounded by hundreds of moving robotic arms doesn’t feel eerie or mechanical; the low hum of fans and moving parts creates a soothing kind of white noise. “It’s very meditative,” Yang says. “I actually come here sometimes when I’m stuck with a problem. I take a reflective walk around the printers and the solution just comes.”