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World Vision Nepal recently procured 430 improved cook stoves from South African-based company African Clean Energy to distribute as part of the Earthquake response. The stoves are beautifully made and well regarded in the sector, but the team at World Vision identified that the knob used to adjust the temperature was at risk of being lost or broken in the Nepal context.
Transit via Nepal’s rough, mountainous roads can be very tough on humanitarian supplies being shipped to the field, and the intensity of expected usage of the cook stoves led the team to become concerned about the robustness of this particular part. They decided the best way of managing this risk was to procure a spare knob to distribute with each cook stove.
Unfortunately, the cook stoves arrived only a few weeks before the planned distributions; getting spare cook stove knobs from Africa in time would be impossible.
Impossible procurement requests, however, can become very easy to fulfill with a couple of 3D printers standing by. The required parts can be sent immediately to production, without any concerns regarding shipping times and costs. World Vision was able to do this by placing an order for 430 knobs with Field Ready, who quickly produced a design and set to printing it.