The future is starting to show itself, and in surprising ways.

The big news in the manufacturing world, as Paul Davidson reports in USA Today, is 3-D printing.  Like a tangible, industrial hologram, 3-D printers are able to "stitch together industrial parts by meticulously spreading hundreds or thousands of layers of powdered metal onto a canvas until they form three-dimensional shapes."

Essentially, the latest digital technology has come to the manufacturing world.  3-D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, is gaining use as a way to produce small runs of actual molds and parts.

Lower-cost 3-D printers can cost as little as $2,000 and are used to make jewelry and toys. But the bigger ramping up is for industrial printers that can produce advanced parts.

Davidson says that because 3-D printing requires only a few employees, it could potentially "neutralize the low-cost labor advantage that countries such as China and India enjoy over the U.S.":

That, along with 3-D printing's ability to accommodate quick product launches, is expected to accelerate a nascent "reshoring" trend that has seen a growing number of manufacturers bring some production back to the U.S.

Davidson quotes Scott Paul, executive director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM), as saying of 3-D printing: "It becomes very cost competitive with anything you can get from China."

3-D printing may eventually help lead to a "growing number of factories that likely will relocate to the U.S." to take advantage of such new technology.

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