Speed of production may be an issue in these early days of deployment, but the possibilities for what can be produced with a 3D printer appear to be limited only by the imagination. With chess pieces, cars, small houses and medical equipment being printed, additive technology has certainly earned its considerable attention.

The consensus among analysts is that cheaper oil should be broadly neutral for Latin American countries in general, with clear winners and losers. Their expectation is that net oil exporters will suffer from lower oil prices and net oil importers will benefit. Although we can agree with that general short-term diagnosis, it is predicted that a sustained period of lower oil prices will have a net negative impact on Latin America and on the prospects of U.S. manufacturing companies doing business in the region.

A third (35 percent) of businesses in the manufacturing industry are extremely concerned about potential supply chain disruption, according to research released by BSI, the business standards company and the Business Continuity Institute (BCI).

The evidence of strengthening in African manufacturing is increasingly persuasive. Between 2000 and 2010, the share of the African population living on less than $1.25 per day fell from 58 percent to 48 percent. In no small part, the falling rate of extreme poverty is driven by much-improved output performance.

Cheaper, better robots will replace human workers in the world's factories at a faster pace over the next decade, pushing labor costs down 16 percent, according to the Boston Consulting Group.

Before we ask where 3D printing is taking us, let's look at what has been already achieved or is near achievement across markets beyond printing prototypes, toys and models.