Technologies like 3-D printing, robotics, advanced motion controls and new methods for continuous manufacturing hold great potential for improving how companies design and build products to better serve customers. But if the past is any indicator, many established firms will be slow to adjust because of a formidable obstacle: legacy assets and capabilities that they are reluctant to abandon.

GE engineers have been getting firsthand insights about additive manufacturing as applied to jet engines. News of their success in 3D-printing a mini-jet engine has gathered some attention.

Will the wonders of 3D printing ever cease? With each passing day, something revolutionary seems to come off the machine's printing bed, be it a life-size Ultron helmet (OK, maybe that's not revolutionary), a prosthetic shell for a tortoise or a Shelby Cobra sports car. This time, it's more than 1,000 airplane parts for the Airbus A350 XWB jet.

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.

Harvard researchers have announced a 3D printer capable of printing both thermoplastics and highly conductive silver inks that allow electronic products to be created on one process.

3D printing has captured the imagination of the media and the financial markets; prognosticators are predicting a fundamental disruption in the manufacturing paradigm, from mass production to mass customization. Are we finally achieving the "lot size of one" that Taiichi Ohno envisioned when creating the Toyota Production System? Will factories disappear as the "maker movement" drives demand toward custom-designed items created on 3D printers in the home? How will these changes affect the industrial supply chains?

Those watching the 3D printing category can now look beyond office supply retailers. Target is now offering 3D printing for small decorative and gift items for the holidays.

Industrial machinery production - which represents $1.6tr of the $3.8tr global industrial capital expenditure spending in 2013 - is the area to be most dramatically affected by advancing 3D printing technology, says Alex Chausovksy, senior principal analyst, industrial automation, at IHS.