Case Study: MIC achieves rapid growth and faster time-to-market with 3D Systems' Geomagic Freeform

Mic Uses Geomagic® Freeform® To Expand Its Business

MIC is a Tokyo-based toy model design firm that grew from 6 employees in 1999 to more than 30 by 2003 and became a major profit center for its parent company. The business faced stiff price pressure—customers now set prices below traditional production costs—and slow, risky workflows that relied on shipping hand-made master models and painstaking manual scaling for very small toys.

MIC adopted a digital workflow centered on six Geomagic FreeForm seats for design, reverse engineering, scan cleanup and manufacturing. By sharing digital files instead of physical masters, enabling easy scaling and clearer client feedback, and using rapid prototyping for fast iteration (14 unique soccer player models finished in one month), MIC cut time-to-market, improved quality, expanded into new services like custom chocolate figures and mobile scanning, and significantly grew its revenue and business scope.