Investigating the Impacts of Additive Manufacturing on Supply Chains

Abstract

Additive manufacturing is an emerging technology that is gaining more ground in various production areas, like medicine, industrial production, and consumer product printing. Aim of this paper is to analyze the applications of this technology on supply chains, investigate how it affects the structure and characteristics of the traditional supply chain, and finally, develop a business model for its optimal use, through the case study of the LEAP-1A jet engine fuel nozzle supply chain. This was achieved in three steps. First, current literature was reviewed, to fully understand the technology, its applications and the production processes it affects. Second, three different supply chain scenarios, i.e. conventional supply chain, centralized 3D printing and decentralized 3D printing were developed and elaborated, so as to allow the easier identification of the differences of the supply chain processes among the scenarios. To select the most effective scenario, an online survey with the participation of experts was conducted, to attribute weights to indicators identified through the literature review. Finally, a business model for the chosen scenario was developed using the Business Model Canvas. The analysis and evaluation of the indicators revealed that the most effective supply chain model is a decentralized additive manufacturing model. Based on the overall results it can be concluded that additive manufacturing simplifies the supply chain, increases flexibility in design and production and reduces transport and logistics costs. © 2021, The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.