Impacts of additive manufacturing on supply chains: an empirical investigation

Abstract

ABSTRACT Over the last decade, additive manufacturing (AM) has received an increased attention as many manufacturing companies have increasingly adopted new technologies to capture new opportunities. This research identifies the impacts of AM on the supply chain when compared to the case of conventional manufacturing. Through an empirical investigation conducted with 51 multinational companies in the manufacturing sector, the impacts of AM are analysed by focusing on post-processing operations, lead times, cost implications, flow management strategies and maintenance. The empirical investigation reveals two major benefits of AM, namely: the ability to produce complex parts in low volumes and good design and the prototyping capability. However, the empirical results are mixed for some other impacts of AM. In fact, although many experts agreed on the general benefits of AM, a significant number did not see much difference from the conventional manufacturing. We also provide empirical evidence that, under AM, maintenance complexity and duration do not reduce as opposite to what is reported in the literature, which might be due to the novelty of AM technology and the complexity of the machines themselves. Moreover, our findings reveal that a reduction of suppliers, a reduced need for huge stockpiles and a reduced need for transportations which are often acknowledged as advantages of AM are not confirmed.