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Redesigning Production Systems

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Abstract

If it was possible to wind back the clock on the first Industrial Revolution, then a redesign of production systems, based on the information available now, would focus on reducing environmental impacts, maximising resources and adding value to all products created, as well as taking into account the health and wellbeing of workers and the distribution of populations. Additive manufacturing, combined with digital communication technologies, delivers the possibility that many of the goals can be achieved—leading to a much healthier planet. Based on current research into sustainability and additive manufacturing outcomes, this chapter provides a vision for the redesign of current production systems, supply chains and values that serves as starting point for re-establishing the human relationship with manufacturing and business practice. Current drivers for change are discussed and opportunities for reducing the environmental impact of production systems directly enabled by additive manufacturing are then considered. These are based on integrating additive manufacturing into the supply chain and the potential impact on the development cycle, inventory management, logistic postponement and the management of spare parts.

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... Moreover, much has been said about the potential of 3-D printing to extend the lifecycle of products by improving the affordability of manufacturing replacement parts [83], [84], [85]. In addition, both the high speed of product launch and restyling, as well as small-scale and customized production, characterizing 3-D printing facilitate product customization and cocreation with customers [86], [87], [88], extending a product's life through increased product desirability and attachment (i.e., product lifecycle extension). Traditional DfX approaches are also adopted in a CE and have been clustered into five categories: SC, resource/energy efficiency, reliability, multiple life cycle (MLC), and sustainability [8]. ...
... b) Internal and external processes optimization for resource efficiency: 3-D printing enables a production-to-order (PTO) approach (i.e., on-demand and local production), thus optimizing resource use efficiency because it reduces product inventories and excess manufacturing [87], [89], [90]. Reducing spare parts in SCs [91], [92] has the potential to reduce SC costs and the use of related resources [93], as well as emissions and other issues associated with transportation. ...
Article
Circular economy has gained much interest over the last decade as an industrial approach aimed at overcoming the traditional “take-make-dispose” economic model. Several studies argue that the implementation of circular economy principles by companies may require them to design a circular business model. Designing a circular business model implies the adoption of managerial practices that address the business model dimensions of value creation, value transfer, and value capture. Existing research highlights that such practices can be adopted by exploiting digital technologies such as 3-D printing. Moreover, earlier scholarly research shows that the ability of a digital technology such as 3-D printing to enable a specific managerial practice depends upon its features. However, a full understanding of the role that 3-D printing can play in enabling the adoption of these managerial practices—by leveraging its peculiar features—is still lacking. Therefore, in this article, we aim to investigate the relationship between 3-D printing features and managerial practices for circular business model design. To this aim, an interactive and interpretive research approach inspired by the design research methodology has been carried out. Leveraging such an approach, this article proposes a novel framework linking the 3-D printing features to the managerial practices that can be adopted in each business model dimension. The framework has been developed and validated through an application case conducted with a company operating in the manufacturing industry.
... According to Loy and Tatham (2016), the relationship between the objectives of circular economy and the economy of 3D printing as a production system is just beginning to be articulated in the literature. ...
... In addition, according to Loy and Tatham (2016), even less has been debated about the effects of the circular economy in the context of a production based on Additive Manufacturing. ...
Article
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One of the important technologies in Industry 4.0 is Additive Manufacturing, which makes it possible to manufacture objects layer by layer continuously or incrementally. Circular economy aims to improve resource efficiency, leading to an evolution from the current linear model of extraction, transformation, and elimination to the model where resources flow in a circular manner. Many early studies have pointed to Additive Manufacturing as a technology that promises the environmental sustainability and the development of circular material flows. However, there is still great uncertainty about the relationship between circular economy goals and 3D printing goals. From this context, a Systematic Literature Review was performed by applying the Method Ordination multicriteria methodology in order to map the main publications. Then, 10 articles were analyzed to obtain relevant information about the relationship between Additive Manufacturing and Circular Economy.
... Coming along with these multi-facetted enablers, various new challenges arise from different implications. First, the unconventional principles and opportunities of AM processes impede a stringent one-by-one adoption in conventionally characterized process chains, as indicated by Loy and Tatham (2016) and Gebhardt (2016). Second, challenges and inconveniences take roots in the industrial and societal effects of both, development and manufacture of products (Loy and Tatham, 2016). ...
... First, the unconventional principles and opportunities of AM processes impede a stringent one-by-one adoption in conventionally characterized process chains, as indicated by Loy and Tatham (2016) and Gebhardt (2016). Second, challenges and inconveniences take roots in the industrial and societal effects of both, development and manufacture of products (Loy and Tatham, 2016). A further aspect is the need for sufficient process stability and qualification of process and work piece right before the admission to assembly and use-phase of the object (Sames et al., 2017). ...
Article
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Additive Manufacturing (AM) provides significant opportunities for design and functional integration of parts and assemblies. Compared to conventional processes, the AM principle increases design freedom notably. Additionally, numerous processible materials and hybrid processes enable the implementation in different industries, spanning from aerospace over automobile until medical applications. However, there are still handicaps to be addressed, arising from the large diversity of AM principles, post-processing and quality assurance issues, partly insufficient user knowledge, and organizational aspects. Coherently, lacking requirements specification hinders a successful consideration of AM in the early stages of development, and its later implementation. To promote knowledge build-up, this contribution presents a requirements specification framework, which supports developers in determining demands throughout the development process, including those resulting from post-processing and testing operations. By incorporating thorough analyses of general organizational and resort overarching limitations, this contribution promotes a successful implementation of suitable AM strategies.
... Presently, the automotive industry is the largest user. For example, at the Ford factory, the average time needed to develop prototypes could be reduced from formerly 3-4 months to a few weeks (Loy and Tatham 2016). Depending on the printing process used, the production of prototypes requires considerably less resources and energy than production by means of conventional processes. ...
... Further expansion could provide even more significant environmental benefits. In addition, rapid prototyping allows for multiple repetition of the development process so that adjustments can be made, if required (Loy and Tatham 2016). Early and rapid prototyping may reduce the number of errors occurring in the further development process (Gao et al. 2015) However, a possible negative effect could consist in unnecessary testing and evaluating since these are faster and easier to accomplish through rapid prototyping (Gao et al. 2015). ...
... AM, or 3D printing as it is more often known, has emerged as a major player in the manufacturing sector in recent years. Prototyping and the production of low-volume goods have been profoundly affected by AM [70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77]. It's helped bring computerised CAD (Computer-Aided Design) models and a physically complicated element considerably closer together [78][79][80]. ...
Chapter
The manufacturing sector is essential to contemporary life, since it is responsible for producing both everyday necessities and cutting-edge appliances. Engineering products are created using a wide variety of production techniques. Milling, moulding, welding, grinding, forging, machining, casting, and shaping are all examples of common industrial techniques. Most of the time, money, and labour that went into traditional production were wasted. On the other hand, the steady development of new technologies has made it such that most production processes are now long-term sustainable. Optical and laser-based manufacturing technologies are introduced in this chapter as potential solutions for achieving sustainable production. One way in contemporary technology that makes use of lasers is they are a part of the complexity of the industrial sector and current production processes. In recent years, laser-based additive manufacturing, sometimes referred to as three-dimensional (3D) printing, has developed as an ecologically friendly green manufacturing technique that offers several advantages, including energy savings, decreased material usage, and efficient production. Important laser properties pertinent to manufacturing were discussed.
... The literature search showed AM applications in various industries that include aviation [17,24,27,34,35,54,56,57,59], manufacturing and logistics [5,9,18,20,28,38,63], automotive [15,25,32,39], military [7,11,22,37,55], medicine [16,52], electronics [31,64] and petroleum [41]. However, most of the literature provides research which is not related or specified to any particular industry sector [3,6,10,14,19,23,26,29,33,36,40,42,43,45,46,[48][49][50][51]53,58,[60][61][62]65,66]. The review shows that AM has significant impact and growth in SC networks, largely in the aerospace industry. ...
Article
Full-text available
Additive manufacturing (AM) is gaining interest among researchers and practitioners in the field of manufacturing. One major potential area of AM application is the manufacturing of spare parts, which affects the availability of the operation and supply chain. The data show that the application and adoption of AM has contributed to a reduction in lead times and inventory, which also contributes to a reduction in holding costs. This paper provides a review of recent work on the application of AM technology specifically for spare parts. The review shows that there are supply chain opportunities and challenges to the adoption of AM in spare parts within various application sectors. Our research reviews both the quantitative and qualitative models used for analysis to meet the emerging needs of the industry. The review also shows that the development of technology and its application is still emerging; therefore, there will be further opportunities to develop better spare parts supply chains to support AM applications. This paper concludes with future research directions.
... Furthermore, manufacturing and storing legacy stock components for future use is all but eliminated since AM machines can produce components from a digital catalogue when they are needed. This is especially useful for unpredictable maintenance related components and legacy components that can be manufactured on demand, thereby eliminating the need for stagnant production lines [128]. ...
Article
Full-text available
Metal additive manufacturing involves manufacturing techniques that add material to produce metallic components, typically layer by layer. The substantial growth in this technology is partly driven by its opportunity for commercial and performance benefits in the aerospace industry. The fundamental opportunities for metal additive manufacturing in aerospace applications include: significant cost and lead-time reductions, novel materials and unique design solutions, mass reduction of components through highly efficient and lightweight designs, and consolidation of multiple components for performance enhancement or risk management, e.g. through internal cooling features in thermally loaded components or by eliminating traditional joining processes. These opportunities are being commercially applied in a range of high-profile aerospace applications including liquid-fuel rocket engines, propellant tanks, satellite components, heat exchangers, turbomachinery, valves, and sustainment of legacy systems. This paper provides a comprehensive review of metal additive manufacturing in the aerospace industry (from industrial/popular as well as technical literature). This provides a current state of the art, while also summarizing the primary application scenarios and the associated commercial and technical benefits of additive manufacturing in these applications. Based on these observations, challenges and potential opportunities are highlighted for metal additive manufacturing for each application scenario.
... However, it could provide the basis for new ways of thinking about the role of digital technology in enabling distributed working in different industries, as a bridge between entrepreneurship and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). As sustainability issues become more significant, the introduction of a distributed working practice mentality could contribute to developing viable alternatives for a more sustainable future (Loy & Tatham, 2016). ...
Chapter
The development of high-end, distributed, advanced manufacturing over the last decade has been a by-product of a push to foster new workforce capabilities, while building a market for industrial additive manufacturing (3D printing) machines. This trend has been complemented by a growing democratization in access to commercial platforms via the internet, and the ease of communication it allows between consumers and producers. New ways of distributed working in manufacturing are on the rise while mass production facilities in the Western world are in decline. As automation increasingly excludes the worker from assembly line production, the tools to regain control over manufacturing and commercial interaction are becoming more readily available. As a result, new working practices are emerging. This chapter discusses networked 3D printing build farms and their potential to reshape the future of work for distributed manufacturing. It highlights changes in infrastructure priorities and education for a digitally enabled maker society from an Australian perspective.
... AM enables these aspects because it makes unique and small series products accessible and affordable, e.g. AM does not require specialised tooling (Ford & Despeisse, 2016;Kondoh et al., 2017;Loy & Tatham, 2016). However, the literature presents little evidence as to whether customised and personalised design with AM actually results in stronger attachment and an associated longer lifetime (e.g. ...
... 15 The relationship between circular economy aims and the economics of 3D printing as a system of production is only beginning to be articulated in the literature. 16 We build on the conceptual work of Kreiger, Mulder, Glover, and Pearce who conduct a hypothetical Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) of distributed recycling of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) for 3D printing. 17 They find that a distributed model for producing 3D printing filament from waste uses less energy than conventional methods. ...
Article
Three-dimensional (3D) printing has been widely identified as an emerging disruptive technology. This study examines how this technology could enable the circular economy by disrupting the existing materials value chain. Specifically, could this novel technology be used to locally manufacture new goods from local sources of recycled plastic waste, thereby offering benefits for the efficiency and effectiveness of materials cycling? This article uses the London metropolitan area—where system conditions already exist in the form of material flows, technology policy, and facilities—in order to assess 3D printing’s viability as an enabler of a circular economy at the local level. An analysis of stakeholder perceptions identifies economic, technological, social, organizational, and regulatory barriers to mainstream implementation, and their likelihood of being overcome.
... In addition, costefficient production is a challenge discussed in the topic of industry 4.0 and 'Internet of Everything' (IoE). The achievements and developments in self-organizing production systems adapted to producing a single part and its production requirements might have a leverage effect on radically changing production concepts and driving concepts such as Distributed Manufacturing Systems (DMS) [1,2]. ...
Article
Full-text available
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Book
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The main objective of the book is to provide researchers and students an intensive study material in the book “Laser Based Technologies for Sustainable Manufacturing”. The book explains the Lasers in advanced materials applications, cutting edge manufacturing techniques, innovative design and computational intelligence methods used for solving nonlinear problems of engineering. It will also cover new evolving trends in engineering related to green technologies, biomedical, computer aided design, smart manufacturing, AI systems and sustainability in manufacturing etc. The present book adopts a balanced approach between academics research and industrial applications. In the present scenario, Manufacturing Industries established a unique place in the community in making the products for home and commercial uses. A lot of manufacturing techniques have been used for producing the engineering products such as milling, grinding, forging, machining, casting, forming, etc., but these techniques are subjected to some factors such as wastage of input material, manpower, and investment. However, improvements in technology over the last few years provided sustainability in most of the manufacturing techniques. In addition, engineers and manufacturing companies also show a strong desire to make products that are capable to provide good service life with an excellent surface finish. In addition, industries that produce these materials face huge pressure to protect the environment during the manufacturing techniques. To address these problems, Laser researchers and other photonics research communities provided novel laser-based technologies for sustainable manufacturing by reducing costs and wastage along with improving the output efficiency and quality of the product. Most importantly, novel and improved laser-based technologies expect to meet community problems and industrial needs. It is most important to show these laser-based technologies must be more flexible, novel, and sustainable. Book Titled “Laser Based Technologies for Sustainable Manufacturing” summaries the past and current work in laser based non-traditional manufacturing and its application and future scope to green and sustainable manufacturing. This book brief the pivotal research work of mechanical, electrical, biomedical and computer science engineering in the area of multidisciplinary research in science and technology. The book has potential to be valuable to wide readership of researchers, academician, professionals and graduate students in engineering. The applicability of this book covers wide range of industries such as production sector, design engineer, research & development engineer, automotive industry, aviation sector, electronics industry, nuclear safety research etc. and it will help to audience conducting research in these industries. Moreover, each chapter in this book will have literature review, research solution methodology, simulation, experimental setup and results validation works. The chapters will be well organized and easy to follow. The above help to ensure the completeness of the book and to satisfy the needs of the potential audience in different areas of the world related to manufacturing, design and computational techniques. Having high quality of research content it will work as reference book for researchers and scientists working in the solving nonlinear problems in engineering. The overall goal of this book is to present the latest on-going research in fifteen chapters as well as to provide further light on future research work which will be helpful for everyone in the research community. https://www.routledge.com/Laser-based-Technologies-for-Sustainable-Manufacturing/Kumar-Kumar-Kumar/p/book/9781032392738
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The rapid development and implementation of digitalization in manufacturing has enormous impact on the environment. It is still unclear whether digitalization has positive or negative environmental impact from applications in manufacturing. Therefore, this study aims to discuss the overall implications of digitalization on environmental sustainability through a literature study, within the scope of manufacturing (product design, production, transportation, and customer service). The analysis and categorization of selected articles resulted in two main findings: (1) Digitalization in manufacturing contributes positively to environmental sustainability by increasing resource and information efficiency as a result of applying Industry 4.0 technologies throughout the product lifecycle; (2) the negative environmental burden of digitalization is primarily due to increased resource and energy use, as well as waste and emissions from manufacturing, use, and disposal of the hardware (the technology lifecycle). Based on these findings, a lifecycle perspective is proposed, considering the environmental impacts from both the product and technology lifecycles. This study identified key implications of digitalization on environmental sustainability in manufacturing to increase awareness of both the positive and negative impacts of digitalization and thereby support decision making to invest in new digital technologies.
Chapter
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Chapter
**This is a reprint of a previously published chapter. Please refer to: Novak, J. I., & Loy, J. (2017). Digital Technologies and 4D Customized Design: Challenging Conventions with Responsive Design. In V. C. Bryan, A. T. Musgrove, & J. R. Powers (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Human Development in the Digital Age (pp. 403-426). Hershey, PA, USA: IGI Global. doi:10.4018/978-1-5225-2838-8.ch018** Digital design tools are rapidly changing and blurring the boundaries between design disciplines. By extension, the relationship between humans and products is also changing, to the point where opportunities are emerging for products that can co-evolve with their human users over time. This chapter highlights how these ‘4D products' respond to the vision laid out three decades ago for ubiquitous computing, and have the potential to enhance human experiences by creating more seamless human-centered relationships with technology. These developments are examined in context with broader shifts in sociocultural and environmental concerns, as well as similar developments being researched in Responsive Architecture, 4D printing and systems designed to empower individuals during the design process through interactive, parametric model platforms. Technology is fundamentally changing the way designers create physical products, and new understandings are needed to positively guide these changes.
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Chapter
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Book
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Chapter
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396 p., graph., ref. bib. : 28 p.1/2 In this groundbreaking paradigm for the economy, three leading business visionaries explain how the world is on the verge of a new industrial revolution, one that promises to transform our fundamental notions about commerce and its role in shaping our future. Over the past decade many farsighted companies have begun to discover remarkable opportunities for saving both money and resources through the ingenious application of novel technologies and business practices. Consider the following. The automobile industry is undergoing a transformation that will spell the end of the petroleum industry and a shift away from traditional car models to Hypercars"―fuel cell-powered vehicles that would be both lighter and safer, produce negligible pollution, cost both the producer and consumer less, and have fuel efficiencies as high as 200 miles per gallon. : New houses designed with heat-trapping "super-windows" can remain cool in temperatures as high as 115° F with no air conditioner and warm at - 47° F with no furnace, and cost less to build. Atlanta-based Interface Corporation is shifting from selling carpeting to leasing floor-covering services, using a new material that's more attractive, requires 97 percent less material, is cheaper to produce, and is completely recyclable. Today's best techniques for using wood fiber more productively could supply all the paper and wood the world currently requires from an area about the size of Iowa. In the long-anticipated new book by Paul Hawken and Amory and Hunter Lovins, these durable, practical, and stunningly profitable principles are synthesized for the first time into the foundations for a system called natural capitalism. With hundreds of thousands of copies of their works in print worldwide, the authors are leaders in set-ting the agenda for rational, ecologically sound industrial development, and in Natural Capitalism they have written their most significant and genuinely inspiring work. Traditional capitalism, they argue, has always neglected to assign monetary value to its largest stock of capital―namely, the natural resources and ecosystem services that make possible all economic activity, and all life. Natural capitalism, in contrast, takes a proper accounting of these costs. As the first step toward a solution to environmental loss, it advocates resource productivity-doing more with less, wringing up to a hundred times as much benefit from each unit of energy or material consumed. Natural capitalism also redesigns industry on biological models that result in zero waste, shifts the economy from the episodic acquisition of goods to the continual flow of value and service, and prudently invests in sustaining and expanding existing stores of natural capital. Drawing upon sound economic logic, intelligent technologies, and the best of contemporary design, Natural, Capitalism presents a business strategy that is both profitable and necessary. The companies that practice it will not only take a leading position in addressing some of our most profound economic and social problems, but will gain a decisive competitive advantage through the worthy employment of resources, money, and people.
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Industries such as manufacturing, mining, and transportation have been experiencing mechanization and automation for well over 100 years. Agriculture, in contrast, has lagged behind and only in the last 30 years have these processes been adopted. Long considered a way of life rather than an industry, farming is now becoming as highly industrialized as the traditionally organized businesses. Pest control, one of the later developments of the agricultural industry, has had a tremendous impact on farming methods, and in turn on crop production. Many of the high yields being reported almost daily in the agricultural press are the result, not alone of pest elimination but also of the ’new agronomy’, that is, closer more regular spacing of plants, mechanical thinning, and the higher fertility level which these new methods allow. Yields of all of our staple crops are being obtained which were unheard of 20 or 30 years ago. Herbicides, with which I am most familiar, have increased from half a dozen products available in the early forties to over 100 well-established chemicals. These are presently available in literally thousands of formulations.
Customs clearance issues related to the import of goods for public health programs. US AID. Available via http:// deliver. jsi. com
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Gartner says worldwide shipments of 3D printers to reach more than 217
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Fabricated: the new world of 3D printing
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In times of uncertainty, focus on the future
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Fab: the coming revolution on your doorstep-from personal computers to personal fabrication. Basic Books
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Massive change: A manifesto for the future of global design
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https:// www. ted. com/ talks/ capt_ charles_ moore_ on_ the_ seas_ of_ plastic
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The waste makers. Reprint Ed
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3D: the future of printing. Supply Manag
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Design: the groundbreaking moments
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Digital eco-sense: sustainability and ICT-a new terrain for innovation
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Shell energy scenarios to 2050 Available via http:// s01. static-shell. com/ content/ dam/ shell/ static/ future-energy/ downloads/ shell-scenarios/ shell-scenarios
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Companies large and small are using 3-D prototyping to push the boundaries of innovation. USA Today Available via
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Sustainable materials, processes and production
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Customs clearance issues related to the import of goods for public health programs. US AID Available via
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