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Abstract

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.

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The shift to a circular economy (CE) is associated with the need to implement innovative business models, but the adoption of circular business strategies in the industry has been limited. In fact, manufacturing companies face a range of challenges when transitioning toward such strategies, yet these challenges are rarely discussed in practice. This paper investigates the challenges faced by a manufacturing firm when implementing a circular business model and the solutions adopted to overcome them. A case-based research design was adopted in this study. The main challenges for circular business implementation faced by companies were identified in the literature and applied as lenses for examining the transition to a new circular business strategy in the company under analysis. Data analysis involved working with the data from the ground up to identify solutions for overcoming the challenges. The main findings reveal that changes needed for implementing a circular business model are achieved by integrating and engaging multiple organizational functions, each of which is complementary and mutually supportive. The involvement and collaboration of multiple stakeholders play an important role in circular business model implementation and operation. Moreover, the implementation of such models should consider specific contextual aspects of the business in question, i.e., alignment between external conditions and the business model should occur. A deeper understanding of the development of other types of circular business models in distinct contexts, and the capabilities necessary to develop and implement them, is recommended for further research.
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A circular economy can help reduce the impact of plastic waste using reaction, resilient, and digital approaches. In addition, it can facilitate reducing plastic consumption. In this regard, consumer behaviour and digitalization are deemed to be two main factors that play major roles in the implementation of a circular economy of plastic waste. The idea of this paper is to understand the relevance of consumer behaviour and digital ecosystem efficiency on plastic waste at the country level. Hence, the efficiency of eight European countries in the generation of plastic waste was analysed using international databases and the statistical method of receiver operation characteristic (ROC). For this purpose, the dependent actual state variables were defined as plastic waste generations, and the independent test variables were defined as digital ecosystem and consumer behaviour factors. ROC plots for the determination of the area under the curve (AUC) indices were produced between the mentioned state and test variables. The results revealed that consumer behaviour increases the higher generation of plastic waste (AUC >0.6), indicating that consumer behaviours have high effectiveness on the generation of plastic waste in European countries. Furthermore, the results indicated that the digital ecosystem has a controlling role in the generation of plastic waste in the study area (AUC <0.5), indicating the digital ecosystem factors associated with the low generation of plastic waste. The overall consumer behaviour in the selected European countries showed an unskilled role regarding the higher generation of plastic waste, while the digital ecosystem context showed a mitigating role in decreasing plastic pollution. The confirmation of the research hypotheses leads to some managerial propositions for the circular economy of plastic waste in the area of consumer behaviour and digitalization. The results propose an elaborated framework, including a reduction in waste generation, recycling in waste circulation, recovery in waste valorization, and efficiency in resource consumption by the digitalization of design technology and education in consumer behaviour for the circular management of plastic waste.
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The concept of circular economy (CE) has gained prominence in management research as a new industrial approach that society, companies, and policymakers should follow in aiming to manage for sustainability issues. The adoption of CE principles has highlighted particular managerial practices that companies can implement in their business models. However, existing research still falls short of describing in sufficient detail the enablers of these practices for a circular business model design. This issue, especially in rural areas, is particularly interesting for the agri-food sector, which is characterized by enormous sustainability challenges, including food production and waste, packaging, transportation, consumer habits and behavior, and energy production and consumption. This article takes stock of this gap through an analysis of the enablers of managerial practices in Fiusis, a company operating in the agro-energy sector of a rural area, which has designed a circular business model and was recognized as “the best business model in the rural area” by the European Commission in 2019. The case highlights the importance of a suitable political and institutional environment beneficial to the starting-up and development of the business, and the importance of collaborating within the community of stakeholders for the creation of a new culture of sustainability.
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Several strategies have been detected in the extant literature to understand how Circular Economy (CE) can be pursued. Considering all the End-of-Life (EoL) management practices detected, disassembly processes have been identified as strategic. However, only scattered attempts have explored how digital technologies (specifically, simulation) can support the CE adoption, by focusing on disassembly processes. This research detects, through a systematic literature review, how so far simulation approaches have been proposed and applied in the extant literature to foster the disassembly process with a focus on Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs). At this purpose, the main roles played by simulation to ease the disassembly process, also through the support of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies, have been detected. Based on the results obtained, two roles of simulation to support the disassembly process (Sequence planning and process optimization and Training) seem the most interesting from the twofold CE/I4.0 perspective, combining up to date technologies with traditional simulation approaches. Discussed in a deeper and sector-independent way, results provide directions about the lifecycle phases to be explored through simulations, the technologies to be involved, and both the final purpose and the type of simulation approach to be adopted. Finally, the gaps needing for further contributions, raised from the adoption of a Digitized Disassembly, are listed, and the main technologies so far employed to cope with them, through a Virtual/Augmented Disassembly-oriented Simulation perspective, have also been detected and provided as a guide for those who want to approach the hybrid simulation/disassembly research context.
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Promoting the circularity of business practices and product offerings is a pivotal process in increasing the value of circular products, coming with a still underestimated effect on market response and, thus, firm performance. This study investigates the communication intensity of companies adopting circular economy (CE) practices, here with the aim of assessing the extent to which promoting circularity increases their economic performance (measured as return on assets—ROA), disentangling this effect for the different quantiles of the ROA distribution. Employing a unique web-scraped dataset of companies’ websites, we captured and analyzed the online promotional efforts of a sample of Italian manufacturing companies engaged in CE practices. Our results show that small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that fall into the lower-medium–performing range might benefit from intensively signaling their circularity on their website. Theoretical and managerial implications are put forward.
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Research stream on Circular Business Models has recently emerged within the management research to address the concept of Circular Economy from a business model perspective. Several studies in this stream have identified and analyzed a set of managerial practices that can be adopted by companies to design Circular Business Models. However, current research still falls short to provide a systematic view of the enablers and barriers for the design of Circular Business Models and the adoption of related managerial practices. The paper addresses this research gap in two ways. First, it provides a reference framework of enablers, barriers, and contextual factors affecting the design of Circular Business Models. Second, it presents the results of a survey involving 66 companies operating in the Italian automotive industry, bringing into light the relative importance of the identified enablers, barriers, and contextual factors in this industry. Finally, our research provides practical suggestions and recommendations for properly approaching the design of Circular Business Models in the automotive industry.
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Recent findings have shown that Digital Twin served multiple constituencies. However, the dilemma between the scope and scale needs a sophisticated reference architecture, a right set of technologies, and a suitable business model. Most studies in the Digital Twin field have only focused on manufacturing and proposed explicit frameworks and architecture, which faced challenges to support different integration levels through an agile process. Besides, no known empirical research has focused on exploring relationships between Digital Twin and mass individualization. Therefore, the principal objective of this study was to identify suitable Industry 4.0 technologies and a holistic reference architecture model to accomplish the most challenging Digital Twin enabled applications. In this study, a Digital Twin reference architecture was developed and applied in an industrial case. Also, Digital Twin as a Service (DTaaS) paradigm utilized for the digital transformation of unique wetlands with considerable advantages, including smart scheduled maintenance, real-time monitoring, remote controlling, and predicting functionalities. The findings indicate that there is a significant relationship between Digital Twin capabilities as a service and mass individualization.
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This paper aims to investigate how the sustainable development is pursued by manufacturing companies according to the extant literature, especially by focusing on circular economy (CE) paradigm that is considered one of the major drivers for sustainability. Indeed, this research aims to study how CE principles have been adopted in the manufacturing sector leading towards the creation of Circular Manufacturing (CM) strategies. To achieve this goal, a systematic literature review has been conducted. Scopus and Web of Science are the scientific databases used for the review process. The 215 papers selected for the review were analysed through a theoretical framework developed by the authors. This framework enabled to individualize the research streams and the perspectives through which CE strategies adopted by manufacturers have been studied in the extant scientific literature. These research streams are technologies, and evaluation methods and models. Besides, both of these two are studied under two different lenses since they both are mutually considered supportive tools to shift or to maintain a circular system. To conclude, one of the major contributions of this literature review is to provide a clearer definition of CM and to figure out how CM strategies have been addressed by academics in the scientific literature, with the final aim to reduce the confusion emerged in the extant literature around this concept. Last, this review elucidates some scientific literature gaps and suggests future research directions.
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The concept of circular economy is increasingly receiving attention in different domains, including strategic management, operations management, and technology management. It requires companies to design their business model (i.e., the value network, the relationships with the supply chain partners, and the value propositions towards customers) around a new concept of sustainable development that reduces consumption of natural resources and preserves the environment. However, extant research falls short in terms of explaining how companies design their business model according to the circular economy principles. Starting from this premise, the present paper provides a systematic review of the literature on the design of business models in the context of circular economy, aiming to offer an overview of the state of research and outline a promising research agenda.
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3D printing, which is synonymous with the additive manufacturing is gaining popularity, which leads to emergence of 3D printing platforms. The pricing strategies for such platforms are quite complicated, since different kinds of products/services could be provided on the same platform at the same time. We explore the optimal pricing strategy for a 3D printing platform that sells standard and customized products, taking products' differentiation into account, where the platform and designer seek to maximize their profits, while the customer wishes to maximize their utility gained from the product purchase. In the basic model, we derive the platform's optimal prices when the platform allows the designer to add a mark-up for the standard product. We find that the standard product's final price increases with its own quality and decreases with the customized product's quality. When labour cost is low, the customized product's final price increases with its own quality and decreases with the standard product's quality. We also find that the designer's optimal mark-up for the standard product increases with the printing cost of the standard product and quality of the customized product, and decreases with the interaction cost, printing cost of the customized product, and quality of the standard product. We compare the platform's profit in the case of “partial pricing power”, in which the platform allows the designer to add a mark-up, with that in the case of “full pricing power”, in which the platform sets the final price of the standard product and charges a commission fee as its revenue. We find that if the difference in the quality between the standard and customized products is high, then the strategy of charging a commission fee at a rate of more than 25% is more profitable than the strategy of allowing the designer to add a mark-up to the reservation price.
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Huge depletion of raw materials, inefficient waste management practices, increasing population and consumerist lifestyles, are even more coping companies with the adoption of Circular Economy (CE) principles in their Business Models (BMs). However, benefits coming from the implementation of CE within companies are not always clear to managers. To this aim, the paper has a multiple purpose. Firstly, the work provides to academics the list of the benefits deriving from CE adoption through a systematic literature review, declined under the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) perspective of sustainability, also by validating and grounding them through four practical use cases. Secondly, the work links CE benefits with a set of CBMs – based on Product-Service Systems (PSSs) – through a set of interviews with experts belonging to the Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) sector, trying to support industrials in both i) detecting benefits related with the adoption of CBMs, ii) increasing their awareness on benefits and iii) reaching them into practice. Given that PSS-based CBMs are renown both by the scientific and industrial community as the most suitable ones to achieve circularity, they were considered as the most appropriate to adopt also in this work. Finally, four use cases coming from the WEEE sector demonstrate how to link CBMs with CE benefits.
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A circular business model represents a holistic system of co-evolving managerial practices for collective value creation, delivery and capture, which provide solutions for sustainable development. Previous research on circular business models aimed to understand value creation mostly in terms of a single managerial practice or in a relatively isolated manner. In particular, little is known regarding the system of managerial practices that creates value. Accordingly, this study proposes a theoretical framework characterized by a set of managerial practices in connection with relevant internal and external contextual factors for creating value within a circular business model. The framework was used in a specific case of a small medium-sized enterprise (SME) operating in building sector, which can be considered a great example of circular economy put into practice. Therefore, the explorative nature of the case allows for deep probing that helps consolidating the framework. Among the main results, essential outcomes included configuring and adapting the company’s business model to particular internal and external contextual factors; valorization of local waste by harmonizing managerial practices, and socio-cultural and socio-economic settings, as well as sustainable behaviours among the actors of supply chain. This study contributes to the field of circular business models research by adopting a broader, interdisciplinary approach toward the concept of value creation. Further, it provides managers with a roadmap for creating value by enhancing the degree of circularity within a given context.
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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how rising technologies from Industry 4.0 can be integrated with circular economy (CE) practices to establish a business model that reuses and recycles wasted material such as scrap metal or e-waste. Design/methodology/approach – The qualitative research method was deployed in three stages. Stage 1 was a literature review of concepts, successful factors and barriers related to the transition towards a CE along with sustainable supply chain management, smart production systems and additive manufacturing (AM). Stage 2 comprised a conceptual framework to integrate and evaluate the synergistic potential among these concepts. Finally, stage 3 validated the proposed model by collecting rich qualitative data based on semi-structured interviews with managers, researchers and professors of operations management to gather insightful and relevant information. Findings – The outcome of the study is the recommendation of a circular model to reuse scrap electronic devices, integrating web technologies, reverse logistics and AM to support CE practices. Results suggest a positive influence from improving business sustainability by reinserting waste into the supply chain to manufacture products on demand. Research limitations/implications – The impact of reusing wasted materials to manufacture new products is relevant to minimising resource consumption and negative environmental impacts. Furthermore, it avoids hazardous materials ending up in landfills or in the oceans, seriously threatening life in ecosystems. In addition, reuse of wasted material enables the development of local business networks that generate jobs and improve economic performance. Practical implications – First, the impact of reusing materials to manufacture new products minimises resource consumption and negative environmental impacts. The circular model also encourages keeping hazardous materials that seriously threaten life in ecosystems out of landfills and oceans. For this study, it was found that most urban waste is plastic and cast iron, leaving room for improvement in increasing recycling of scrap metal and similar materials. Second, the circular business model promotes a culture of reusing and recycling and motivates the development of collection and processing techniques for urban waste through the use of three-dimensional (3D) printing technologies and Industry 4.0. In this way, the involved stakeholders are focused on the technical parts of recycling and can be better dedicated to research, development and innovation because many of the processes will be automated. Social implications – The purpose of this study was to explore how Industry 4.0 technologies are integrated with CE practices. This allows for the proposal of a circular business model for recycling waste and delivering new products, significantly reducing resource consumption and optimising natural resources. In a first stage, the circular business model can be used to recycle electronic scrap, with the proposed integration of web technologies, reverse logistics and AM as a technological platform to support the model. These have several environmental, sociotechnical and economic implications for society. Originality/value – The sociotechnical aspects are directly impacted by the circular smart production system (CSPS) management model, since it creates a new culture of reuse and recycling techniques for urban waste using 3D printing technologies, as well as Industry 4.0 concepts to increase production on demand and automate manufacturing processes. The tendency of the CSPS model is to contribute to deployment CE in the manufacture of new products or parts with AM approaches, generating a new path of supply and demand for society.
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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the managerial practices that companies can implement in order to design a circular economy business model and how companies can create and capture value from a circular economy business model. Design/methodology/approach The paper adopts a single case study methodology with semi-structured interviews and company, supplier, and manufacturing site visits, conducted in a small-to-medium-size Italian company operating in the office supply industry. Findings The theoretical setting maps a set of managerial practices for a circular economy business model and sets the research gaps and questions in a research framework designed along three main dimensions: value network, customer value proposition and interface, and managerial commitment. Then, through an empirical analysis, the findings reveal that the proposed dimensions are interdependent and reinforce each other. Moreover, the managerial commitment as moderating factor between the value network and the customer value proposition and interface dimensions is identified as essential for reaching the intended goals of circular economy business models. Research limitations/implications This study maximizes the depth of the phenomenon under investigation by leveraging a single case study methodology, which ideally helps in a theory-testing approach as in the present case. Future research opportunities could be found in qualitative and quantitative studies to increase the generalizability of the findings of this paper. Practical implications The paper presents a set of relevant managerial practices for circular economy business models that can be used by managers who have the will to embrace in practice circular economy principles to support the design, change, or upgrade of the business model of companies within which they operate. Originality/value An interdisciplinary approach that integrates the research streams of circular economy, social psychology, organizational behavior, and business model design has been pursued to test the theoretical setting and the research framework for circular economy business models in a real-world context.
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The circular economy (CE) has gained traction as a pathway towards more sustainable economic growth. The main actions leading towards a CE have been identified as the 3R principles of reduce, reuse, and recycle. However, understanding is lacking regarding how the adoption of CE using the 3R principles generates value and revenue in a business context. Thus, this study structurally examines business models used by CE-driven firms utilizing the fundamental business model components of value proposition, value creation/delivery, and value capture. By developing a detailed framework of business model components, acknowledging the particular features of CE implementation, and conducting a multiple-case study combining the business model approach with the 3R principles, this study analyzes feasible CE business models from multiple industries in Europe, the US, and China. The following five research propositions are derived from the findings of the explorative case analysis: 1) the cost-efficiency of circular operations is the key proponent to successful CE business, 2) take-back services enable the acquisition of particular wastes as resources, but they need to be incentivized through reductions in customers’ total waste management costs, 3) circular business models require the focal firm to separately manage multiple positions in the value chain, 4) the take-back system for gaining value through CE can be implemented successfully in multiple ways, and 5) recycling is easier to implement than reducing or reusing due to a smaller impact on the business. These propositions contribute to the circular business model literature by showing how economic value is generated by CE initiatives and providing foundations for theory-testing future research. The propositions also provide guidance for policymakers and managers on supporting and implementing circular business.
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Creating flexible materials using additive manufacturing techniques continues to be both challenging and rewarding. Our research project, Modeclix addresses the challenges through combining both traditional construction techniques with advanced manufacturing technologies. Modeclix consists of a system of additively manufactured links that can be manufactured as linked panels but the design of the link allows for the panels to be de-constructed and then reassembled by hand. The system enables a range of different shapes to be constructed, with no size restrictions that is often a defining factor of AM technology. In the first instance Modeclix is being used to successfully create a range of clothing and fashion accessories to demonstrate the versatility of the linking system. The sheets of linked textile are designed to be printed in polyamide (Nylon PA12). The material can be post processed and then dyed in a range of colours so that patterns and designs can be incorporated into the textile form. As the textile consists of interchangeable links it is a straight forward process to repair and re-purpose the textile. For example, garments can be made to fit the customer simply by removing or adding links to adjust the size and shape, satisfying the emerging demand for bespoke fully fashioned products. Modeclix is a design system that incorporates circular economic factors into the products life-cycle. A garment can be re-purposed to make new garments, accessories, toys or other applications yet to be discovered. The potential to develop the system further through new component parts will also ensure the adaptability and future usability of the textile. New AM parts can extend and enhance the life of the textile at a later date and expand the areas of application. Although fashion, accessories and toys have been the starting point of this research project we have only just begun to realise its full potential across a range of different industries and applications. Modeclix also addresses the need to reduce resources through localised production, product life extension and demand driven manufacture that's both customisable and scalable.
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This article applies the Biosphere Rules—a biomimicry-inspired management framework for circular economy initiatives—to the emerging field of additive manufacturing and three-dimensional (3D) Printing, which are revolutionizing industrial sectors from medical devices to spare parts. They are also potentially keys in the emergence of a true circular economy that will bring about environmentally sustainable manufacturing. This article lays out an established strategy that can guide managers and policy makers in pursuit of a cradle-to-cradle economy.
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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.
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Materials discovery is an incessant process and has been the landmark of human progress. This article sees the evolution of materials discovery in generations, its current generation as the fourth paradigm of materials research and term it as Materials 4.0, briefly describe the built-up infrastructure for the Materials 4.0, and cite few examples of materials discovery and lifecycle assessment under this protocol.
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A cloud-based manufacturing process monitoring framework for online smart diagnosis services has been developed with the aim of performing tool condition monitoring during machining of difficult-to-machine materials. The proposed architecture allows to share process monitoring tasks between different resources, which can be geographically dislocated and managed by actors with different competences and functions. Distributed resources with enhanced computation and data storage capability allow to improve the efficiency of tool condition diagnosis and enable more robust decision-making, exploiting large information and knowledge sharing. Diagnosis on tool conditions is offered as a cloud service, using an architecture where the computing resources in the cloud are connected to the physical manufacturing system realising a complex cyber-physical system using sensor and network communication. Based on sensorial data acquired at the factory level, smart online diagnosis on consumed tool life and tool breakage occurrence is carried out through knowledge-based algorithms and cognitive pattern recognition paradigms. On the basis of the cloud diagnosis, the local server activates the proper corrective action to be taken, such as tool replacement, process halting or parameters change, sending the right command to the machine tool control.
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Anatomical insoles and additions have a corrective action on the footwear user. They are intended to reduce and adequately distribute plantar pressure among support points, thus minimising the stress these points can undergo. Such customised components have traditionally been manufactured either handcrafted or by subtractive techniques, i.e. by milling a sheet of material. Latest advances in additive manufacturing (AM) techniques and, in particular, the popularisation of 3D printing by fused deposition modelling (FDM), have opened new ways for the production of anatomical insoles. These technologies allow additional functionalities to be added, as for instance the use of materials with antimicrobial properties, or, at a structural level, zonal control in 3D design to increase cushioning capacity. The latter cannot be achieved by traditional manufacturing techniques, in that the inside of the element is not accessible. However, there are no CAD tools available for the design and production of insoles, which are specifically oriented to take advantage of the benefits that AM can bring about. Based on a previous study about the possibilities for functionalisation of anatomical insole materials and structures, this paper intends to review certain CAD methodologies for the design and manufacture of insoles by means of additive manufacturing techniques. These techniques will be employed to design and produce prototypes through which it is possible to assess such techniques. In order to study the feasibility of using this technology for the manufacture of customised insoles in a real production environment, this paper presents a comparative analysis of the proposed technology and the technology that is currently being used.