How companies respond to the emergence of 3D printing technology

Panel: 2. Sustainable production design and supply chain initiatives

This is a peer-reviewed paper.

Authors:
Wen Liu, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
Steve Evans, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

Abstract

In the recent years, the term ‘3D printing’ (known as ‘additive manufacturing’) is widely used and become very popular in general public. 3D printing has been a functioning technology since 1980s and has generated very high expectations. It can print out physical and solid 3D objects layer by layer using powders, liquids or filaments as the raw materials. Different to the traditional machining process of subtracting materials, 3D printing systems draws on a computer-aided design model to make 3D objects by adding successive ultra-thin layers of the materials.

At present, 3D printing is increasingly used to build physical models and production parts in various industries such as jewelry, footwear, toy, architecture, automotive, aerospace, dental and medical industries. A major market trend is increasing consumer demand for 3D printing that require the manufacture of mass-customization, low-volume and individualized products. 3D printing presents significant potentials to enable companies to think new methods of creating objects and better deal with global manufacturing challenges.

Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are becoming an critical part in the overall manufacturing industry and boosting market prosperity. However, SMEs face some barriers of adoption of 3D printing technology. Furthermore, the strategy to enable SMEs adopt this 3D printing still lags behind. The aim of this paper is to investigate how SMEs respond to the emergence of 3D printing technology, and to identify the factors for implementation of this technology by SMEs. With the emergence of 3D printing technology, what is the strategy to enable SMEs to appropriately adopt 3D printing technology? Are there any drivers that influence the process of applying 3D printing technology within SMEs? This paper mainly focuses on these issues.