Redefining Supply Chains with Additive Manufacturing

“The line between disorder and order lies in logistics.” - Sun Tzu

Recent times have created many performance challenges for supply chains. The pandemic, wars, and geopolitical conflicts have necessitated manufacturers to look beyond shop floor tactics to business-led strategies. Supply chain design is a strategic issue for companies. Traditional concepts are no longer able to manage the trade-offs between the business process objectives. New technologies can help businesses achieve multiple objectives like the triple bottom line with additive manufacturing. It is the layer on approach, an example of the technology would be rapid prototyping or direct digital manufacturing or 3D printing.

Additive manufacturing is disruptive to existing supply chains and business models. 3D printing enables manufacturing techniques like on-demand manufacturing, rapid prototyping, and personalised manufacturing. Companies can prototype and iterate faster by printing parts on a need basis. They can scale up or down depending on the real-time fluctuations in demand. During times of uncertainty, this enables them to get products to end-users faster without conceding their bottom lines.

The additive process is decentralising manufacturing by taking it near customers. Mass production of 3D printed parts has initiated the creation of localised production hubs. In the automotive supply chain, OEMs have to outsource a majority of the parts, forcing their dependency on the global supply chain. Backlogs in 2021 revealed this dependency to be unpredictable and costly. Adopting additive manufacturing will result in greater value contribution by OEMs. Most importantly, it will shorten and simplify the current large automotive supply chains. By producing on-site and reducing part inventory, these companies can transform supply chains.

Additive manufacturing is a solution for a viable ecosystem. Businesses have begun streamlining to reduce their environmental footprint. There is a big incentive for the industrial world to improve the way its products are designed, produced, and shipped. As Henry Ford said, “if you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”