It is undeniable that 3D printing affects supply chain considerably. Less complicated supply chain is noticed. Associated cost in supply chain is lower. Inventory is also cut out. There is a shift of strategy from push from manufacture to be pull by customer. Sustainability of supply chain is also got this effect.
Supply chain is shorter because there is less need for linkage between each company. (Ben-ner and Siemsen, 2017) Material required in 3D printing production is less than traditional production so the related company in supply chain and dependence on supplier is also reduced. Fewer suppliers to deal with improve the efficiency of supply chain. 3D print service bureau is also another option for company to exploit the advantage of this technology. They don’t need to own their machines, just source it from 3D print service bureau that has more experience.
Transportation cost is lower because of the customer are altered from global to be a local one. Global supply chain is transformed to be localized supply chain too. Product doesn’t need to transport from centralized manufacturer but required products from each location are fulfilled by 3D printer near that place by requiring only design file. This lets the company can response to the customers’ needs quicker and maximizes the business agility.
Cut out the requirement of Inventory is one benefit of 3D printing. On demand printing paves the way for huge cost saving. There is no need to keep large amount of inventories because customer can get product as soon as they order by adopting 3D printing. Made to order is possible especially when 3D printing can print the required product quickly. Products are produced follow the real demand instead of forecast. Bullwhip effect is not the concerned point for the smart supply chain anymore when the buffer stock is not necessary.
The supply chain will be shifted to be pull by customer more than push the product out from manufacturer. (Ben-ner and Siemsen, 2017) The production will be triggered by customer then 3D printer start run as soon as receiving customers’ orders.
In term of sustainability of supply chain, there are different opinions from each academics resulting from the variation of processing procedure and material. While some groups disagree with the opinion that 3D printing has the positive impact on environment, most people believe that 3D printing improves the sustainability. Considering the effect on environment, 3D printing is the crucial tool to help manufacturer more sustainable. The transportation is lessen so gas emission is also reduced. In term of production, the amount of scrap is lower as the process is the addition of material instead of subtraction. Furthermore required lead time is reduced so the energy used for production is also less consumed. The materials used in production are under development to be eco-friendly such as PLA which is environmental friendly thermoplastic polymer or Natural product algae are developed to be bio plastic which is degradable and non-toxic. There are many green products produced from 3D printer. Less fuel consume for the light weight aircraft is the good example of 3D printing product which was designed to save the environment.
There are some groups that do not agree with the idea that 3D printing is the green process. The disagreement came from the reason that some supported materials are required when printing by using some type of 3D printing technology. These supported materials are used for preventing the distortion of final product. They affect the environment because these materials do not always recycle back to the process. In term of amount of consumed energy, it found that 3D printer consumes more energy than the traditional machine. Additionally, almost raw material used in 3D printing is plastic which some are not recyclable materials. The elimination of these unrecyclable materials is landfill which causes the bad consequences to the world. Even there is not the conclusion about the sustainable of 3D printing technology, researchers put more effort to conduct the research around this area aiming at improving the sustainable of this technology in the future.
References
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