TNO onderzocht het effect van 3D-printing op supply chains

TNO heeft een onderzoek uitgevoerd naar de ontwikkelingen in 3D printing en gekeken naar de impact op logistiek en supply chains. In een whitepaper wordt ingegaan op de relevante ontwikkelingen en welke scenario’s te verwachten zijn. In een specifieke case study wordt dieper de impact op supply chains besproken en worden handvatten geboden om te bepalen hoe groot de impact is voor specifieke branches of industrieën.

De belangrijkste conclusies van TNO:

It is said that 3-D printing, officially known as additive manufacturing, has the potential to become the biggest single disruptive phenomenon to impact global industry since mass production lines were introduced early in the twentieth century. McKinsey Global Institute1 named 3D printing as one of the twelve disruptive technologies that will transform life, business and the global economy by 2025. With 3D printing an idea can go directly from a design file to a product, skipping many traditional manufacturing steps. And manufacturing can take place anywhere in the world where the right printers are available. This might cause new businesses to emerge and well-established businesses to fail.

Manufacturing products using 3D printing technology change the traditional approach to manufacturing completely, for instance by eliminating the need for expensive component assembly and the freedom to change product designs on the fly. Consequently, logistics operations and supply chain design will see pervasive changes. Consider, for example, where to stock materials if manufacturing can take place anywhere in the world. Or how operations processes will become much less complex if there’s no need for component assemblies, but raw materials can be readily transformed to finished products instead. And how large quantities of ‘containerized’ sub-assemblies and components used as input materials are substituted for bulk-transported raw materials.

Download the TNO report here.