Additive Manufacturing enabled Digital Inventory: Perceived Benefits & Challenges

Abstract: Background: Industry 4.0 brings new technologies said to improve organizations’ supply chain performance. Additive manufacturing (AM) and information and communication technologies have received much attention in recent years. A combination of the two has recently surfaced in literature and captured the interest of large manufacturing organizations such as Siemens Energy. Namely, AM-enabled Digital Inventory (DI). Problem: AM is considered a new manufacturing method and is still under development, thus, industries have yet to realize AM’s full potential. DI has been presented as a suggested tool to maximize AM’s potential. However, existing research on DI is scarce. For manufacturers to properly evaluate DI and decide on implementation more information is needed. Purpose: To aid decision-makers in the navigation of DI implementation, we have conceptually explored practitioners' perceptions of the DI concept and related benefits and challenges. To ultimately allow organizations to obtain the full potential of AM, and thereby increase supply chain performance and remain competitive in the transition to Industry 4.0. Method: Ontology – Relativism, Epistemology – Constructivism, Qualitative, Inductive, Exploratory, Single-case study, 8 semi-structured interviews, 10 semi-structured group interviews, Snowball sampling, Purposive sampling, Thematic analysis. Conclusion: With this research, we were able to establish that the DI concept should function as a system that allows for easier sharing and access of information. Benefits found: Process optimization, reduced risk, and cost, further development, and increased competitiveness. Challenges found: rules and regulations, change management, operations issues, strategy, profitability, system issues, and post-processing. Ultimately, to obtain the benefits, trade-offs in lead time, capacity cost, and inventory costs need to be considered. Before calculations can commence components suitable to include in a DI needs to be established.