Additive Manufacturing Integration in E-commerce Supply Chain Network to Improve Resilience and Competitiveness

Banu Yetkin Ekren*, Nikolaos Stylos, Jeremy Zwiegelaar, Ecem Eroğlu Turhanlar, Vikas Kumar

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

22 Citations (Scopus)
86 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

In light of recently increased e-commerce, also a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study examines how additive manufacturing (AM) can contribute to e-commerce supply chain network resilience, profitability and competitiveness. With the recent competitive supply chain challenges, companies aim to decrease cost performance metrics and increase responsiveness. In this work, we aim to establish utilisation policies for AM in a supply chain network so that companies can simultaneously improve their total network cost and response time performance metrics. We propose three different utilisation policies, i.e. reactive, proactive – both with 3D printing support – and a policy excluding AM usage in the system. A simulation optimisation process for 136 experiments under various input design factors for an (s, S) inventory control policy is carried out. We also completed a statistical analysis to identify significant factors (i.e. AM, holding cost, lead time, response time, demand amount, etc.) affecting the performance of the studied retailer supply chain. Results show that utilising AM in such a network can prove beneficial, and where the reactive policy contributes significantly to the network performance metrics. Practically, this work has important managerial implications in defining the most appropriate policies to achieve optimisation of supply network operations and resilience with the aid of AM, especially in times of turbulence and uncertainty.
Original languageEnglish
Article number102676
Number of pages21
JournalSimulation Modelling Practice and Theory
Volume122
Early online date21 Oct 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
In accordance with Taylor & Francis policy and our ethical obligation as researchers, we are reporting that we do not have financial and/or business interests in, are not a consultant to and are not receiving funding from a company that may be affected by the research reported in the enclosed paper.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors

Keywords

  • Additive manufacturing
  • 3d printing
  • inventory optimisation
  • supply chain
  • e-commerce
  • Resilience

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Additive Manufacturing Integration in E-commerce Supply Chain Network to Improve Resilience and Competitiveness'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this