Global Local (Glocal) Supply Chains for Green Economies: An assessment of Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Flexible manufacturing systems, such as Additive Manufacturing, Robotics and Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machines, can be readily deployed and operated in standard warehouse infrastructure providing the opportunity for the on-demand production of a wide variety of goods closer to their point of consumption. This has the potential to shift long-distance logistics towards raw material transport (which can be packed more tightly) and maximise the potential of zero-emission ‘last mile’ logistics. This paper reports a study to demonstrate the merits of Global Local (Glocal) supply chains in terms of the potential reductions in Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG). The study used the United Kingdom (UK) and its seven largest cities as the areas of supply and demand with material entering through Dover. The Monte-Carlo simulation showed that distributed production significantly outperforms single location manufacturing and product importing by up to 2-3x.