How additive manufacturing allows products to absorb variety in use: empirical evidence from the defence industry

Philip Davies; Glenn Parry; Kyle Alves; Irene Ng

doi:10.1080/09537287.2020.1810763

How additive manufacturing allows products to absorb variety in use: empirical evidence from the defence industry

Philip Davies^*, Glenn Parry, Kyle Alves, Irene Ng

^*Corresponding author for this work

School of Management - Business School

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal) › peer-review

16 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The normative assumption holds that a product’s structural and functional elements are fixed pre-production to support manufacturing efficiency. Firms servitizing are faced with delivering resources for customers in context and absorbing contextual variety presents a number of challenges. This paper examines shortcomings of modular design and whether additive manufacturing can efficiently provides high variety that meets emergent user demand. A case study is undertaken, drawing upon design change data and in-depth interviews with industry experts. Findings show that introducing design changes to modular products through life creates complexity in the product architecture and the supply chain. We find that AM can act as a supply chain solution, managing complexity and allowing products and supply chains to efficiently and effectively absorb contextual variety. Existing theory must expand beyond the normative assumption that the physical product is fixed, to include cases where the tangible product can absorb variety to meet the emergent need.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	175-192
Number of pages	18
Journal	Production Planning and Control
Volume	33
Issue number	2-3
Early online date	25 Aug 2020
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2020.1810763
Publication status	Published - 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors are particularly indebted to the EPSRC and BAE Systems Plc for funding and participating in this research as part of a PhD iCase award.

Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC) and BAE Systems Plc. who co-founded this research via the industrial case awards [EP/R139050/1]. The authors further acknowledge the funding contribution of Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to the Designing the Future: Resilient Trans-Disciplinary Design Engineers (TREND) grant reference [EP/R013179/1], and Dynamic, Real time, On-demand Personalisation for Scaling (DROPS) grant reference [EP/R033374/1], which supported the writing of this paper. The authors are particularly indebted to the EPSRC and BAE Systems Plc for funding and participating in this research as part of a PhD iCase award.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Keywords

additive manufacturing
modularity
Servitization
supply chain management
variability

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Cite this

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abstract = "The normative assumption holds that a product{\textquoteright}s structural and functional elements are fixed pre-production to support manufacturing efficiency. Firms servitizing are faced with delivering resources for customers in context and absorbing contextual variety presents a number of challenges. This paper examines shortcomings of modular design and whether additive manufacturing can efficiently provides high variety that meets emergent user demand. A case study is undertaken, drawing upon design change data and in-depth interviews with industry experts. Findings show that introducing design changes to modular products through life creates complexity in the product architecture and the supply chain. We find that AM can act as a supply chain solution, managing complexity and allowing products and supply chains to efficiently and effectively absorb contextual variety. Existing theory must expand beyond the normative assumption that the physical product is fixed, to include cases where the tangible product can absorb variety to meet the emergent need.",

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