Assessing the Environmental Impact of Decentralized Value-Chain Patterns Involving 3D Printing Technologies—A Comparative Case Study

Jan-Peter Ferdinand (), Heike Flämig (), Ulrich Petschow (), Michael Steinfeldt () and Anton Worobei ()
Additional contact information
Jan-Peter Ferdinand: Institute for Ecological Economy Research
Heike Flämig: Institute for Transport Planning and Logistics at the Hamburg University of Technology
Ulrich Petschow: Institute for Ecological Economy Research
Michael Steinfeldt: University of Bremen
Anton Worobei: Institute for Transport Planning and Logistics at the Hamburg University of Technology

A chapter in The Decentralized and Networked Future of Value Creation, 2016, pp 205-235 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Due to the fact that the context of 3D printing is generally constituted by different technologies and various applications, a coherent evaluation of their impact on sustainability has rarely been conducted. This chapter enters this void by carrying out a literature review on the state of related research. Furthermore, we conduct two comparative case studies that model value chains for the production of mobile phone cases and a specific spare part for aircrafts. Under certain circumstances, it is shown that the use of 3D printing technologies can reduce the need for transportation and may also result in a reduced ecological impact for product life cycles. What becomes obvious, too, is that the structural context for production and the practical application of goods are as important as the underlying manufacturing technologies.

Keywords: Supply Chain; Life Cycle Assessment; Cell Phone; Life Cycle Assessment Outcome; Bullwhip Effect (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:prochp:978-3-319-31686-4_11

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783319316864

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-31686-4_11

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Progress in IS from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().