Impacts of Additive Manufacturing on Supply Chain Flow: A Simulation Approach in Healthcare Industry

Eren Özceylan, Cihan Çetinkaya, Neslihan Demirel and Ozan Sabırlıoğlu
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Eren Özceylan: Department of Industrial Engineering, Gaziantep University, Gaziantep 27300, Turkey
Cihan Çetinkaya: Department of Industrial Engineering, Gaziantep University, Gaziantep 27300, Turkey
Neslihan Demirel: Department of International Trade and Logistics, Erciyes University, Kayseri 38039, Turkey
Ozan Sabırlıoğlu: Dijitalis Software and Consultancy, İstanbul 34742, Turkey

Logistics, 2017, vol. 2, issue 1, 1-20

Abstract: Additive manufacturing (AM) can lead to innovative solutions in traditional supply chain networks (TSCN), which contains very complicated and -hard to manage- chains. With 3D printing technology, a design file can transform directly to a product, skipping many traditional manufacturing steps. Thus, this new application can affect all logistics and supply chain activities positively. The research problem of this paper is to search and assess supply chain changes associated with 3D printing technology adoption to identify the potential impact of AM. To do so, two different supply chain networks, which are TSCN and 3D printing supply chain network (3DPSCN) for healthcare industry are considered. A simulation model is developed to evaluate the potential impact of 3D printing improvements on the configuration of orthopedic insole supply chains. The main contribution of this paper is proposing a simulation model for a healthcare company to compare its 3DPSCN structure with its TSCN version. The results show the concrete benefits such as lead-time and number of customers that can be achieved by 3DPSCN compared to TSCN.

Keywords: 3D printing; additive manufacturing; orthopedic insole; simulation; supply chain (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L8 L80 L81 L86 L87 L9 L90 L91 L92 L93 L98 L99 M1 M10 M11 M16 M19 R4 R40 R41 R49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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