Impacts of Adopting Additive Manufacturing Process on Supply Chain: Systematic Literature Review

Tekalign Lemma Woldesilassiea, Hirpa G. Lemu () and Endalkachew Mosisa Gutema
Additional contact information
Tekalign Lemma Woldesilassiea: College of Engineering and Technology, Wallaga University, Nekemte P.O. Box 395, Ethiopia
Hirpa G. Lemu: Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Stavanger, N-4036 Stavanger, Norway
Endalkachew Mosisa Gutema: College of Engineering and Technology, Wallaga University, Nekemte P.O. Box 395, Ethiopia

Logistics, 2024, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-24

Abstract: Background: The objective of this literature review is to systematically explore the supply chain (SC)-related issues of additive manufacturing (AM)-based production processes. For SC sustainability, efficiency, and performance improvements, the adoptation of disruptive technologies like AM plays a vital role, because the product’s SC benefits in terms of reduced total lead time and costs. Methods: To explore the state-of-the-art influences of AM on the SC in this study, 978 papers published in peer-reviewed journals from 2004 to 2023 were retrieved, and 70 of these were identified as the most relevant and then reviewed. Results: As an outcome, the results of this review paper indicated a lack of documented studies in developing countries and, as a result, limited research works, for instance, in fashion industries were observed. In addition, AM best practices in the SC context have been identified and categorized as cost-related, time-related, inventor-related, as well as energy-, waste-, and environment-related factors, SC efficiency factors, and flexibility, marketing, and manufacturing-related factors. Conclusions: By identifying these categories, the study aims to contribute to the efforts of transforming traditional manufacturing into AM-based processes, for which a framework for the AM SC implementation is developed. In summary, the systematic review indicated that further research work is needed on the impacts of the identified AM best practices on SC performance.

Keywords: additive manufacturing; best practices; disruptive technologies; supply chain; supply chain management; sustainability (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: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2305-6290/8/1/3/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2305-6290/8/1/3/ (text/html)

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:gam:jlogis:v:8:y:2024:i:1:p:3-:d:1312650

Access Statistics for this article

Logistics is currently edited by Ms. Mavis Li

More articles in Logistics from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().