A Systematic Literature Review on Additive Manufacturing in the Context of Circular Economy

Stavros Ponis,George Plakas,Konstantina Dimogiorgi,Eleni Aretoulaki,Theodoros Nikolaos Maroutas

doi:10.3390/su13116007

Stavros Ponis, George Plakas + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su13116007

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Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: May 26, 2021
Citations: 34	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: National Technical University of Athens

Abstract

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is, undoubtedly, one of the most promising and potentially disruptive technologies of the Industry 4.0 era, able to transform the traditional manufacturing paradigm and fuel the generally accepted and necessary shift towards the conceptualisation, design and adoption of sustainable and circular business models. The objective of this paper is to contribute to the structure of the scientific field residing in the intersection of AM and Circular Economy (CE), by determining the status of its current state-of-the-art, proposing an initial typology in an attempt to contribute to the existing efforts of structuring this rather novice research area and pinpointing research gaps where more focus should be put, and highlighting areas with a significant potential for added-value future research. To that end, a sample of 206 papers, published from 2014 to 2020, was retrieved from the Scopus and Google Scholar databases. After studying and critically evaluating their content in full, contributions were classified into six thematic categories, providing a first typology of the current literature, followed by a detailed section highlighting and taxonomizing existing review studies. Next, contributions of the three categories of interest are discussed followed by a critical evaluation of the study’s contribution, inherent limitations and future research potential.

Highlights

IntroductionThe proliferation of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, referred to as Industry 4.0, has undoubtedly transformed the manufacturing industry by driving dramatic increases in productivity and flexibility, enhancing strategical and operational decision-making and contributing to an improved overall industrial performance [1,2]
A broad spectrum of review types, abiding by different criteria, have been recognized in the literature and in an attempt to provide a reference review typology; the authors in [36] identified fourteen discrete review types based on the Search–Appraisal–Synthesis–Analysis (SALSA) analytical framework
The reviews examined in this typology are capable of being systematic, depending on their compliance or non-compliance with pre-specified requirements

Summary

Introduction

The proliferation of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, referred to as Industry 4.0, has undoubtedly transformed the manufacturing industry by driving dramatic increases in productivity and flexibility, enhancing strategical and operational decision-making and contributing to an improved overall industrial performance [1,2]. AM, known as threedimensional (3D) printing, has been presented as an essential driving force behind Industry. The consumer driven nature of this manufacturing paradigm, in that it inherently provides opportunities for mass customization by facilitating the production of personalized products [6], justifies its growing utilization by industrial companies, which strive to meet the ever-growing customer demand and eventually blossom in this modern, continuously changing, competitive landscape

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