Exploring the barriers in medical additive manufacturing from an emerging economy

Abstract

Sustainable medical additive manufacturing (SMAM) is becoming the next Industry 4.0 technology to revolutionise the medical industry. The adoption of SMAM offers several advantages and brings a paradigm shift in complex manufacturing geometry with improved quality, speed, cost, and sustainability in medical sectors. This research aims to identify the adoption barriers of SMAM in the Indian context. The research design involves two-step procedures: First, a literature review was conducted to determine the barriers to SMAM technology adoption. Later, these were validated by a panel of experts from industry and academia. Second, a hybrid ISM-DEMATEL methodology was deployed to establish and evaluate the cause-effect relationship between the validated barriers. Our findings suggest that among the identified barriers, infrastructural barriers were the most important for adopting SMAM in India, followed by a lack of long-term planning, operational barriers, and supply-demand barriers. Further, it also identified net cause driving barriers, including financial barriers, legal and policy barriers, technological barriers, and management barriers to SMAM adoption. As the adoption of SMAM offers several advantages, including a shift in complex manufacturing geometry with improved quality, speed, cost, and sustainability in medical sectors, these findings assume significance and will help decision-makers overcome complex barriers to SMAM adoption.