Abstract
Triple bottom line (3BL) approaches to sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) often involve trade-offs between their three dimensions (economic, environmental, and social), thus curtailing its application and leading to goal unalignment among stakeholders. Under some circumstances, however, synergic approaches (typically involving disruptive innovations) might allow simultaneous improvement in one or more dimensions without compromising the others. This paper analyzes one such case: the potential of properly designed additive manufacturing approaches in the automotive spare parts industry to simultaneously boost profits and reduce environmental impact. It is based on the systematic analysis of the real spare parts business of a mid-size automotive brand in Spain. Its results suggest that such synergic, self-reinforcing opportunities do indeed exist, and might even be further developed by strategically integrating sustainability constituents such as circularity.
Highlights
Nowadays, the industrial and manufacturing sector is immersed in a real revolution, whose various constituents have been grouped under the umbrella concept “4.0 Industry” [1]
The interconnection of devices, computers, tools, etc., that constitute the cyber physical systems (CPS) at the core of the 4.0 connected industry could boost the performance of both the individual additive manufacturing (AM) machines and the overall operational systems. The significance of this synergic mutual reinforcement between AM and 4.0 industry has been highlighted by several authors [4,31,32]
At [32], the analysis performed regarding the future projection of 34 key impacts derived from the adoption of AM techniques clearly shows that some soft social dimensions become absolutely critical
Summary
The industrial and manufacturing sector is immersed in a real revolution, whose various constituents have been grouped under the umbrella concept “4.0 Industry” [1]. As a fundamental part of the necessary framework for the development of the above mentioned 4.0 Industry concept, additive manufacturing (AM) is becoming increasingly relevant, as the research activities in new metallic materials, printing processes, simulation and optimization techniques, and algorithms have been endlessly growing. In today’s social environment, are the economic and industrial aspects important, but it is key to consider social changes and impacts, mainly with regard to health and safety [4]. Amid this growing awareness of aspects such as sustainability and energy efficiency, AM offers the possibility of forming parts with exactly the required shape and material, without any waste [5]
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