(2015), Best-worst multi-criteria decision-making method, Omega, Vol. Given these figures, it seems pressing to study the underlying factors that influence the selection of AM technology in the manufacturing technology market. Operating AM machines requires specific skill sets from the operating personnel (Murmura and Bravi, 2018). Davis, F.D. Although these studies draw on different theoretical frameworks and empirical contexts, all find that, in a broader sense, relative (technological) advantage is an important factor, though with differences in detailedness. The level of detail was reduced by combining quality, material consumption, production time and user friendliness into relative technological performance. 954-971. (2017), The impact of additive manufacturing on supply chains, International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management, Vol. Gibson, I. The paper also offers explanations of why the factors are important based on literature and discussions with experts. Kellner, T. (2020), The next generation: this team of young engineers helped bring 3D printing inside the world's largest jet engine, GE reports, 26 January, available at: https://www.ge.com/reports/the-next-generation-this-team-of-young-engineers-helped-bring-3d-printing-inside-the-worlds-largest-jet-engine/ (accessed 20 March 2020). Delic, M. and Eyers, D.R. 166, pp. Simply insert your title and abstract and select the appropriate field-of-research for the best results. When studying factors for technology adoption, one faces the dilemma of level of detail versus clarity. Cost, compatibility and regulation may become increasingly important when AM grows to be a mainstream manufacturing technology. Although the individual domains are powerful on their own, this indicates that a broad literature study is worth the effort. most desirable or important) and the worst (e.g. Some exceptions include studies conducted in Taiwan (Yeh and Chen, 2018), the USA and UK (Hasan et al., 2019; Schniederjans, 2017; Schniederjans and Yalcin, 2018) and India (Marak et al., 2019). After manufacturing, objects need to be postprocessed (Khajavi et al., 2014) and quality checked before being assembled as a component into a product or before using the AM object as an end product. 353-365. (2018), Standards battles for business-to-government data exchange: identifying success factors for standard dominance using the best worst method, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Vol. The BWM itself cannot consolidate the resulting weights of different decision-makers so that results are typically aggregated by calculating average weights (Mohammadi and Rezaei, 2020). 27 No. Willard, G.E. (2016), Global value chains from a 3D printing perspective, Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 21 No. 510-520. 1, pp. In Yeh and Chen (2018) and Le Bourhis et al. 64, Supplement C, pp. Le Bourhis et al. This might be due to differences in the empirical context of studies related to geography and technology (e.g. Knofius, N., van der Heijden, M.C. 271-286. Caballero et al., 2004). Our sample of nine experts can be seen as a transdisciplinary team along the innovation value chain from both academia and the industry, all of whom are involved in studying and creating AM technologies. Copyright 2022 Elsevier, except certain content provided by third parties, Cookies are used by this site. 10 No. 2-9. Yet other papers study AM in the context of a supply chain, stressing the alignment and integration of efforts. Future studies could focus on the selection of a dominant design for AM technology, as Steenhuis and Pretorius (2016) noted that a dominant design for AM technology has not yet been selected. Open AccessKian F. Eichholz, Ins Gonalves and 4 more, Open AccessSaja Aabith, Richard Caulfield and 4 more, Yi Zhu, Tao Peng, Ming Leu, David Bourell, 50 editors and editorial board members in 10 countries/regions, Gender Diversity Distribution of the Editors, Benchmark Gender Diversity distribution across Production Engineering portfolio Editors. 687-697. Shape complexity and process energy consumption in electron beam melting: a case of something for nothing in additive manufacturing? Vladimir C.M. Demil, B. and Lecocq, X. The data was collected in May 2019. Malek and Desai (2019) derived relative weights for 39 barriers to sustainable manufacturing in Indian SMEs. Durach, C.F., Kurpjuweit, S. and Wagner, S.M. 1, pp. 214-224. 1141-1160. Chesbrough, H. (2010), Business model innovation: opportunities and barriers, Long Range Planning, Vol. 10-17. 149, pp. This can be done by minimizing the maximum absolute differences, considering that weights must not be negative and that the sum of all weights must be equal to 1. Suarez, F.F. 1 file (2018)Cassidy Silbernagel, Phill Dickens, Michael Galea, Ian Ashcroft, 1 file (2018)Andy Gleadall, Joel Segal, Ian Ashcroft, 1 file (2018)Mukerrem Cakmak, Fang Peng, Bryan Vogt. For instance, the European Commission sees AM as a promising technology with great economic potential. 30 No. 19-39. 17 No. The importance of relative technological performance is in line with recent work by Martinsuo and Luomaranta (2018) and Schniederjans (2017), who find that technology-related adoption challenges are the third most mentioned and that relative technological advantage is a significant driver of managers' intention to adopt AM. Table 2 clearly shows that more than half of the studies draw on the USA as a research context. 1, pp.

(2020) distinguish machine manufacturers that adopt the AM concept and produce AM machines, manufacturers adopting AM technology as part of their production process and customers who adopt products created by AM technology. Table 3 presents detailed descriptions of the factors. (2016), Best-worst multi-criteria decision-making method: some properties and a linear model, Omega, Vol. (1989), Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology, MIS Quarterly, Vol. The journal aims to acknowledge the innovative nature of additive manufacturing and its broad applications to outline the current and future developments in the field. The category business model comprises factors that describe properties of business models in AM across different actors. 589-600. The literature study produced a list of 168 factors across 11 categories, though with much overlap and partly excessive level of detail. regulator, standardization organization, big fish). Atzeni, E. and Salmi, A. 93-98. Comparable conclusions are reached in the other studies in Table 2 (Hasan et al., 2019; Marak et al., 2019; Schniederjans and Yalcin, 2018; Yeh and Chen, 2018). (1980), The definition of business of insurance under the McCarran-Ferguson act after royal drug, Columbia Law Review, Vol. Read more about Elsevier on the topic of diversity. Sobota, V.C.M., van de Kaa, G., Luomaranta, T., Martinsuo, M. and Ortt, J.R. (2021), "Factors for metal additive manufacturing technology selection", Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, Vol. A pattern of development and diffusion in which emerging technologies are first developed and applied in specific market niches, before a standard version of the technology emerges and is applied in mainstream markets, is well documented in theory (Geels, 2002; Tushman and Rosenkopf, 1992) and practice (Ortt, 2010). For major innovations, this is more often the case. The paper presents a more complete framework of factors for innovation selection in general and the selection of AM technology specifically. 226, pp. Additive Manufacturing is the peer-reviewed journal that provides academia and world-leading industry with high quality research papers and reviews in additive manufacturing. and Cooper, A.C. (1985), Survivors of industry shake-outs: the case of the US color television set industry, Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 1397-1411. van de Kaa, G., Kamp, L. and Rezaei, J. 1, p. 1623151. Additive manufacturing technologies are positioned to provide a disruptive transformation in how products are designed and manufactured. JournalFinder uses smart search technology and field-of-research specific vocabularies to match your manuscript to Elsevier journals. A consistency ratio indicates the reliability of the decision-maker's choices in the BWM. Prioritizing these factors for the case of metal AM in Europe clearly shows that the demand for AM products in the market, relative technological performance and the business model behind AM are the most important. Higher-performing AM technology may, for example, reduce the amount of necessary postprocessing of the parts and thereby increase profitability. As a dominant design for AM technology has not yet been selected (Steenhuis and Pretorius, 2016), demand might be held back by different expectations in the market regarding the form and functionality of AM technologies. 915-931. (2016), Selecting parts for additive manufacturing in service logistics, Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, Vol. and Srivastava, R.K. (2017), Analysis of barriers to implement additive manufacturing technology in the Indian automotive sector, International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management, Vol. In response, there was a need to create a unique, in-depth publication outlet for engineers, materials scientists, and practitioners in academia and virtually any industry to document innovation of these technologies. (2019), Bioethanol facility location selection using best-worst method, Applied Energy, Vol.

In situations such as the writing of a business plan, the proposed framework may serve as a starting point or inventory of areas to address. The results provide evidence for Suarez's proposition (2004) that technological characteristics play an important role in the early phases of the technology selection process. Each of these solutions has its own specialties, but for the purpose of this study (selection of AM technology), these applications are assessed under the umbrella term of metallic AM. Schniederjans and Yalcin (2018) define it as an innovation's consistency with existing values, past experiences and needs (p. 515), whereas the definition in this study is more focused on technical compatibility (see Table 3). 193-201. Therefore, AM is introducing a new paradigm for manufacturing industries with the possibility to disrupt companies' contemporary business logics (Weller et al., 2015). Geels, F. (2002), Technological transitions as evolutionary reconfiguration processes: a multi-level perspective and a case-study, Research Policy, Vol. The linear BWM can be completed in five steps (Rezaei, 2015, 2016): A set of decision-making criteria (factors) {c1,c2,,cn} needs to be determined (see Table 3). (2004), Effective Labor Regulation and Microeconomic Flexibility, No. 43 Nos 23, pp. (2018), Additive manufacturing in the mechanical engineering and medical industries spare parts supply chain, Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, Vol. 47 No. and Wang, X. Expert interviews and the bestworst method are used to prioritize these factors based on relative factor weights. Respondent 5 argues that is associated with higher earnings before interest and tax. 32 No. 4, pp. Some of the experts were interviewed for further elaboration of their decision and asked to reflect on the results of the study. Previous research has studied factors for the selection and adoption of AM technology from various perspectives, including but not limited to metal AM. 1375-1406. 299-318. Access Elseviers most recent Global Gender Report. However, counterintuitively, this is not the case and the question is why this is not the case. For example, in a study on the selection of bioethanol facility locations in Iran, three of the five highest-ranking factors stem from the smallest categories, ranging between two and five factors (Kheybari et al., 2019). (1993), Did installed base give an incumbent any (measureable) advantages in federal computer procurement?, The RAND Journal of Economics, Vol. Visit emeraldpublishing.com/platformupdate to discover the latest news and updates, Answers to the most commonly asked questions here, Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management. 50-63. 1116-1127. The competitiveness of AM technology depends on the value it offers. 11, pp. 50 No. (1934), The Theory of Economic Development: An Inquiry into Profits, Capital, Credit, Interest, and the Business Cycle, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, Original Work Published. 7, pp. Schniederjans, D.G. View historical data and other metrics on Journal Insights. Rothman, R.P. In practice, a relatively high proportion of AM-manufactured parts are condemned for further use. (2018), Developing a conceptual framework to improve the implementation of 3D printing technology in the construction industry, Architectural Science Review, Vol. 1, pp. (2004), Battles for technological dominance: an integrative framework, Research Policy, Vol. 31 No. 1, pp. Grouping of factors for the selection of AM technologies (not limited to metal AM), Optimization of material consumption in extrusion processes, Integration of the digital process chain via one standard, Capacity utilization (time, material, component lifetime), design adaptation, energy saving, Quality, production time, material consumption, Product properties such as complexity and volume, Energy consumption as a driver of AM profitability, Complementary innovations in the supply chain, Awareness of key issues in the customer's processes and technical solutions, Availability of training opportunities and investments to implement AM, Type of transition from conventional manufacturing to AM, company size, aim AM is used for, Demand, the company's manufacturing strategy, Focal company's customers, customer sensitivity to price, delivery lead time, Role of AM in global manufacturing strategies of multinationals, Customers' perception of brand, aesthetics and authenticity, Supply chain flexibility as a mediator of the relation between AM and supply chain performance, Overviews of empirical studies that prioritize factors for the selection of various AM technologies, AM-adapted technical support and services, Cost of products, production and post processing, Machine tolerances, process stability, part-to-part variability, Availability of quality assurance protocols, Availability of materials, material property data and print parameters, Factors for the selection of AM technologies from the perspective of innovation and technology adoption, Relative factor weights for the selection of metal AM. Steenhuis, H.-J., Fang, X. and Ulusemre, T. (2020), Global diffusion of innovation during the fourth industrial revolution: the case of additive manufacturing or 3D printing, International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management, Vol. The preference of the best criterion over all other criteria needs to be indicated using numbers from 1 to 9, where 1 indicates equal importance and 9 indicates most different importance. Moreover, the performance requirements are significantly different in such early market niches in which AM is applied. 2, pp. We concluded with 39 factors grouped across several stakeholders, the innovation itself and the environment in which the innovation is selected, following the structure in Table 1. 612-623. 62 Nos 912, pp. (2017b), A novel path planning methodology for extrusion-based additive manufacturing of thin-walled parts, International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing, Vol.

1, pp. 63-73. 1, pp. The prioritization of factors for metal AM provides a starting point for organizations with limited resources that cannot address all factors simultaneously. 33 No. More aggregate-level studies may help to place studies with a narrower scope in context, where the narrower-scoped studies add more detail by zooming in on specific factors. These factors may help to explain why AM technology was selected as the method of production instead of several other possible alternatives and thereby help the AM sector move toward large-scale implementation. 285-305. 133-142. Market demand, the highest-ranking factor of this study, refers to current and forecasted market demand. (2016), The adoption of additive manufacturing technology in Sweden, Procedia CIRP, Vol. However, the studies also disagree on several factors: trialability, social influences, facilitating conditions and compatibility are mentioned among both the most and least important factors. Further research is encouraged to differentiate the selection factors for different AM implementation projects. 2, pp. The set of 39 factors contributes toward a more holistic view of technology selection compared to existing frameworks and could serve as a starting point for future studies on the selection of metal AM technology specifically but also technology selection in general. 28 No. Currently, AM technologies cater to the demands of various small market niches, and AM companies have to engage in customer education to stimulate demand (Martinsuo and Luomaranta, 2018). One of those barriers that a major innovation may initially suffer from is the lack of standards or a dominant design. AM is an emerging technology that is mainly applied in specific market niches instead of being a mainstream and dominant manufacturing technology (Ortt, 2017). While some studies explore challenges and drivers related to the implementation of AM technology (Dwivedi et al., 2017; Martinsuo and Luomaranta, 2018; Mellor et al., 2014), few studies focus on AM technology selection among alternative production methods or prioritize such factors. 18 No. 15 No. high-power grid for charging stations for electric cars (, All actions taken to create market share through strategically pricing the products in which the format has been implemented (, Efforts to protect the innovation against imitation by competitors (, Strategic choice of a first market introduction of the innovation (, Communication with customers to manage expectations, e.g. 47 No. 27 No. The goal is to identify factors for the selection of AM technology as the method of production and to prioritize these factors using expert interviews. This study is based on expert opinions from a sample of nine European experts. 194-201. 6, pp. Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, Article publication date: 8 September 2020.

The literature study results in a framework of 39 factors for innovation selection in general and the selection of metal AM technology specifically. The highest-scoring alternative can be selected by comparing the alternatives with respect to their overall values as determined in equation (2), while higher values are more desirable. We refer to it as innovator to acknowledge that the introduction of a new technology represents an innovative activity for the developer of the technology as well as for the first-time user. AM utilizing metals is a relatively innovative manufacturing technology that currently comprises five mainstream self-standing technological solutions (Zhang et al., 2017): Powder Bed and Inkjet 3D Printing (3DP), Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS), Direct Metal Deposition (DMD) and Electron Beam AM (EBAM). It is important to understand the situation that demand is the most important factor, yet demand is still limited. 7, pp. 10, pp. In contrast, this is not the case in a study on standards for business-to-government data exchange (van de Kaa et al., 2018) or in the study on the selection of thermochemical conversion technology for biomass (van de Kaa et al., 2017). 24 No. Table 5 shows that the most important factors in the context are market demand (0.064), relative technological performance (0.064), imitability, scalability, integrability (0.064), failure to identify actors/stakeholders (0.061) and commitment (0.049). 1, p. 50. Europe, as the second biggest AM market after the USA according to a 2019 AMFG report, has not yet been studied in this respect. 372-397. To obtain a complete set of factors for the selection of AM technologies, a literature search on ISI Web of Science was conducted using keywords related to acceptance, adoption, diffusion, innovation (with an asterisk, e.g.

Hence, we removed duplicates, condensed excessively detailed factors into overarching concepts and deleted barriers that were also formulated as factors. (2013), Dwivedi et al. Martinsuo and Luomaranta (2018) report that subcontractors are especially exposed to market demand as they cannot invest until they have orders. Inspired by AM's unique capabilities, policymakers and the public have shown increased interest in AM. This means that high technological uncertainty likely amplifies advantages of AM such as no need for tooling or affordable customization that also relate to high-ranking factors such as relative technological performance (Khajavi et al., 2014). The applicability of the BWM has already been confirmed in various studies that compared relatively few factors. 501-522. The composition and size of the expert panel and the framing of some of the factors in light of previous literature cause validity limitations. 87-103. Contemporary metal parts production technologies, such as casting, are well developed and hence it is possible to produce parts with extremely low variability in specification. and Yalcin, M.G. 3D Hubs (2019), 3D printing trends Q1 2019, available at: https://downloads.3dhubs.com/3D_Printing_Trends_Q1_2019.pdf?utm_campaign=Gated%20Content%20Downloads&utm_source=hs_automation&utm_medium=email&utm_content=64642056&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--E6SdHiFni7dJn9wppEw5VbuzHVIHSw07t19gf5xGmyvWuvSeTmsfhsUzT64gjt_wmWUh61_rgf9ziVFe7goGZ80QRgg&_hsmi=64642056 (accessed 23 April 2019). (, Perceived likelihood that something will fail, and the perceived seriousness of the consequences if it does fail (, Cost of acquiring the innovation, including capital requirement, cost of taking it into use and training cost (, Availability of goods and services that are consumed together with the innovation (e.g. Martinsuo and Luomaranta (2018) argue that metallic AM can best be viewed as a systemic innovation that requires complementary innovations in other manufacturing, business and supply chain processes as well as cooperation with other companies in the focal company's supply chain. 7, pp. Only one other study applied the BWM to an equally high number of factors. The high consistency ratios of their study and the current study show that the BWM is well applicable to the comparison of more criteria based on a two-tiered system of category comparisons and criteria comparisons. As AM is struggling with part-to-part and machine-to-machine variability (Martinsuo and Luomaranta, 2018), it is no surprise to find this factor among the highest-ranked. The property of the BWM that the sum of the relative weights is equal to 1 has implications for the factor weights: the more factors in a BWM, the lower the average relative weight (see equation (7)). In the other four cases, only one factor was different, and this difference did not correlate with the background of the experts (industry vs academia) showing that the addition of further experts to our sample would not likely alter the results significantly. The BWM stands out with a relatively few comparisons compared to other methods such as analytic hierarchy process (AHP), while still delivering highly reliable weighs (Rezaei, 2015). Schniederjans and Yalcin (2018) find that compatibility is a high-ranking factor, contrasting the results of this study, as compatibility is ranked 10th with a weight of roughly half of the highest-ranking factor. and Utterback, J. In early 2020, General Electric unveiled its new jet engine GE9X, which includes several additively manufactured metal parts (Kellner, 2020). Hannibal, M. and Knight, G. (2018), Additive manufacturing and the global factory: disruptive technologies and the location of international business, International Business Review, Vol. 6, pp. (2013), factors related to competitiveness, market trends or policy had relatively low rankings, as were comparable factors in our study (e.g. Below you find the companion journal associated with this journal. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors.

137, pp. The first step of the BWM is to determine a set of decision criteria (factors) divided into categories (see Table 3). and Thomas, H. (1995), Planning for dominance: a strategic perspective on the emergence of a dominant design, R&D Management, Vol. The customer could demand either AM machines or products and services based on AM. 47 No. The authors thank Marianne Hrlesberger and Brigitte Kriszt for helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper. Regarding the business model factors (imitability, scalability, integrability and failure to identify actors/stakeholders), expert 2 noted that business models are the interface between products, markets and customers. The framework of factors proposed in this paper may reduce this uncertainty. Table 6 presents the consistency ratios for the comparison presented in Table 5. Out of the 72 comparisons, only three show a of larger than 0.2 (highest : 0,3922), while 43 comparisons have a of below 0.1 concluding that the comparisons are consistent (Rezaei, 2015). Kianian, B., Tavassoli, S. and Larsson, T.C. Tushman, M. and Rosenkopf, L. (1992), Organizational determinants of technological change - toward a sociology of technological evolution, Research in Organisational Behaviour, Vol. The main research question is: What are the most important factors for the selection of AM technology in the European context according to experts? We will focus on AM of metal parts rather than polymer, concrete or other materials. This test showed that that the top five most important factors are identical in five of the nine reduced samples (though with different rankings). Make your research data available, accessible, discoverable, and usable. 6 No. 13 No. (2017), Alternative production strategies based on the comparison of additive and traditional manufacturing technologies, International Journal of Production Research, Vol. 69 Nos 912, pp. A total of 721 articles were published in 2021. 7, pp. (1986), Profiting from technological innovation: implications for integration, collaboration, licensing and public policy, Research Policy, Vol. 27 No. Caballero, R.J., Cowan, K.N., Engel, E.M. and Micco, A. Table 1 groups such studies according to the factors that are discussed in these studies. 24 No. Further research could also study specific factors in depth and identify managerial strategies to address factors that were identified as most important. Kianian, B., Tavassoli, S., Larsson, T.C. Although these studies establish more and less important factors based on their individual contexts, it is difficult to compare the importance of factors across studies precisely because of this richness in contexts and foci. Ortt, J.R. (2016), Guest editorial, Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, Vol. 16 No.

Other stakeholders refer to all other actors that influence this process, such as regulators and standardization organizations. 102, pp. As its name suggests, the decision-maker needs to identify the best and the worst among the criteria, which will be compared to the remaining criteria in the next step. The degree of imitability, scalability and integrability (ranked third) and the failure to identify actors and stakeholders (ranked fourth) may markedly differ for subsequent market niches. Technology, demand, environment and supply-related factors are categorized and further mapped to offer a holistic picture of AM technology selection. By including literature related to technology dominance, technology diffusion, AM adoption, technology acceptance and business models, we offer a more encompassing framework for AM technology selection. 29 No. (2016), The triple layered business model canvas: a tool to design more sustainable business models, Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. The innovation itself refers to the innovation that is introduced in the market by the supply-side innovator and that is adopted by the demand-side innovator. (2019a, b) also consider cost to be an important factor and mention that if costs are too high, they could create a barrier.