Additive layer manufacturing (ALM) is the third industrial revolution

Dr. Narsimlu Kemsaram dedicated his Aerospace MBA project research to “a market analysis on impact of additive manufacturing technology on aerospace and defense supply chain”, which has been successfully published in the “International Journal of Management”.

Why did you choose this theme for your project report?

The manufacturing technologies are undergoing a step change, led primarily by significant advances in 3D printing technologies, also sometimes called additive layer manufacturing (ALM). In fact, The Economist dubbed it as the “Third Industrial revolution”. Using this technology, the parts can be manufactured close to where they are needed and when they are needed. This can have significant impact on global supply chain operations, inventory control, labor arbitrage in manufacturing sector, remanufacturing, and parts management.

According to Wholers’ 2014 report, this 3DP market, in terms of revenue, will likely reach $12.8 billion by 2018 and cross the $21-billion mark by 2020. Thereby industrial use will increase in importance and will change or replace whole industries. I found this technology will likely to change the whole industry. Hence, I applied for full-time internship project on “Impact of 3D Printing Technologies on Aviation Supply Chain in Asia” at Airbus, Emerging Technologies & Concepts, Research & Technology, Airbus Group India Private Limited, Bangalore, India, which was initiated when I was doing the part one of the Aerospace MBA program, called “General Management Programme for Aerospace and Aviation Executives” jointly delivered by Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, and Toulouse Business School, Toulouse. I worked on innovation internship project and performed market analysis on the impact of additive manufacturing technology on aerospace and defense supply chain, when I was doing Aerospace MBA at Toulouse Business School, Toulouse, and Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.

You describe and explain the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to the development of additive layer manufacturing technology on Aerospace & Defense supply chain. Is the trend towards the use of these technologies inexorable?

The technology significantly impacts supply chain evolution by means of logistics optimization, increased responsiveness and flexibility, management of demand uncertainty, and reduction in required inventory for production. Supply chain disintermediation, customer empowerment, co-creation and mass customization are other benefits.

The major trends on changes in supply chain due to ALM technology: reduce manufacturing lead time, short time to market, short time to meet customer demand, efficient use of materials, supply chain in remote locations, on-site spare parts, mobile additive center, local ability to grow parts, balance inventory with needs, flexibility of design changes.

What reflections should manufacturers and part manufacturers lead further on the subject?

The main challenges to use of ALM technology are standards, material selection, material cost and processes. The following significant adoption of ALM technology drivers are to be considered by manufacturers and part manufacturers to lead further on this market:

  • Mass production
  • Improve process
  • New product
  • Incorporate energy
  • Create new structures
  • New government initiatives
  • Public private partnerships

In which way is it a new industrial revolution?

The manufacturing technologies are undergoing industrial revolution, led primarily by significant advances in industry. The first industrial revolution is the mechanization of the textile industry, tasking previously done laboriously by hand to the cotton mill. The second industrial revolution is the moving assembly line to mass production. Now, the third industrial revolution is taking material out through conventional processes to build desired parts by precisely adding one layer over another. This results in parts that are lighter, have almost zero wastage and afford flexibility to design parts not possible to manufacture using conventional technologies. The expansion and global distribution of ALM is still in its early stages and will increase over the next few years. Thereby industrial use will increase in importance and will change or replace whole industries.

Who are the new players on this market?

According to Wohlers’ report, the largest regional market of ALM is North America in terms of market share, it is because of high development of ALM technology and existence of major players in this region. In North America, the major players of ALM are Stratasys and 3D Systems. In the future, Europe and Asia-Pacific ALM markets are expected to grow rapidly. In the Asia-Pacific region, Japan will be the largest ALM market, due to favorable government policies for production and spending more on development of ALM technology. China will be the second largest ALM market, due to increase the budget from government and expected to focus on growth of the ALM market in the near future.

The existing key players on this 3DP market are established key players in various industries – Stratasys Inc, 3D Systems Inc, Solidscape, DTM, Optomec and Helisys in the United States, Concept Laser GmbH, Electro Optical Systems GmbH, ExOne GmbH and Envisiontec in Germany, Arcam AB in Sweden, Materialise NV in Belgium, Object and Solido in Israel, Beijing Yinhua in China and DWS in Italy- continue to explore their benefits and capturing their market share.

The future key players on this 3DP market are leading aerospace manufacturing companies such as Airbus, Bombardier, Rolls-Royce and Snecma (Safran). These companies are currently investing in research and developing new ALM applications at a rapid pace.

About the author

Dr. Narsimlu Kemsaram was awarded Aerospace MBA from TBS, Toulouse, France and Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, India. He finished his PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad, India and worked in several research projects in aerospace and defense, mainly focusing on autonomous vehicles, unmanned aerial vehicles, nanosatellites, robots using artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning and computer vision technologies. He is currently working as a Technical Head (Artificial Intelligence) at Jotter.AI, Hyderabad, India.

Link to the academic article in International Journal of Management (2017, vol.8, n°2, pp. 171-187):http://www.iaeme.com/MasterAdmin/UploadFolder/IJM_08_02_019/IJM_08_02_019.pdf

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