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Although steps have been taken to improve sustainable practices in the construction industry, progress to date has been slow. Advances in 3D printing technology provide a significant opportunity to reconfigure construction industry supply chains to improve its sustainability credentials. This study investigates the adoption of 3D construction printing (3DCP) as a sustainable alternative and/or to augment traditional construction industry supply chains. By analysing six 3DCP organisations and feeding six critical insights into the Business Model Navigator, this study proposes three supply chain models i.e. generative construction service, hybrid service, and emergency service. A generative supply chain model can be used as an on-demand service for customers with limited knowledge of 3DCP. The hybrid model can integrate 3DCP with a traditional construction supply chain to construct part of the building. Finally, the emergency services model can be used to rapidly construct cost-effective housing (e.g for refugees). The adoption of 3D Printing using these supply chain models in housing construction supply chains has the potential to offer considerable benefits both for construction companies and end-users, while at the same time improving sustainability, affordability and productivity.
3D printing technology is rapidly transforming supply chains across diverse manu-facturing sectors, enabling personalisation of consumer goods ranging from car parts, medical devices, toys, houses, and even clothing. Food production is also included in the breadth of applications of this expanding technology. Increasing consumer awareness about sustainability, including the problem of food waste, as well as growing interest in customised nutrition have led to the emergence of food industry research focused on aspects, such as packaging, portion size, and healthy sustainable ingredients, to satisfy consumer demands. The growing market for personalised food options in particular, requires increased flexibility and agility to tailor ingredients to an individual’s specific requirements. Such specificity is not easily fulfilled using traditional mass production methods; however, the emerging technology of 3D food printing (3DFP) may be one solution. This paper evaluates the opportunities, risks, and challenges associated with 3DFP, with a focus on developing sustainable supply chains for future growth. Drawing on 12 semi-structured interviews with 3DFP industry managers and current literature in the domain, we propose three supply chain models for 3DFP services, as well as an overview of the key business drivers.
Despite the abundance of articles addressing global supply chain risks and their mitigation strategies, there are surprisingly few insights into how different industries manage global supply chain risks while internationalising abroad. There are conflicting results from previous researches that specific global supply chain risk management practices work in one industry but not in others. We believe that in each industry sector, the global supply chain risks and their mitigation strategies differ. We used profile deviation and ideal profile methodology to identify top performers in three industry sectors (Audit, Finance and Consulting, Automotive, and IT and Software) and evaluated their best practices towards managing global supply chain risks. This study used an online survey to gather information on how Indian executives across these industries manage global supply chain risks during their internationalisation process and found the ‘ideal’ risk mitigation profiles for all three industries. These findings provide new insights to practitioners as they will serve as a useful reference tool for Indian executives planning to internationalise.
Pay-per-use (PPU) business models serve as a catalyst to accelerate the adoption of additive manufacturing (AM) technologies across diverse industrial ‘as-a-service’ applications. This paper investigates opportunities and potential applications of PPU business models. It closes by proposing future PPU financing schemes and evaluating implementation risks and mitigation
strategies in AM ecosystems. By carrying out a focused literature review and examining the existing use cases, we apply the 4I framework to contextualise these findings within the realm of AM. We found considerable barriers to upscaling AM’s commercial applications that currently prevent wider adoption. The proposed PPU business models provide pathways to reducing these barriers by reducing financing obstacles, encouraging co-innovation across supply chains and leveraging AM’s capabilities to offer customised, on-demand manufacturing solutions on an ‘as-a-service’ basis. They facilitate recurring revenue streams and promote sustainable financing through enhanced resource efficiency and waste reduction. This research represents one of the initial forays into exploring viable PPU financing schemes for AM.