Sustainable Scenarios for Engaged Manufacturing: A Literature Review and Research Directions

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is gaining increasing interest as a sustainable manufacturing technology. One important aspect of AM is the opportunities it presents for customization by increasing involvement of customer in the design and manufacturing process. This paper presents a review of literature examining proposed future scenarios for AM implementation, with particular interest in the way customers are engaged in the process, and the effect that this might have on the future of AM supply chains. 27 distinct scenarios for future AM implementations were identified, with Engineer-to-Order and Make-to-Order proving most popular approaches, alongside a trend towards localized production. Although structured methods are available, a “genius” approach was found to have been employed in developing the majority of the scenarios evaluated.