Economic sustainability of additive manufacturing Contextual factors driving its performance in rapid prototyping

摘要

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate additive manufacturing (AM) phenomenon extending previous research results by studying in-depth the economic sustainability of AM technology and bringing out the contextual factors that drive its superior performances in comparison with conventional manufacturing, and justify its adoption in rapid prototyping (RP) from an economic point of view. Design/methodology/approach Data have been collected through a worldwide survey. Respondents were from 105 companies adopting the technology from 23 countries worldwide. Findings The results of this research show that although AM-based prototyping leads to significant cost reduction, it is not as good as conventional manufacturing in terms of the profitability of investment. It also demonstrates how cost reduction depends on production volume and payback period depends on the types of material and scope of AM implementation after controlling for firm size and experience.