Distributed manufacturing: scope, challenges and opportunities

Abstract

This discussion paper aims to set out the key challenges and opportunities emerging from distributed manufacturing (DM). We begin by describing the concept, available definitions and consider its evolution where recent production technology developments (such as additive and continuous production process technologies), digitisation together with infrastructural developments (in terms of IoT and big-data) provide new opportunities.To further explore the evolving nature of DM, the authors, each of whom are involved in specific applications of DM research, examined within a workshop environment emerging DM applications involving new production and supporting infrastructural technologies. This paper presents these generalizable findings on DM challenges and opportunities in terms of products, enabling production technologies, and the impact on the wider production and industrial system. Industry structure and location of activities are examined in terms of the democrat impact on participating network actors.The paper concludes with a discussion on the changing nature of manufacturing as a result of DM, from the traditional centralised, large scale, long lead-time forecast driven production operations, to a new DM paradigm where manufacturing is a decentralised, autonomous near end-user driven activity. A forward research agenda is proposed that considers the impact of DM on the industrial and urban landscape.

Circular Makerspaces: the founder’s view

“…product life extension through emotional attachment, intensification of use through product-service systems); local production (reduced transportation reduces more detailed reviews of the terminology related to distributed production see Srai et al (2016) and Kohtala (2015). This indicates distributed production intervenes dually in consumption and production, offering ways to reimagine the entire system (over and above a resource efficiency approach).…”

“…Through new means to support product development costs (through platforms such as Indiegogo 4 and Kickstarter 5 ) and foster global communities around products, makerspaces are considered to play a prominent role in this transition. Distributed production is characterised by local production; cloud manufacturing services; flexible production environments capable of creating personalised/customisable products; sustainable and resource efficient technologies; and flexibility/agility in production suited to short ramp-up times (Srai et al 2016;EPSRC 2013;. Srai et al (2016) state that because decentralisation is embodied in the concept of distributed production, distributed production in-and-ofitself is the very manifestation of the CE.…”

“…Distributed production is characterised by local production; cloud manufacturing services; flexible production environments capable of creating personalised/customisable products; sustainable and resource efficient technologies; and flexibility/agility in production suited to short ramp-up times (Srai et al 2016;EPSRC 2013;. Srai et al (2016) state that because decentralisation is embodied in the concept of distributed production, distributed production in-and-ofitself is the very manifestation of the CE. This is because it has the capacity to implement short/flexible production/consumption loops as well as reduce transportation (Birtchnell et al 2017) making it an important potential enabler of a future CE.…”

Distributed Manufacturing of Flexible Products: Technical Feasibility and Economic Viability

“…Distributed manufacturing is the term used here to describe decentralized fabrication of parts in smaller factories or homes that are local to end-users [12,13,69,[79][80][81][82][83]. This concept is ideal for additive manufacturing as 3-D printers located around the globe could be utilized to make a variety of parts for people that are geographically close to consumers.…”

Open Source 3-D Printed Nutating Mixer

“…This trend in cost savings from 90-99% is seen in a wide variety of open hardware tools for science and their outputs [5,6,11,12]. Moreover, the open source design platform has provided the opportunity for distributed manufacturing [14][15][16][17][18]-specifically to download the designs and print them anywhere at any time, which can provide additional savings from avoided shipping costs as well as various taxes and tariffs. These savings are perhaps most stark when distributed manufacturing using 3-D printing (which enables material minimization coupled to free complexity) is tied to some form of automation.…”