Frugal innovations and 3D printing: insights from the field

Abstract

International audienceIn this paper, we present a growing technological sector – additive manufacturing – and discuss its hidden potential as frugal innovation. Additive manufacturing, which is also known as three-dimensional (3D) printing, constitutes a recent manufacturing process that builds layers to create a three-dimensional solid object from a digital model. 3D printing technology has been identified as one aspect of the digital revolution that has the potential to revolutionize the industrial world. This topic has been surrounded with a lot of hype when predicting future application scope. In this paper, we focus on 3D printing as a technology that, under certain circumstances of technological transfer via community-operated organizations like fab labs, enables the development of frugal solutions targeting Base-of-the-Pyramid (BoP) population. At the same time, this paper aims to contribute to the discussion on Frugal Innovations in existing scholar literature

Metal additive manufacturing in the commercial aviation industry: A review

“…The Ti-6Al-4V alloy also referred to as Ti64, is extensively used in aerospace because of its mechanical properties such as good corrosion resistance, low density, and high strength, which make Ti64 the metal with highest strength-to-weight ratio [71,84,110,111]. The production of Titanium sponge, that is the pure form of the material after extraction and processing, is particularly expensive if compared to other materials: by weight, steel production is about thirty times less expensive, and that of aluminum is six times less expensive than titanium [112]. A new report from Global Market Insights Inc. shows that around 60% of the worldwide demand for titanium comes from the aerospace sector, whereby the two major players Boeing and Airbus represent 90% of this demand through their commercial and military applications.…”

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“…Osterwalder & Pigneur, 2010). These include the type of products produced through additive manufacturing: rapid prototyping and innovations, for instance (Berman, 2012;Maric et al, 2016;Rayna & Striukova, 2016;Salles & Gyi, 2013). Rayna and Striukova (2016) make an overview of various offerings and the incremental or radical change they describe, and Laplume and co-authors (2016a) illustrate how small firms use 3D technology in their offerings.…”

Capacidades organizacionais para a inovação frugal

“…A inovação frugal, devido à sua natureza policêntrica, que combina processos de inovação de cima para baixo e de baixo para cima, bem como diferentes atores, pode permitir formas mais inclusivas de inovação e desenvolvimento (Knorringa, Pešab, Leliveld, & Beers, 2016). Particularmente, os processos de inovação de baixo para cima, são formas promissoras de combater a pobreza e permitir o desenvolvimento sustentável (Maric, Rodhain, & Barlette, 2016).…”

“…Dessa forma, as inovações frugais têm muito a oferecer em termos de desenvolvimento sustentável. Ao identificar histórias de sucesso e boas práticas desse tipo de inovação, estimulará não só a próxima onda de conhecimento, mas também o desenvolvimento mais responsável e sustentável dos novos produtos e serviços (Maric et al, 2016).…”

“…A inovação frugal é uma alavanca útil para construir uma transição para uma economia mais ecológica, sendo o primeiro passo para a sustentabilidade (Basu et al, 2013). A inovação frugal, busca ofertar produtos/serviços acessíveis, sustentáveis e de alta qualidade (Maric et al, 2016).…”