Redesigning Production Systems
If it was possible to wind back the clock on the first Industrial Revolution, then a redesign of production systems, based on the information available now, would focus on reducing environmental impacts, maximising resources and adding value to all produc
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Abstract If it was possible to wind back the clock on the first Industrial Revolution, then a redesign of production systems, based on the information available now, would focus on reducing environmental impacts, maximising resources and adding value to all products created, as well as taking into account the health and wellbeing of workers and the distribution of populations. Additive manufacturing, combined with digital communication technologies, delivers the possibility that many of the goals can be achieved—leading to a much healthier planet. Based on current research into sustainability and additive manufacturing outcomes, this chapter provides a vision for the redesign of current production systems, supply chains and values that serves as starting point for re-establishing the human relationship with manufacturing and business practice. Current drivers for change are discussed and opportunities for reducing the environmental impact of production systems directly enabled by additive manufacturing are then considered. These are based on integrating additive manufacturing into the supply chain and the potential impact on the development cycle, inventory management, logistic postponement and the management of spare parts. Keywords 3D printing · Additive manufacturing · Global connectivity · Logistics · Supply chain · Sustainability
1 Introduction: Systems in Crisis Looking back, the Industrial Revolution was not a particularly good idea. Whilst there are obvious dangers in romanticizing the pre-industrial era, there is growing evidence that the reality of the Industrial Revolution as it transpired was the
J. Loy (*) · P. Tatham QCA and Griffith School of Engineering, Griffith University, Southport, Gold Coast, QLD 4222, Australia e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016 S.S. Muthu and M.M. Savalani (eds.), Handbook of Sustainability in Additive Manufacturing, Environmental Footprints and Eco-design of Products and Processes, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-0549-7_7
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thin end of the wedge in terms of negatively changing the longer-term human relationship with its environment. Indeed, arguably, since the end of the Industrial Revolution humans have been on a slippery slope towards self-destruction that, because of the over-consumption of resources, mimics the demise of a myriad of species throughout nature over the history of the planet. Individual human civilizations have also, in many instances, risen to incredible heights of sophistication and complexity where longevity must have seemed assured, before falling to shadows in the sand of ancient cities and decaying monuments. To consider the health of the planet and the need for a societal group to operate in a particular niche within the limited provision of the planet as a whole, the impact of humans’ self-destructive behaviour has, aided by technology, dramatically increased over the last 200 years. A key example is the creation of waste that cannot be reclaimed as illustrated in the gr
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