This article has been consolidated into the updated AM guide
The original article presented customization, efficiency and sustainability as broad advantages of additive manufacturing. These topics now appear in Addithive’s updated pillar guide with more precise engineering context and fewer absolute claims.
In the future, we will remember 2020 as a good example or even the start of a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous world. VUCA is a term generally used by the military to define war situations. As most of the leadership traits taken from the military, VUCA is also coming from the military. Military trains soldiers for the worst-case scenario where people fight and suffer. Parallel with that best leadership skills and concepts that are leveraged to the business world comes from the military. It has been started to be used in post-cold world era. Globalization and global networks and a more connected world now show us what it really means. 2020 feels like the definition of what is VUCA. If you want to put this term into a dictionary, put it like that:
VUCA : World in 2020
World Health Organization is notified on COVID-19 on January 7, and the global economy comes to a risk of recession in 5 months. Travel, Aviation, and Retail industries are the ones that are heavily impacted. Think about the supply chain supporting all of the products and services in these industries. Suppliers in these complex networks are shrinking and going out of business right now.
Shutting down economies and slowing down global trade disrupted supply chains dramatically. With the reduced demand rate in especially in aviation industry tier 1–2 suppliers started to shrink down their operations. Suppliers are very similar to muscles in the human body. When the economy shrinks like when you stop eating, your muscles shrink first. This is what happens to suppliers right know. They are shrinking and going out of business. As all bodybuilders know well enough, it is tough to rebuild these muscles. A supplier may have a history of 10–20 years, and it can go out of business in a crisis like this in 3–6 months or big suppliers can downsize their operations and shut down their not all but some of the shops. Recovering these muscles is not easy. It is not possible to gain back in 3–6 months what you have built-in 10–20 years.
OECD data shows that 70% of global trade depends on global supply chains. This is where the global economy drives its power. On the other hand, this network business is so connected and involved that its prone to the butterfly effect. Sometimes weakness may be the result of strength. Viruses like COVID-19 spread much faster in a globally connected network of people.
Is COVID-19 a Black Swan or an event gets us prepared to the new normal. VUCA is becoming the new normal. This is not only a case for COVID-19. There would be other global changes that have a considerable risk of disrupting the global supply chain by looking at the news from the first month of 2020
January 2: Bushfires in Australia
January 2:Iranian General Soleimani killed in a US drone strike.
January 7: The WHO is notified new coronavirus
January 8: Iran launched ballistic missiles to bases in Iraq.
January 15: Trump Impeachment Inquiry
January 22:Locust outbreak in Kenya
January 31: UK Exists EU.
This was just the first month of 2020 in the 2019 global economy impacted by trade wars. Original equipment manufacturers cannot respond to these changes and quickly adapts to the new normal with a conventional supply chain. There will be disruptions in the global supply chain more than ever because of global, economic, geopolitical, and technological abrupt changes, natural disasters, or competitive strategies.
Thanks Morpheus
Additive manufacturing, aka 3D printing, can help to balance the impact of global disruptions like COVID-19. How? Why?
Additive manufacturing is a new tech that enables manufacturing of parts, even assemblies layer by layer from a computer file by consumable materials. The primary advantage of this technology is flexibility and complexity when compared to conventional methods.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
You can check the above photo from ORNL (Oak Ridge National Laboratory) to understand what are the possibilities with additive manufacturing. The best thing is you do not need tooling for the manufacturing of different components. In conventional manufacturing, there is a set of tooling to enable the manufacturing of the components. For casting, a model and core needed to form casting mold for machining, a holder, and fixtures required for manufacturing. The worst thing is when you need to design the fixtures, tools, and molds before you can manufacture your actual part. It takes time to complete all of the tools and fixtures, and this is why conventional manufacturing is not as agile and flexible as additive manufacturing since there is no need of tools and fixtures for additive manufacturing, it is much easier to build several different parts and products with a single machine without the need of complex tooling.
A conventional manufacturing shop has engineers technicians to support all of the efforts related to design, manufacture, and maintenance of tooling manufacturing and actual part manufacturing. In additive manufacturing shops, an operator can easily run 4–5 Additive manufacturing machines. An engineer can prepare part files that are needed for these machines. The good thing is when you have a part file that is capable of delivering the requirements of the part/product. The only need is to store this file and consumables. There is no need to store fixtures, tools, or there is no need to hold an inventory. It is possible to manufacturing when there is demand. It is possible to manufacture other parts when there is no demand for the work in hand. An additive manufacturing shop can be a medical device factory, a rocket part factory and automobile part factory at the same time or shift between industries with very little disruptions.
Think about what we are going through right now. COVID-19 heavily disturbing century-old industries. A manufacturing supplier working in the aviation industry cannot survive this crisis. On the other hand, an additive manufacturing supplier can simply shift to the manufacturing of respirator parts for medical device OEMs instead of Aviation OEMs. It is also possible to continue to manufacture aviation components when the industry recovers from COVID-19 travel restrictions…
Charles Darwin
Think about a world that is not possible to plan for the next 6 months. Your production volume may change because of many reasons that are not in your control. An additive manufacturing shop is at least 10 times more flexible than a conventional manufacturing shop. Business with Vision to tackle challenges, Understanding to see the opportunities and Courage to take action and Adapt, it will thrive in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous world.
Vision, Understanding, Courage, and Adaptability are remedies to the VUCA world, while additive manufacturing is a remedy to the supply chain in a VUCA world.
