Enhancing the Adoption of Additive Manufacturing in Industry using Principles of Agile Hardware Development
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Author
Date
2024Type
- Doctoral Thesis
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Abstract
Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies are increasingly adopted for the development and production of physical products. Nevertheless, the industrial adoption of AM still represents a major challenge for manufacturing companies. AM can lead to significant implications at the adopting firm, with the potential to fundamentally transform existing value chains. One promising approach to overcome the uncertainty and complexity of AM adoption is Agile hardware development (AHD). The term refers to a group of product development frameworks that utilize short and iterative cycles of designing, realizing, and testing. AHD reduces technical and customer-related uncertainties through early and frequent validation of physical product increments.
This thesis sets out to explore the opportunities of combining AHD and AM, addressing the lack of studies that have specifically investigated the combination of both factors. This work concentrates on solving the key challenges that inhibit the application of the AHD approach for product development with AM. These challenges relate to (i) the lack of understanding of the AHD principles at manufacturing firms; (ii) the difficult realization of AM prototypes in short iterations; and (iii) the unclear implications of AHD implementation with regard to business model design. Three studies are conducted to close down the respective research gaps associated with the challenges.
Study 1 proposes an interactive training module to transfer the core principles of AHD to industry professionals. In contrast to existing teaching formats, the proposed training builds on the realistic simulation of the hardware development and production environment using an engineering simulator. The training is evaluated in an experimental study with 44 industry professionals with regard to perceived learning and user reaction using both quantitative and qualitative research methods. The results show that the engineering simulator helps to promote the transfer of AHD principles, since the participants’ average agreement towards the principles increased during the training.
Study 2 examines to what extent the time-consuming and costly realization of AM prototypes within short iterations can be overcome through the re-use of pre-validated design building blocks. The study describes an approach how AM design knowledge can be formalized, stored and accessed using a design feature database. The benefits and limitations of the tool are evaluated with an industrial case study. The results show that the feature database has the potential to reduce the total amount of iterations required to reach a functioning design. For the case company, time savings of up to 18 days could be realized, since AM prototypes needed to be ordered and shipped from an external supplier. The study demonstrates that the re-use of prior validated features represents a viable strategy to facilitate the so-far difficult realization of AM prototypes during short sprints.
Study 3 investigates how the business model design of a manufacturing firm is influenced by the iterative development approach with AM. Using the case study method, the implications of moving from a traditional, plan-driven development approach to an AHD-enabled iterative product launch are described with the help of the business model canvas. The comparison revealed that the iterative product launch leads to significant implications for the business model design, requiring adaptations in nearly every building block of the business model canvas. In addition, the case study highlights further implications with regard to supply chain, such as the need for reverse logistics to account for frequent takebacks of outdated product iterations.
Based on the results of the three studies, it can be concluded that the combination of AHD and AM offers promising opportunities for the development of physical products. In essence, the combined approach eases core constraints of traditional hardware development, such as the need for a design freeze and the clear distinction between prototypes and products. Manufacturing firms can benefit from increased flexibility and speed, since product designs can be continuously updated and improved, even after the market launch. This research confirms that AHD represents a promising strategy to overcome the uncertainty of AM adoption by uncovering necessary process improvements and building AM related competences along the entire value chain. With regard to the industrial implementation of the presented approach, this work proposes three guidelines in the form of practical recommendations. Show more
Permanent link
https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000672241Publication status
publishedExternal links
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Publisher
ETH ZurichSubject
additive manufacturing; Agile hardware developmentOrganisational unit
03943 - Meboldt, Mirko / Meboldt, Mirko
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