Investigating environmental and economic impacts of the 3D printing technology on supply chains: The case of tire production

Abstract

The 3D printing technology is expected to revolutionize several industries including tire industry as this technology can alter the tire supply chain to a more agile structure and significantly save on logistics costs, primarily due to the fact that tire is a bulky product requiring substantial transportation and inventory operations. This paper contributes to the literature by designing a closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) required for the 3D production of tire and introducing a multi-product mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model yielding optimal decisions including facility locations and the material flows among them. A scenario-based stochastic programming approach is adopted to account for the uncertainty in demand. For the sake of comparison, the MILP model that corresponds to optimal management of the traditional production scheme is also offered. To demonstrate the applicability of the models, the paper employs them to optimally design the chain of an Iranian tire manufacturer. Modeling parameters are predominantly drawn from the relevant literature. The results suggest that the productivity of the supply chain of 3D printing production is less sensitive to the management's risk-seeking level, compared to traditional production. The 3DP CLSC could be 51–61% economically more efficient than the traditional CLSC, depending on the management's strategy. From the environmental perspective, the 3D printing technology could help reduce the carbon emission of the chain by 9–10%. This could promise a cleaner tire production and distribution system in the future. Extensive sensitivity analysis is further conducted to understand how model outputs vary with changing input parameters.

Publication Title

Journal of Cleaner Production

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