Investigating Environmental and Economic Impacts of the ۳D Printing Technology on Supply Chains: The Case of Tire Production

The ۳D printing technology is expected to revolutionize several products including the tire industry as this technology can alter the supply chain to a more agile structure and significantly save on logistics costs considering 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 required for ۳D production of tire and introducing a mixed integer linear programming model yielding optimal decisions of the model including facility locations and flows of materials among them. A scenario-based stochastic programming (SSP) approach is adopted to account for 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 model, we employ it to optimally design the chain of an Iranian tire manufacture. Modeling parameters are predominantly drawn from the relevant literature. The results suggest that the productivity of the supply chain of ۳D printing production is less sensitive to the management’s risk seeking level, compared to traditional production. The ۳DP CLSC could be ۵۱-۶۱% economically more efficient than traditional CLSC, depending on the management’s strategy. From the environmental perspective, the ۳D printing technology can help reduce the carbon emission of supply chain by ۹-۱۰%. This promises a cleaner tire production and distribution system in the future.

Keywords:

۳D printing , supply chain , tire , demand uncertainty , environmental impact