Research on the Potential of 3D Design and Modelling In the Manufacturing Industries
Abstract
This particular research has four different objectives: to study the concept of 3D design and modelling, to analyse how the business process model of industries has evolved with the help of 3D design and modelling, to analyse the potential of 3D design and modelling for the manufacturing industry in particular, and to draw recommendations for the manufacturing industry regarding the integration of the same with 3D design and modelling. The study takes the inductive approach towards research and using content analysis as the data analysis method, the study systematically reviews the contemporary literature about the potential of 3D design and modelling for the manufacturing industry across the globe. Different aspects of this potential impact 3D modelling have been considered for the manufacturing industry namely the economic value, the number of jobs, sustainability the operational processes and technology advancement in the manufacturing industry.
1.0 Introduction
In contemporary research, the notion attached to the concept of printing reflects the process of placing ink cartridges in a machine which prints something on paper. In contrast to this notion of printing, authors such as Baumers et al. (2016) have discussed the concept of 3D printing such that this is the process of creation of an object using a printer machine which assembles material in three dimensions layer-by-layer under the formation of the desired object. The extrusion of a melted filament of plastic or any other material takes place using a 3D printer, thereby building objects which are based on the specifications provided by the modelling software air or even from the scanning of an already existing object.
In the context of the contemporary manufacturing industry, tools and appliances, along with parts of machinery, main as well be printed using a 3D printer at home or at the workplace. Long et al. (2017) argue that for a 3D printer, only a computer is required to create, modify or download the digital 3D model of a specific object. The application of 3D printing has already been discussed in various studies conducted by different authors. For instance, authors such as Tian (2015) argue that the advent of 3D printing has revolutionized the entire manufacturing calculus by optimisation for batches of one. In this way, 3D printers are now being used to economically manufacture custom, improved products along with those which are sometimes impossible to be manufactured. This research report is directed towards investigating the potential of 3D designing and modelling specifically in the context of the manufacturing industry.
1.1 Background of The Study
Choonara et al. (2016) detail the potential use of 3D printers. According to the author, a single 3D printer can manufacture a vast variety of products which are oftentimes already assembled. In this way, a 3D printer may be regarded as a factory without an actual factory setting primarily due to the reason that it gives the industry is a platform for innovation which, in turn, enables the manufacturing industry to flourish in those areas which are highly uncommon. In this connection, the work of Bos et al. (2016) is exemplary in that, the authors argue that the new players which have entered the 3D design, modelling and printing industry with all of their innovative technology and processes, have now potentially started to disrupt the manufacturing industry – so much so that The Economist now calls 3D design and modelling “the third industrial revolution” which follows mechanization of the 19th century and mass production using assembly lines as in in the 20th century.
The idea of 3D design and modelling has been constantly evolving since its advent; the concept is now referred to as additive manufacturing or rapid prototyping. This concept has gained quite some popularity during the recent years all thanks to the rapid technical development in this particular area. The background of 3D design and modelling goes back to the year 1980; in the decade of 1980, 3D printers were mostly used to design prototypes which would facilitate and speed up the process of product development. At that point in time, this particular technology of 3D printing, design and modelling would be referred to as rapid prototyping. Moving on, with the commencement of technical progress and sophistication in this domain, the potential of 3D design and modelling even beyond the use of the same in prototyping is now being realised by the manufacturing industry.
1.2 Research Rationale
For the contemporary manufacturing industry, there is a gigantic potential of 3D modelling, designing and printing. In this connection, the manufacturing industry at the global level may potentially benefit from this sophisticated technology. The research rationale of this study is driven by the same factor; there are a lot of aspects of discussion pertaining to the potentials of 3D modelling and designing for the manufacturing industry which is important to be discussed in the light of the various studies that have already been conducted earlier and those which have been recorded in the contemporary research literature.
1.3 Aim and Objectives
The fundamental aim of this study is that of the relation of the potential of 3D design and modelling specifically in the context of the manufacturing industry. This fundamental aim of the study may as well be divided into the following research objectives.
- To study the concept of 3D design and modelling
- To analyse how the business process model of industries has evolved with the help of 3D design and modelling
- To analyse the potential of 3D design and modelling for the manufacturing industry in particular
- To draw recommendations for the manufacturing industry regarding the integration of the same with 3D design and modelling
1.4 Research Questions
The fundamental research question of the study is, “what are the potentials of 3D design and modelling for the manufacturing industry?” This fundamental research question may be divided into the following sab questions which are as follows:
- What is the concept of 3D design and modelling?
- How has 3D design and modelling benefited the manufacturing industry in general?
- What recommendations may be made for the manufacturing industry so that the integration of the industry operations with 3D design and modelling may be made possible?
1.5 Significance
This particular research is significant for the manufacturing industry in general in two ways. Firstly, it discusses the sophisticated technology of 3D design and modelling exclusively in the context of the manufacturing industry. The analysis that has been conducted in this study discusses how the manufacturing companies operating across the world can ultimately find new opportunities and markets to target with their products and services. Secondly, the research gives a hint to the manufacturing industry of the world regarding the utilisation of the technology of 3D design and modelling to reduce the cost of production of various items. This sort of cost optimisation also makes the study regarding 3D design and modelling important for the manufacturing industry in general.
1.6 Structure
The first section introduces the subject to the readers. The underlying background behind the concept of 3D design and modelling has been presented along with the research aim and objectives of the study. An outline of the research questions and also been presented along with the significance of the research.
The second section reviews the research literature pertaining to the domain of 3D design and modelling. It presents the various ideas that have already been discussed in the contemporary research temperature.
The third section of the study of reviews the research methodology that has been adopted in order to meet the research objectives. Various components of the research methodology including but not limited to the research philosophy, research design and research approach have been outlining. The method of research and the data collection along with the data analysis methods have also been discussed in the section.
The fourth section of the study discusses the findings of the analysis. An objective wise discussion about being conducted in this section.
Finally, the fifth section summarises the entire research study for the readers. Recommendations have been presented for the manufacturing industry pertaining to the integration of the same with 3D modelling and design.
2.0 Literature Review
It has been argued in the work of De Schutter et al. (2018) that all the disruptive technologies start in a position inferior to the currently dominant technology industry. This was the same case with 3D printers; around 20 years ago, the first experimental 3D printers emerged in the world. The 3D printer is then why nowhere near the quality of production of the traditional manufacturing processes. However, as authors including Tofail et al. (2018) have observed in their research, this new technology found a particular market which was underserved by dominant technology namely that of the conventional manufacturing processes. The reason behind this was that of the focus of the conventional manufacturing processes on the high end of the market. The market penetration of 3D design and modelling technology was through rapid prototyping which was, around two decades ago, was extremely labour intensive and costly when the traditional manufacturing techniques would be employed. 3D printing technology enables the manufacturing firms to develop high quality and cheap prototypes which rendered great speed to the process of product development. This soon became a classic disruptive technology as identified in the work of Ben-Ner & Siemsen (2017). Currently, the 3D printing technology is decent enough to serve those markets which previously did not have any manufacturing capability at all.
Cost optimisation is another important aspect of 3D design and modelling. This is a disruptive feature of the technology of 3D design and modelling such that a single 3D printing machine can potentially create an eclectic range of products. When this is compared to the conventional manufacturing methods, it is evident that the production line must be customised every now and then in case the product line is changed. At the same time, the conventional manufacturing techniques require an expensive magnitude of investment in tooling as well as long factory downtime. In this connection, authors such as Laplume, Petersen & Pearce (2016) have pointed out that it is now not hard to imagine a future factory which can potentially manufacture automotive components, teacups and bespoke medical products all in one single factory using a row of 3D printing facilities.
Aspect to consider here is that of flexibility; flexibility, according to Lee et al. (2016), along with the fact that 3D design and modelling is possible near the point of consumption, implies a very important concern to the business model of the manufacturing industry across the globe along with the supply chain mechanism of the same. In light of this fact, many aspects or steps in the supply chain process of the manufacturing industry may potentially be eliminated. An example of the steps which my does will be eliminated includes those of the distribution, retail and warehousing. The history of disruptive technology, according to Strange & Zucchella (2017), has shown that 3D printing cannot be stopped. It is only natural that the competitive market forces will drive the market dynamics forward and over the years, barriers will be reduced to the minimum. Kietzmann, Pitt & Berthon (2015) support this idea and claim that it may be reduced from history that once a disruptive technology commences its journey, the adoption of the same becomes only naturally faster beyond imagination.
3.0 Research Methodology
This section discusses the research methodology. It starts with a discussion of the research design, the research philosophy and the research approach to the study followed by an overview of the research method adopted to meet the research objectives.
3.1 Research Design
There are different research designs characterizing a research study. The research design of the study under consideration is characterized by a qualitative nature. The data collection is secondary.
3.2 Research Philosophy
Contemporary research has outlined different research philosophies underpinning a research study. For instance, Mayring (2015) discusses the research philosophy of positivism. This research philosophy underpins a quantitative research design. The research methods adopted are also quantitative.
There also exists a second fundamental research philosophy by the name of interpretivism. According to Mayring (2015), interpretivism is the research philosophy which starts off the discussion with an observation. When the study is underpinned by the philosophy of interpretivism, the researcher delves down into the subject matter through engaging with reality. Interpretivist studies are characterized by qualitative research design. This study is also characterized by qualitative research design and the research philosophy which underpins the study is the philosophy of interpretivism.
3.3 Research Approach
Two approaches to a research study have been discussed in the contemporary research literature. The first approach is that of deduction; using a deductive approach towards research, the researcher statistically validates an already existing theoretical postulation. In this process, no new theory is generated or postulated. The second approach towards research is the inductive approach. Using the inductive approach, the research aims to postulate a new theory. This is also the reason as to why qualitative studies adopt an inductive approach towards research (Lundman, 2017). This study, too, has taken the inductive approach for contributing to the existing theoretical research literature on the potential of 3D design and modelling for the manufacturing industry.
3.4 Method
A combination of research philosophy, research design and research approach give a clue about the research methods to be adopted in a research study. For example, a study underpinned by a positivist research philosophy and characterized by a deductive approach towards research adopts quantitative research methods including frequency analysis, correlation analysis and regression analysis. Survey questionnaires are used for data collection.
On the other hand, interpretivist research studies which are characterized by an inductive approach adopt qualitative research methods such as thematic analysis (Bengtsson, 2016). For thematic analysis, interviews with research participants are used as the data collection tool. This research study has a qualitative research design. However, the research method that has been adopted in this study is the systematic content analysis.
3.5 Data Collection Method
For the content analysis to be conducted in a systematic fashion, data collection through online searches was conducted. Various databases were searched in order to collect secondary qualitative data on the potential of 3D design and modelling for the manufacturing industry.
3.5.1 Inclusion/Exclusion Criteria
The first inclusion/exclusion criterion is that of the year of publication. A time frame of five years prior to the year of publication of this research has been considered for the analysis; no research which was conducted before the year 2015 has been considered in this study.
Another inclusion/exclusion criterion has been considered with regards to the keywords involved in the secondary research. The following table summarises the keywords used and the percentage of literary texts analysed in this study corresponding to each keyword.
| Keyword | Percentage in the Initial Search (returned 120 studies) | Percentage in Search after 1st Criterion (returned 73 studies) | Percentage after 2nd Criterion (returned 16 studies) |
| potential of 3D printing | 47% | 87% | 100% |
| impact of 3D design in the manufacturing industry | 63% | 89% | 100% |
| “economic impact” of 3D design in manufacturing | 52% | 86% | 100% |
| potential of 3D modelling for the manufacturing industry | 27% | 91% | 100% |
Table 1: Keywords Searched Online
3.5.2 Data Collection Plan
The initial online database searches returned 120 research studies. The first inclusion/exclusion criterion was implemented on these initial 120 results so that their number was reduced from 120 to 73. Worth mentioning is the fact that the initial criterion was that of the year of publication, which reduced the number of studies to 73. Next, the second inclusion/exclusion criterion was used. This inclusion/exclusion criterion was related to the keywords; it was attempted the research studies being shortlisted for the analysis contain all the keywords being searched with. This reduced the search results from 73 to 16. Hence, the total number of studies which have been analysed in this text is 16 (n =16). Searches were conducted on databases such as Elsevier, ScienceDirect and Google Scholar.
3.6 Data Analysis Method
The data analysis method which has been adopted in this research is content analysis as discussed earlier. There are certain advantages of content analysis as discussed in the contemporary research literature. The first advantage is that it looks directly at communication which has been pursued in various pieces of literature which are being analysed. In this connection, content analysis games and insight into the key aspect of social interaction. Bengtsson (2016) argues that contain an address is main use both the quantitative and qualitative operations. At the same time, the nature of content analysis facilitates the adoption of either of the research approaches, induction and deduction, for conducting the research. Mayring (2015) even goes to the extent of commenting that content analysis allows a closeness to the literary text which can potentially alternate between specific relationships and categories.
However, at the same time, there are some weaknesses of the data analysis method of content analysis as discussed in contemporary research. The first weakness or disadvantages that, this data analysis method is quite time consuming and is subject to an increased likelihood of error primarily due to the generous level of liberation given to the researcher pertaining to the interpretation of the literary pieces of text. At the same time, scholars including Lundman (2017) have argued that it tends to often disregard the context which characterises the creation of the literary text.
Nevertheless, content analysis has been used as the data analysis method for this research due to the reason that it is an unobtrusive means of analysing the interaction between the dependent and the independent variables as it is operationalised in the context of a literary piece of text. Another important reason for the selection of this data analysis method is that it provides a direct insight into the complex models of the utilisation of language and the general human thought. When conducted following all the principles of analysis, this is an ‘exact’ research method which is based on hard facts.
3.7 Summary
This section has overviewed of the research methodology of the current study. The various research methodology components including the research philosophy, the research approach and the research method are interpretivism, induction and content analysis respectively. For the data collection. The various pieces of literature which have been analysed in this research are 16 in number (n = 16). This final figure has been attained after applying two different inclusion/exclusion criteria. The first criterion is that of the year of publication of research; all those literary texts which were published before 2015 have been excluded from the analysis. The second criterion is that of the keywords and the appearance of the same in the literary texts. There were certain keywords the visibility of which in the selected literary text was considered vital are the content analysis. These keywords have been tabularized in the section.
4.0 Findings and Discussion
This section discusses the key findings of the content analysis. The first part of the section discusses the results of the content analysis in detail while the second part conducts a general discussion pertaining to the research objectives and the research questions.
4.1 Content Analysis
4.1.1 Difference Between 3D Modelling and Traditional Manufacturing
The underlying point of difference between 3D modelling and traditional manufacturing, as reported in the contemporary research literature, is in how the object is formed. The conventional manufacturing processes, conventionally, make use of a subtractive approach which fundamentally includes a blend of grinding, forging, moulding, bending, welding, cutting, glueing and assembling. The production of as simple a tool as an adjustable wrench may be exemplified. The production of the same involves the forging of components along with the processes of milling, grinding and assembling. A certain extent of the raw material is wasted during these processes and large quantities of energy are released in the heating processes of the metal. In this connection, manufacturing firms require machines and tools of a specialist nature; machines and tools which have been optimised to produce different sizes of wrenches are required. It has been noted that almost all the objects consumed or used on a day to day basis are created in an almost similar and sometimes in a more complex manner.
Apart from that, Despeisse et al. (2017) argue that the process of 3D modelling has many different advantages over the traditional manufacturing method. For example, using 3D modelling, an idea can potentially grow directly from a file on the computer of a designer to a finished product ultimately skipping many conventional manufacturing steps which include individual parts procurement, creation of parts with the help of moulds, machining for carving parts from blocks, welding different parts of metal together and assembling all of these parts. 3D modelling can also potentially minimise the material amount that goes to waste during the manufacturing process ultimately creating objects which are difficult for production using conventional methods of manufacturing. This includes objects with complex internal structures which sum up strength, increase functionality for reducing weight. For instance, during metal manufacturing, 3D modelling can potentially create an object with an internal structure of a honeycomb.
4.1.2 The 3D Printing Cycle
4.1.2.1 Preparation
The first step of the 3D printing cycle is that of preparation; when the “3D print” button on the machine is clicked, a pre-build routine is initiated by the printer. The first task for modelling in this particular day is that of bombing the air inside the printer so that an optimum operating environment is created for 3D modelling. At the same time, the machine potentially fills the build-up to 3.18 millimetres forming a layer of powder. The reason for this is that when the parts are finished, they are able to rest on this powder before being easily removed. An automatic head-alignment routine may also be done by the machine. This fundamental duty consists of printing a pattern on the powder and aligning the printheads of the printer accordingly.
4.1.2.2 Printing
The second step is that of printing. Once the underlying prebuild routine has been completed, the printer initiates the printing process for layers which have been created in the machine software. The powder is deposited by the machine from the hopper thereby spreading a thin layer around 0.1 millimetres forward across the building platform. The movement of the print carriage takes place across this layer thereby ultimate depositing binder in the pattern of the first slice which was printed by the machine.
4.1.2.3 De-Powdering/Recycling
When the machine has finished printing, the model is suspended in the powder for some time. Towards the end of this curing time, most of the border is automatically removed by the machine from around the model. This is done by applying vibration and vacuum pressure towards the bottom of the build chamber. It is worth mentioning that all of the powder which enters a 3D printing and modelling machine eventually becomes a model and that, none of it is wasted or lost thanks to the recycling process being a part of a closed-loop system which is facilitated by a persistent negative pressure for entailing airborne particles inside the machine.
4.1.3 Current Market Position For 3D Design and Modelling
Over the past 30 years, the compound growth rate per annum of worldwide 3D design and modelling services in all of the industries combined is around 26%. For the past decade, this growth rate has been around 28%. The manufacturing industry, in the past, has grown by as much as 5.7 times. This upward shift gives an insight into the position of the industry such that the industry may be regarded as entailing and infection points; Experts predict that it is highly likely that the adoption of 3D design and modelling in the manufacturing industry will ultimately reach at least USD 18 billion by the year 2021.
Figure 1: Global Growth in 3D Print Services Revenue
Source: Hewlett Packard ATKearny (2017)
Huang et al. (2015) argue that being the leader in 3D design and modelling in the contemporary era today is insufficient in ensuring that a particular country will potentially benefit from the first-mover advantage in 3D design and modelling in the upcoming years. In this connection, it must be reported that countries require a sustained momentum to the point that 3D design and what length becomes a mainstream technology in the manufacturing process in order to completely unlock the potential of 3D printing. The 3D modelling year over year change index is a measure of how different countries compete in 3D design and modelling markets and the capabilities pertaining to the same over a period of time.
Figure 2: 3D Printing Country and YoY Index
Source: Hewlett Packard ATKearny (2017)
It can be seen that the United States and Germany current lead their 3D design and modelling index. On the other hand, Korea and Italy lead the 3D design and modelling year over year change index. If this particular trajectory persists, the most likely consequence is that the United States would ultimately lose its market leadership position in 3D design and modelling to Korea and Korea will ultimately take the global leadership position in 3D design and modelling. There is an underlying reason for this market dominance Korea, namely a national and government-led research and development roadmap for the country to follow in the case of 3D design and modelling. At the same time, Germany is also likely to maintain its strong position of leadership in this canvas due to the reason that it has outlined a complete industry 4.0 which focuses on short term industrial problem solving and on the long-term expanding of the material portfolio along with machinery capability. Currently, the sales of 3D design and modelling machine by 11% from the year 2015 to 2016 in the United States. The United States also installed basis of 3D printers and this installation rate by 14%.
4.1.4 The Potential Of 3D Design and Modelling for The Manufacturing Industry
The following table summarises the potential of 3D design and modelling in the manufacturing industry.
Table 2: Key Impact of 3D Design and Modelling for the Manufacturing Industry
Source: Hewlett Packard ATKearny (2017)
4.1.4.1 Economic Value
The Wohler’s report has estimated that 3D design and modelling can potentially generate and economic impact of USD to 30 billion to USD by 50 million per annum across the United States sized applications by 2025. The largest source of impact amongst the highest applications of design and modelling world originate from consumer usage which will be followed by directly manufacturing that is utilising the 3D design in modern technology for the production process of finished goods and using 3D printing technology to make moulds.
Figure 3: Global Economic Disruption Due to 3D Design and Modelling
Source: Hewlett Packard ATKearny (2017)
The estimated consumer usage of 3D design and modelling can potentially have an economic impact of USD 100 billion to USD 330 m per annum by the year 2025. These figures are based on a reduction in the cost as compared with the purchase of items with the help of retailers and customisation value. In this way, 3D printing can potentially have a meaningful influence on certain categories of consumer products such as accessories, jewellery, toys, simple apparel and others. These particular products are relatively very easy to manufacture doors and trading design and modern technology. At the same time, they can potentially have a high value of customisation for the rational consumer. It has been estimated that the annual sales across the cloth of these product categories could potentially crore to USD 4 trillion at retail prices by the year 2025. At the same time, it has also been estimated that the national consumer might use 3D design in modern technology to print 5 to 10% of these products by the year 2025. This decision of the customer, however, will take into account the complexity of the process, the composition of the material and the cost structure involve along with a simple economic concept of utility in the printing process. There is also a potential of around 35% to 60% savings in cost for the consumer self-prints goods despite a higher material cost and a higher cost of complexity.
Even by the year 2025, a large majority of products and parts will still be manufactured using conventional manufacturing techniques. However, 3D design and modelling have the potential of creating significant value by reducing the setup time. At the same time, the benefits of 3D design and modelling for manufacturing industry include the elimination of tooling errors and the production of moulds which can actually increase the level of productivity of, say, injection moulding practices. According to careful estimates, 3D design and modelling of moulds and tools could generate and impact of as much as USD 30 billion to USD 50 million by 2025. These figures are based on an estimated cost base of around USD 360 billion for the production of injection moulded plastics in the year 2025. The figure also assumes that around 30% to 50% of plastics manufactured using 3D printing technology at around 30% lesser the cost today.
4.1.4.2 Jobs in The Manufacturing Industry
The countries which currently have their place in manufacturing what ultimately required a quick action to sustain their workforce. There is a potential that these countries will face an acute net job loss if the leadership of these countries does not decide in favour of adopting the concept of digital manufacturing. The underlying rationale is that these jobs will be shifted to the other countries which have taken advantage of the opportunity of the concept of 3D design and modelling. The countries such as china fall in this category as they have increased their global share for getting over the years thereby boosting their economy and employment based on the manufacturing industry quite significantly in recent years.
Figure 4: Global Jobs Reduction Due to 3D Design and Modelling
Source: Hewlett Packard ATKearny (2017)
The development of new business models similar to 3D design and modelling service bureaus may also create new jobs for various countries. For instance, the forecast 3D service bureau weather in southern California currently facilitates a hundred employees who run a variety of equipment including 12 3D printers of a production scale nature. This allows the facility to become a manufacturing scale facility rather than a prototype- focused one.
4.1.4.3 Sustainability
3D design and modelling allow a country to follow a path through a more sustainable future pertaining to its manufacturing industry. A model on the sustainability of 3D design and modelling demonstrates that carbon dioxide emissions may as well be reduced by 130.5 to 525.5 mt by the year 2025. This includes a 5% reduction in the manufacturing emission intensity for all the 3D modelling. Another aspect in line with the concept of sustainability is that getting enabled manufacturing on-demand which ultimately reduces the need to conserve parts over a range of years thereby removing the energy which is required by the same.in which way, the concept of 3D modelling in its various opportunities for the reduction of waste and the simplification of the surprise name in creating an opportunity for a more sustainable manufacturing-related future.
Figure 5: Impact on Sustainability of Manufacturing Firms
Source: Hewlett Packard ATKearny (2017)
4.1.4.4 Technology Advancement
The concept of 3D modelling has allowed room for new designs of products due to the rebel of design constraints which word is a characteristic of the conventional manufacturing process. Different countries have benefited from this particular advantage of 3D design and modelling over conventional manufacturing techniques. For example. In the United States, Airbus, for instance, has parts of Jetliner and the A320 manufactured using 3D design and modelling techniques. The strength to weight ratio of the Jetliner is very high which allows the utilisation of 90% less raw material and a 55% reduction in weight.
At the same time, in Spain, a company named Xkelet commenced custom manufacturing of medical casts in the year 2014. Custom printed casts are manufactured by the company with a lesser amount of raw material. 3D design and modelling are used to monitor the patient eating process. Recently, this company has commenced the manufacturing of clothing items including dresses and suit jackets using 3D printers.
5.0 Conclusion and Recommendations
5.1 Summary of The Study
The potential of 3D design and modelling practices has gained quite some popularity in the contemporary research literature. It has been argued in the research literature that 3D design and modelling may transform into an industrial revolution in the upcoming years. In this connection, although the advantages of 3D design and modelling over the conventional manufacturing techniques specifically concerning the manufacturing industry of the world has been widely acknowledged and discussed in great detail in the contemporary research literature, it is quite evident that not much has been specifically discussed related to how the various countries of the world are currently benefiting from the potential of 3D design and modelling practices in the contemporary world. In this connection, this research has been designed using a qualitative aspect so that the potential of 3D design and modelling in the contemporary manufacturing industry may as well be discussed with a special focus on how various countries of the world are currently benefiting from the same. The study has a qualitative research design and using the data analysis method of content analysis, it has aimed to meet the research objectives: to study the concept of 3D design and modelling, to analyse how the business process model of industries has evolved with the help of 3D design and modelling, to analyse the potential of 3D design and modelling for the manufacturing industry in particular, and to draw recommendations for the manufacturing industry regarding the integration of the same with 3D design and modelling. Sixteen literary pieces of text (n = 16) have been systematically reviewed after the imposition of inclusion/exclusion criteria. The result of the data analysis is that are there are many different aspects of the potential of 3D design and modelling practices over conventional manufacturing techniques all over the world. These aspects include the economic impact, and the impact in the domain of sustainability, technology advancement and jobs in the manufacturing industry. Towards the end of the study, recommendations have been presented to the manufacturing industry to benefit from the potential of 3D design and manufacturing.
5.2 Recommendations for The Manufacturing Industry
The following recommendations may be noted by the companies operating in the manufacturing industry if they intend to successfully integrate their business processes with the 3D design and modelling concept instead of the conventional manufacturing techniques.
5.2.1 Building 3D Design and Modelling Capacity
As discussed in the content analysis which has been pursued in this text, manufacturing firms across the globe need to build 3D design and modelling capacity. Building capacity means that if businesses intend to integrate their operational processes in the industry with 3D design and modelling processes, the infrastructure of the business needs to be developed. In this connection, the recommendation for the businesses is that they need to realise how 3D design and modelling practices impact the supply and demand equilibrium of their market and how close to the customer they can potentially take the manufacturing process (Wu, Wang & Wang, 2016). At the same time, the planning involved in this case must also consider how businesses in the manufacturing industry can enhance their profitability and make it sustainable in the long-term strategic time frame.
5.2.2 Embracing Change in The Canvas of Employment
The second recommendation for the manufacturing industry is to embrace change in the employment canvas. In the manufacturing industry, the operations roles are expected to rise in concentration as compared to the total manufacturing jobs (Rayna & Striukova, 2016). In this way, the operations roles will increase to around 60% of the total jobs in the manufacturing sector. This is due to the need of the manufacturing industry to customise products which requires an exceptional amount of operational-level support. Hence, the companies across the world must realise their requirements for successfully integrating their business process with 3D design and modelling practices and adjust their human resource management practices accordingly.
5.2.3 Sustainability Perspective
If businesses operating in the manufacturing industry intend to successfully integrate 3D modelling practices, they must understand that from an inventory perspective, lesser material waste will be recorded due to the reason that there will be a reduction in the logistics. The two important characteristics which must be noted by businesses are a local manufacturing process and a faster production rate for customised products. Due to these two characteristics of the future business processes involving 3D modelling, there will be an ultimate production in the lead times which will potentially allow manufacturing firms to transition to a 1:1 supply to demand ratio (Schniederjans, 2017), which must be equally leveraged by manufacturing businesses across the globe.
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