Recent advances in small-scale local production technologies and materials sciences, combined with the power of digital design and analysis methods, have generated new opportunities for product innovators to experiment with rapid prototyping and commercialisation of highly customised products that serve existing markets or create new niches. These developments involve modest investments in local production equipment and infrastructure with low ‘break even’ points and engineer-to-order/make-to-order production runs. This represents a transformation of manufacturing and will challenge traditional operations management thinking in fundamental ways. A number of concepts help to represent this emerging phenomenon, which includes (but are not limited to) ‘factory-in-abox’, ‘micro-factory’, ‘digital manufacturing/fabrication’ and ‘makerspace’ forms of production. At the heart of this manufacturing revolution are innovations in production technology such as additive manufacturing, bioprinting and portable continuous manufacturing units (chemical/pharma applications). These approaches are characterised by similar fundamental principles and characteristics in terms of a physical supply chain shift away from large-scale centralised manufacture towards small-scale decentralised manufacture and geographically unconstrained supply chains. The ability to relocate production nearer to consumers offers a more iterative design engagement process with end-users/beneficiaries for more precise, responsive outputs that exactly meet personalised consumer requirements, in contrast to the conventional mass manufacturing ‘push’ of products and minimal customisation. This phenomenon has been recently characterised by the term ‘Redistributed Manufacturing’ (RDM), which can be considered an emerging, disruptive innovation in many sectors, offering new possibilities for a wide-ranging ecosystem of organisations, including: (I) Original Equipment Manufacturers of RDMenabling production technologies that offer new opportunities for small-scale (distributed diverse customer base) production and extended variety/scope (product-service systems, unique geometric shapes or unique specialised combinations of materials); (II) users of RDM equipment to create new products, services and business models – both new SME innovators and incumbents; (III) inputs/raw materials suppliers; and (IV) suppliers of complementary technologies (hard and soft) covering the design, modelling and performance simulation of objects to be produced. RDM must be considered in the context of wider converging trends. These include technological developments, such as ‘Industry 4.0’ and the digitalisation of the end-to-end manufacturing supply chain, which will allow data to hone production, distribution and other processes to reduce inefficiencies and simultaneously customise products/artefacts to the particular circumstances of their use. Such a combination could be argued as a continuation of the ‘mass customisation’ and ‘servitisation’ discourses and trends of recent years that have enabled the realisation of business model innovations. In addition, there is an increasing political enthusiasm for local production and supply chain resilience through the exploitation of high value-added production models especially for mature economies, where globalisation offers little attraction. Furthermore, changing social attitudes towards environmental concerns are driving manufacturers to reduce use of resources and the negative environmental impact of production activities. The World Economic Forum’s Meta-Council on Emerging Technologies highlighted distributed manufacturing as one of 10 emerging technologies for 2015. This trend is exemplified by an initiative emerging from the UK’s 2017 Life Sciences Industrial Strategy and the output from the Advanced Therapies Taskforce which has attracted an investment of £30m in three new Advanced Therapy Treatment Centres, funded by UK Research and Innovation and coordinated by the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult. Another related development includes a more recent £10m Series A investment in a bioprinting spin-out company from Oxford University which ultimately aims to produce tissue for organ repair or replacement. Whilst these technologies are still transitioning towards laboratory prototypes, RDM products of this nature have the potential to revolutionise our way of life. This special issue is concerned with exploring key issues affecting the adoption and implementation of RDM, in the context of related business and digital transformations. A number of fundamental questions and themes are explored through our collection of papers from leading authors in production, operations and systems. These include: Does RDM represent a paradigm shift in manufacturing policy, strategy and operations? Will incumbents or new entrants be the primary adopters? To what extent will RDM disrupt existing operations? What is the readiness for RDM acceptance and adoption in terms of investment in new skills and infrastructure and integration with other complementary technologies? What will the impact be on regions and communities, and could it be used as a mechanism for industrial regeneration? Finally, in terms of benefits, do the economics of RDM offer a compelling value proposition? We argue that further research in this area is muchneeded. In this edition, the following eight papers provide valuable contributions exploring key issues affecting the implementation of RDM:
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Kapletia et al. (2019) studied this question.