The Impact of Additive Manufacturing Technologies on Industrial Spare Parts Strategies

The paper aims to investigate potential benefits and the applicability of additive manufacturing (AM) technologies for spare parts management in the automotive industry. Research results contribute to a gap in literature on strategic impact of AM technologies on the automotive after sales business. Firstly, the paper investigates the general validity of AM in the spare parts industry by utilising a working hypothesis which assumes that AM technologies will have a strategic impact on the automotive aftermarket. Secondly, interacting market partici-pants and their relation to potential applications of AM are explored. The research is exploratory in nature and employs a multi-case research approach. The analysis identified potential benefits in the automotive aftermarket to transform this business by providing individualised spare parts on demand and on location without a necessity for expensive tooling. However, the research also revealed that neither concepts are technically feasible from today’s point of view. Nevertheless, additive technologies entail advantages as outlined in this paper that will affect the automotive aftermarket in the future. The paper summarises five findings that can support research in the area

A Case Study of the development of the UK’s Additive Manufacturing National Strategy 2014-2017

The importance of the role of Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies in company, regional and national level manufacturing activities is becoming clearer as AM technologies mature and levels of adoption in a wide range of application areas increase. In response, many nations have developed national strategies (or ‘public technology strategies’) to help align public and private sector activities to address barriers to further development and adoption, and coordinate resources to address opportunities. This paper describes the process by which the UK developed its national strategy for AM. The operational details of the activities undertaken through four stages over the period 2014-2017 are explained and analysed. The aim of the paper is to share the details of how this strategy was developed – in a changing political and economic context – such that others involved in the development of similar strategies might learn from this experience

KEY DEVELOPMENTS AND EXPERIENCES FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

This paper analyses the relationships of one UK-­‐based research-­‐intensive university with a number of leading multinational firms at different points along parallel processes of organisational development. From this, we have identified approaches used and problems encountered at different stages, and drawn lessons that can support corporate and university decision makers in establishing and managing successful partnerships

Exploring the Future of Patent Analytics: A Technology Roadmapping approach

In a connected world, where successful technological development depends increasingly on collaboration between different partners, effectively utilizing patent data analytics has huge, yet unexploited potential. Given suitable analytics solutions, this high-quality data can be used for decision making on a strategic level in all kind of organizations. The paper contributes to expanding the field of patent analytics for more effective exploitation of the worldwide largest repository of technological information. We do this by developing a domain level technology roadmap following a three-stage technology roadmapping and problem-solving approach. Firstly, from desk research and expert discussions, we identified five main problem themes in the patent analytics field (patent data, database interconnectedness, data analysis, data visualisation, and patent quality). Secondly, we verified and expanded these problem themes through an online survey with 70 respondents. Thirdly, we explored the future direction of the field through a workshop, with inputs from the preparatory stages above, with 28 leading experts. The approach served to develop a technology roadmap to facilitate collaboration and coordinated action within the patent analytics community. We identify thirteen priority technologies, such as artificial intelligence and neural networks, fifteen complementary technologies, such as block chain, and five new technologies, such as technologies for linking databases, to be adopted in the field and are important in overcoming the problems. We also identify twenty-one enablers for potential breakthrough progress of the field that cluster around four themes: technology development cycles and methodologies; legislation and standardisation for patent data quality; continuous professional development; and cooperation between industry and academia. Key next actions include the generation of use cases for different users, the standardization and harmonization of patent ontologies and the implementation of reporting standards

Rapid setup and management of medical device design and manufacturing consortia: experiences from the COVID‐19 crisis in the UK

The COVID‐19 pandemic caused severe ventilator shortages in many healthcare systems worldwide. The UK government reacted to this with a three‐pronged approach of importing, up‐scaling existing production and supporting new design projects. The latter two parts – labelled the UK Ventilator Challenge – included over 50 companies from various sectors including the automotive and aerospace industries. Nine multi‐partner consortia and five single‐company projects were initiated with varying approaches. This study explores lessons learned during the setup and management of these medical device designs and manufacturing consortia. A qualitative survey methodology was employed, and 32 semi‐structured stakeholder interviews were conducted. The primary data was triangulated through the collection of 42 secondary data sources such as webinars and radio interviews. Transcription and a three‐step data analysis process of thematic coding identified six lessons learned. The analysis of the data showed that a strong, appealing common goal can enable employee motivation and trust as well as align priorities across all companies involved. This facilitates the involvement and fruitful collaboration of companies with varying sizes and fields of expertise. Furthermore, selecting the most suitable employees with specialist knowledge for high‐priority projects and empowering them to make decisions can have a positive effect on project performance. The findings from the study complement existing literature on new product development and crisis management processes. In addition, the results uncover potential long‐term effects such as more openness for cross‐sector collaborations, which can serve as interesting sources for further research

An initial framework for open service innovation adopting digital co-creation

The aim of this paper is to build an initial framework to support an enhancement of organisations’ open service innovation by adopting digital co-creation activities. In order to do so, this paper first discusses the nature of the open innovation (OI) and service innovation. Secondly, the question of how digital co-creation might be helpful for organisations in service innovation with an OI approach will be introduced. Thirdly, the paper synthesises OI and service innovation into Open Service Innovation (OSI) after which the research method and research results are presented: eight case studies of Finnish service organisations which led to an initial framework. The main findings are: (1)A systematic process is an enabler to OI and in co-creation, (2) Abarrier to OI and co-creation is traditionally-operating model/closedinnovation culture