The Rise of 3D Printing: Its Human Capability Impacts and the Nature of Emerging Interdependencies Along the Global Supply Chain

It is becoming clear that 3D Printing, or'additive manufacturing ', is an emerging technology that will reshape, redefine and possibly disrupt, the traditional supply chain model.As the value propositions inherent in additive manufacturing become more viable and available, traditional supply chain understandings will be seriously challenged and most probably transformed into more localised and introspective systems.However, given that no system can be entirely isolated from the environment in which it operates, this paper looks closely at the special human capability impacts and the resultant changing interdependencies that might reveal themselves within the additive manufacturing areas as the constraints and shared knowledges of traditional supply chains are made increasingly redundant.