Barrier analysis approach in metal additive manufacturing implementation with environment consideration

Abstract

Notwithstanding the developments in additive manufacturing technology have been set to overcome human limitations and improve efficiency in manual restoration activities, their widespread implementation as a disruptive production technology has brought various impacts on the environment, and the environmental assessment is limited in this regard. The Malaysian automotive industry has not seen widespread adoption of Life Cycle Assessment for additive manufacturing implementation. Based on the current literature review, there is a gap as the barriers for implementing Life Cycle Assessment in additive manufacturing technology within the Malaysian automotive manufacturing industry are not critically discussed. There is a need for developing appropriate approaches to weight and determine the interrelationships between these obstacles and the most prevalent ones in order to devise mitigation strategies for them. The purposes of this study are to identify various barriers of implementing Life Cycle Assessment in metal additive manufacturing within Malaysian automotive manufacturing industry and, secondly, to develop an approach to prioritize the barriers and recognize the most critical barriers. In this regard, the extant literature has critically reviewed the barriers of implementing Life Cycle Assessment in metal additive manufacturing within Malaysian automotive manufacturing industry. Fuzzy preference programming, as one of the newest and most accurate fuzzy modifications of the Analytical Hierarchy Process, was used to achieve the research purposes. Suitable Triangular Fuzzy Number has been defined and the selected data collection method was expert opinion. A total of eight industry experts from one company were involved in this research study to give their opinion on the Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process pairwise comparison table. The expert opinions indicated that the main concern of industry is financial-related topic. The data collected have been analyzed using Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process calculations and confirmed by the consistency check. Following the results, dominant barriers were accordingly identified and ranked in each category as well as overall. According to the results from expert opinions, the highest-ranking barrier is lack of financial resources, followed by lack of Life Cycle Assessment expertise in the additive manufacturing context, and the third rank is the lack of laws and directives for Life Cycle Assessment application in additive manufacturing. The findings may be useful to managers to develop suitable mitigation strategies and make more informed decisions with individual focus, level focus, or cluster focus. It may also contribute to the additive manufacturing literature by the weighted presentation of the barriers to implementing Life Cycle Assessment in additive manufacturing within the Malaysian automotive manufacturing industry. This study will contribute to a framework of roadmaps and strategies for sound and environmentally friendly additive manufacturing implementation in Malaysian automotive industry.