Additive manufacturing holds great disruptive potentials for Austrian firms. Both, large enterprises and small and medium sized enterprises can profit from taking a closer look at layer-based production technology that provides the chance for individualized automation for the first time in history. Business models have to be reassessed with having in mind the technological possibilities for generating new customer value with novel designs and product features. Besides to interdisciplinary expertise necessary for tapping the full potential of additive manufacturing also a lack of fundamental knowledge of this production paradigm is hindering diffusion on a broader base. “Thus it would be necessary to start building awareness for this technology and its potentials already in schools”, explains IFI professor Matthias Fink, who together with IFI researchers Johannes Gartner and Daniela Maresch, conducted a study about the potential of additive manufacturing. Funded by the Chamber of Commerce Upper Austria and the Austrian Council for Research and Technology Development, the team interviewed experts, conducted focus groups and engaged in an extensive text analysis identifying core discourses in a total of 5,445 articles published in the online magazine „ 3Druck.com“ between 2011 and 2016. “What is discussed in such newsgroups is shaping present actions, which in turn coin our future”, so Fink.
Links:
Access the study: http://www.rat-fte.at/tl_files/uploads/Studien/1708_RAT_Additive%20Manufacturing_FinkGartnerMaresch_Endbericht_P1.pdf
Media coverage: https://news.wko.at/news/oberoesterreich/3D-Druck1.html
https://science.apa.at/site/politik_und_wirtschaft/detail?key=SCI_20180125_SCI45011703440296510
https://diepresse.com/home/science/5361159/3DDruck-soll-neue-Chancen-fuer-die-Industrie-eroeffnen