Technology roadmapping for the production in high-wage countries

Abstract

Manufacturing companies from high-wage countries must focus on future markets and products to remain competitive and to ensure long-term success. In a dynamic, global environment it is necessary to further improve the underlying production technologies and methodologies to achieve sustainable competitive advantages. Thus, a technology roadmap for advanced production technologies and approaches has been developed. The roadmap provides an overview of relevant technologies and their technological readiness. It points out challenges which manufacturing companies in high-wage countries have to face. Moreover, the applied roadmapping process is used to align the research activities within the Cluster of Excellence "Integrative Production Technology for High-Wage Countries" to the relevant topics concerning the cluster's four main research areas, namely the individualized, virtual, hybrid and self-optimizing production. This paper describes the roadmapping process as well as i ts main results. Regarding each of the four research fields, a technology radar including exemplary technologies evaluated e.g., by their state of development is presented. Furthermore, relevant challenges, future trends and scientific tasks are discussed as main drivers influencing the cluster's research activities

Economic implications of 3D printing: Market structure models in light of additive manufacturing revisited

“…High transportation costs for the delivery of end products that exceed transportation costs for raw materials as well as penalties for late delivery can also shift the manufacturing location toward the point of use (Kleer and Piller, 2013). As a result, cost advantages of producing in low-wage countries might diminish in the long run (Petrovic et al, 2010;Schuh et al, 2011). In addition, new services facilitate access to local AM manufacturing capacities, which lowers barriers to market entry.…”

Strategic Screening of Manufacturing Technologies

“…. These provide a structured means for both giving an overview of relevant technologies [40] and for exploring and communicating their relationship to products and markets over time [37]. These approaches can also be extended by generating and evaluating technology chains, defined as the combination of technologies in order to manufacture more complex products.…”

Directing the technology intelligence activity: An ‘information needs’ template for initiating the search

“…It takes the form of a radar screen and reports the technologies against development phases, or maturity levels, across a number of technological fields. The technology radar has been applied in a number of documented cases (Golovatchev et al, 2010;Schuh et al, 2011;Veugelers et al, 2010). Additionally, there are other variants of the concept such as the 'opportunity landscape' (Savioz and Blum, 2002).…”