Amalgamation of 3D printing technology and the digitalized industry – Development and evaluation of an open innovation business process model

Abstract

Innovations and trends have a significant impact on industries and the way that businesses are conducted. Therefore successful business models need to be increasingly adaptable. We develop a business process model (BPM) focusing primarily on manufacturing companies. This model not only illustrates how the 3D printing (3DP) technology could be implemented in production processes, but also how the approach of open innovation (OI) could be adopted with the purpose of increasing innovative capabilities. We first perform a literature review of the relevant fields; in the second step we develop a BPM (using BPMN 2.0), which is evaluated through expert interviews in a third step. It is demonstrated that the convergence towards highly flexible and customer-oriented production processes and the adoption of OI enhance the amalgamation of 3DP with the digitalized industry. © Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018.