A three-dimensional-printing-based agile and ubiquitous additive manufacturing system

Mass producing items using three-dimensional (3D) printing is challenging. This study exploits this technology for mass production by developing an agile and ubiquitous additive manufacturing system based on 3D printing. The proposed system receives an order and then distributes the order among multiple 3D printing facilities to minimize the makespan (i.e., cycle time). A decision-making model was also constructed for distributing the order to multiple 3D printing facilities to minimize the makespan, and an algorithm was developed to solve the model. The effectiveness of the proposed methodology was evaluated through an experiment. The experimental results showed that the proposed methodology reduced the cycle time by 54 min on average. Additionally, it could also distribute orders and balance the workloads of multiple 3D printing facilities. The proposed system is an industrial Internet of things based technology that coordinates multiple distributed 3D printing facilities via the Internet. Its application to the mass production of 3D-printed items is efficient and economical.