Pricing For Supply Chains Based On 3D Printing Platforms

Three-dimensional printing(3DP),also known as additive manufacturing,has been around for decades and has become more widespread lately due to recent advances in the associated technologies.In particular,3DP can deal with special manufacturing requirements arising from intricate designs and provides production flexibility,especially for the aerospace,railway,automobile,power plant industries etc.It also enables the transition from traditional to information-driven personalized manufacturing,transcending to Industry 4.0.The rapid development of 3DP has transformed the conventional manufacturing process and thereby operational decision making,as many industries have undergone major changes after adopting 3DP for volume production.With the continuous development of 3DP technology,the consumers demand for customized 3D printing products in small batches has gradually increased,and the 3DP platforms have also emerged.This new business model combines emerging businesses such as sharing economy,platform economy,and circular economy.At the same time,its emergence has triggered a series of new management and operation models that are closely connected to the material suppliers,hardware suppliers,and consumers behavior,which will also become new research hotspots.At present,more and more scholars have focused on the research of 3DP technology itself.However,the research on the operation decision of the 3DP supply chain is still in its infancy.Under the background that the key technologies,equipment,and materials applied in 3DP have been dominated by foreign countries,this article aims to explore 3DP platform,the central link of the supply chain of 3DP,from the perspective of management and decision-making theory.Driven by 3DP technology,the optimal pricing decision and its impact of the supply chain of 3DP platform can provide guidance for management and decision-making for manufacturing industry in China.Compared to equipment and technology innovating,management and decision-making studies can help 3DP industry to maximize the efficiency of adopting new technologies with more efficiency,thereby improving the overall performance of company and supply chain.Moreover,the improvement on management may drive the development of the supply side(innovation and manufacturing of 3DP equipment and technology).The pricing strategies for 3DP platforms,as an important part of 3DP supply chain,are quite complicated,since different kinds of products/services could be provided on the same platform at the same time.This study focuses on the management decisions of the pricing of 3DP platforms,and also involves in the management decisions of the relevant players of the supply chain located.The relevant methods used and conclusions derived have significance for 3DP industry,sharing economy,platform economy,and circular economy.Therefore,it is a comprehensive research of multidisciplinary and multiindustry.This study first studies the “optimal pricing decisions for 3DP supply chain considering personalized customization” from the perspective of 3DP's technical characteristics;then study the “optimal pricing and matching decisions for 3DP supply chain based on capability sharing” from the perspective of 3DP's marketing characteristics;finally,from the perspective of the sustainable characteristics of 3DP,this study explores “optimal pricing and matching decisions for circular 3DP supply chain”.The specific content,methods used and results of this article are as follows:(1)This study explores the optimal pricing strategy for a 3DP supply chain composed of 3DP platforms,designers,and consumers,taking product differentiation into account,where the platform and designer seek to maximize their profits,while the customer wishes to maximize their utility gained from the product purchase according to their product preference.In the basic model,this study derives the platform's optimal prices when the platform allows the designer to add a mark-up for the standard product.This study finds that the standard product's final price increases with its own quality and decreases with the customized product's quality.When labour cost is low,the customized product's final price increases with its own quality and decreases with the standard product's quality.This study also finds that the designer's optimal mark-up for the standard product increases with the printing cost of the standard product and quality of the customized product,and decreases with the interaction cost,printing cost of the customized product,and quality of the standard product.This study then compares the platform's profit in the case of “partial pricing power”,in which the platform allows the designer to add a mark-up,with that in the case of “full pricing power”,in which the platform sets the final price of the standard product and charges a commission fee as its revenue.This study finds that if the difference in the quality between the standard and customized products is high,then the strategy of charging a commission fee at a rate of more than 25% is more profitable than the strategy of allowing the designer to add a markup to the reservation price.(2)Online sharing platforms have attracted considerable research and management attention across a number of industries,including travel,real estate,and cloud computing.They also have great potential for the 3DP industry,offering users the choice between owning or renting 3DP capacity.For matching supply and demand,capacity pricing is crucial.This study considers two fundamental problems concerning pricing:(i)What is the optimal pricing strategy for a 3DP capacity sharing platform?(ii)How does usage level affect consumers' choice between in-house printing(becoming a 3D printer owner)and outsourcing(becoming a production capacity renter)? Using approximate queuing analysis,this study derives the structural properties of the solutions to the problems.Furthermore,this study conducts numerical studies using real-life data to generate managerial insights from the analytical findings.A key finding is that the platform's price increases with the fixed cost for purchasing a 3D printer and with the customer waiting cost.In addition,it is found that capacity sharing improves the welfare of the supply chain comprising the owners and users.(3)Three-dimensional printing(3DP)or additive manufacturing is regarded as an environmentally friendly and sustainable form of manufacturing,which allows circular manufacturing as the 3D printed waste and products can be recycled for further 3DP operations.Due to the fact that the reclaimed material is commonly perceived to have poor quality compared with the virgin material,the pricing of materials and printed products are crucial for consumers to decide their printing and material selection decisions.This study considers a closed-loop competitive circular supply chain comprising(1)a 3DP platform that provides 3DP services to print products from virgin and recycled materials,(2)material suppliers that provide virgin and recycled materials(filaments)for the platform,and(3)end users who use the platform to print their products.This study derives the prices,demands,and profits of the 3DP platform and material suppliers in Stackelberg equilibrium.This study also conducts numerical studies using real-life data to generate practical insights from the analytical findings.Most interestingly,this study finds that while the platform prefers,both types of suppliers avoid,printing high-quality products from recycled material.This study has derived management insights and policy implications from the analytical and numerical findings for the closedloop competitive circular supply chain.Firstly,the platform should encourage the recycled material suppliers or other material developers to improve the quality of the recycled material by providing,e.g.,subsidies,revenue sharing,and other incentives,to gain more profit.Besides,the platform should further focus on its position and role in product design,and provide better design solutions by incentivizing designers that register on the platform to improve the quality of the recycled material made product.This study has also provided several policy insights from the perspective of the supply chain in the circular economy.In order to attain a perfect circular supply chain,the policies can be levying taxes on the outside suppliers,recycled material suppliers,and OEMs of 3D printers,encouraging R&D of the recycled filaments,and subsidizing the virgin material suppliers.This article has both theoretical and practical significance,filling the research gaps in management and decision-making in 3DP field.It is expected to be in the leading forefront of the world in the field.