3D printing, people and planet

Associate Professor Shruti Sardeshmukh is interested in additive manufacturing’s sustainability and inclusive growth benefits. She shares the importance of a broader, systemic view of its impact.

As a new-ish set of technologies, additive manufacturing (AM) is often spoken of in technical terms.

But for Associate Professor Shruti Sardeshmukh, the technology’s future depends just as much on people, systems and collaboration as it does on engineering.

As Research Lead of AMCRC’s Sustainable Manufacturing Research Program and an Associate Professor at the University of Adelaide’s School of Management, Sardeshmukh approaches AM from a different perspective.

“I come at it not just from the technical side, but also from the ecosystemic side.

In a sense that you may have a technology, but if you want to have widespread adoption of that technology, you need to create other systems and structures that can enable the spread of that technology.”

Those systems extend well beyond the factory floor.

“So what are those systems? Those systems are human factors. Those systems are your digital ecosystems. But also industry upliftment, in a sense that industry transformation needs to be done so that companies can adopt it. And finally, of course, sustainability standards.”

High value, high capability

Australia’s manufacturing sector presents a unique environment for AM adoption. It is dominated by SMEs and spread across vast geographic distances, often lacking the scale of major manufacturing nations.

Yet Sardeshmukh believes those apparent constraints may also represent opportunities.

Australia may not have the manufacturing volume of larger economies, but it possesses “world-class AM capability that can be deployed”, she said.

The country’s strength in specialised, high-value manufacturing has long been cited as a natural fit for AM. Rather than competing on large production runs and economies of scale, Australian manufacturers often compete through expertise, innovation and niche capabilities.

According to Sardeshmukh, AM can further strengthen those advantages.

“AM is a technology that is particularly suited and it has a lot of other benefits as well to Australia, including [contributing to] sovereign capability,” she explained.

A winding path to manufacturing research

Sardeshmukh’s own journey to AM has been anything but conventional.

After completing an MBA in India, she moved to the United States during the height of the technology boom, only to witness the subsequent dot-com crash firsthand

“I’m a survivor of that,” she added.

The experience sparked an interest in what helps businesses adapt and thrive amid disruption. When the start-up she worked for closed, Sardeshmukh turned her attention to what made small businesses succeed or fail.

That interest led her to pursue a PhD at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, focusing on small and family-owned businesses. She later joined the University of South Australia in 2009, before becoming part of Adelaide University following the institutions’ merger earlier this year.

While her path into AM was indirect, a common theme has remained throughout her research career: understanding how organisations, industries and institutions interact with the contextual or ecosystemic factors, both being  shaped by them but also shaping the context in the long run.

“Things lie outside the purview of one company, but that actually requires interaction between different companies, different institutions, and different layers of institutions,” she said.

As importantly, these interactions have the potential to shape the ecosystem through development of strategic capabilities.

Mapping Australia’s AM ecosystem

That ecosystem perspective is shaping much of the work underway within AMCRC’s Sustainable Manufacturing Research Program.

One current project is a national capability mapping exercise that aims to better understand Australia’s AM landscape. An initial report is expected to be released in October.

While the work is still ongoing, Sardeshmukh said early findings point to significant strengths across the sector.

“There are pockets of excellence” throughout Australia’s AM industry, she said.

At the same time, the mapping effort has highlighted opportunities to strengthen connections between organisations.

One challenge is the apparent “lack of interconnections between them”, with greater collaboration potentially helping to accelerate capability development and technology adoption.

The research has also identified gaps within the broader ecosystem, including limited polymer and metal powder recycling capabilities, an area that may become increasingly important as the industry grows.

Beyond productivity

The Sustainable Manufacturing Research Program shares many similarities with the Industry 5.0 model emerging from Europe.

Where previous industrial revolutions focused heavily on productivity and digital transformation, Industry 5.0 places greater emphasis on human-centred innovation, sustainability and resilience.

For Sardeshmukh, that broader perspective is essential. The program is examining the full lifecycle impacts of AM, including material efficiency, energy consumption and environmental performance compared with conventional manufacturing processes. It is also investigating how advanced manufacturing technologies can support workforce development and foster stronger communities of practice across industry.

Ultimately, the goal is not simply to understand whether AM can make products more efficiently, but how it can create value for society more broadly.

Manufacturing where it’s needed, when it’s needed and how it’s needed

One area where Sardeshmukh sees significant potential is in creating more localised supply chains, particularly in remote and regional industries.

The Mining industry is one example.

“Imagine if we can create supply chains that can cut out a lot of transportation. It can contribute value and create locals hubs of opportunities. It presents new avenues for workforce development.

“That might be another way of developing manufacturing here in Australia, creating jobs here.”

AM technology allows us to produce parts at speed, when they are needed, from rapid prototyping to parts for sustainment,  and cuts out the long waiting times associated with traditional manufacturing technologies.

The other area of potential is moving away from mass production to scalable customisation. Medical devices industry is an excellent context where we can see it unfold.

For Sardeshmukh, those possibilities capture the true promise of AM. While the technology itself continues to evolve, its greatest impact may ultimately come from how it strengthens industries, supports communities and contributes to a more sustainable manufacturing future for Australia.