Adoption of Additive Manufacturing in the Food Industry : Exploring marketing, sales, and after-sales strategies for the adoption of Additive Manufacturing in the food industry.

Sammanfattning: Additive Manufacturing (AM) is a technology that enables to print three dimensional solid objects which can be metal, plastic, and similar. AM has a lot of advantages such as lead time reduction and reduction in the number of steps required for manufacturing compared to the traditional manufacturing (TM) method.    This research is focused on adoption of AM in the food manufacturing industry. The use of AM in the food industry currently seems to be low. Therefore, the main aim of the research is to understand adoption of AM through marketing, sales, and after-sales strategies, which can be best suited for introduction and saturation of AM products and applications in the food industry.  The primary data is gathered from the potential customers (experts from the food industry), sales personnel who sell products and machinery in the food industry and the employees of the sponsor company, and it consists of thirteen different interviews. Qualitative interviews were conducted to obtain an in-depth knowledge about the perceptions and perspectives of AM in the food industry. AM has the potential to be adopted as the main manufacturing method for spare parts in the food industry. But, considering the market today, the potential of adoption seems to be wasted. Three different analyses help in determining the current situation of the AM industry and help to understand the potential that AM brings to the food industry. Outcomes of the qualitative interviews present the researchers with in-depth knowledge of facilitators and barriers that AM companies may face when approaching customers from the food industry. Outcomes of the qualitative interviews also suggest that there is limited knowledge about AM in the food industry. There is also a knowledge gap about the regulations and possibilities to use AM in the food industry based on these regulations. Indeed, food manufacturers are interested in the adoption of newer technologies and present the researchers with the formation of various themes to develop strategies for adoption of AM, through a recommendable marketing, sales and aftersales strategy that can be employed by AM companies.