Hierarchical analysis of barriers in additive manufacturing implementation with environmental considerations under uncertainty

Notwithstanding additive manufacturing has been gaining momentum in the industry, particularly during the fourth industrial revolution, their widespread implementation as a disruptive production technology has brought impacts on the environment. Considering this issue, the research for this paper was built upon the discussion concerning life cycle assessment (LCA) adoption in implementing additive manufacturing (AM). The capability of LCA to achieve environmental goals is a vivid illustration of why it has given researchers and practitioners an extensive impetus. However, to actualize such an effective approach, it is necessary to identify and face the barriers impeding its implementation in AM. Thus, this research aims to identify, classify, and analyze the most critical barriers hindering LCA adoption in AM implementation. To do so, the fuzzy analytical hierarchy process, along with a comprehensive literature review and thorough interviews with the relevant experts, was used to achieve the research purposes. The results revealed twenty-two barriers within five classifications, where the lack of financial resources to conduct LCA study on AM is the most dominant barrier, followed by the lack of LCA expertise in the AM context and the lack of laws and directives for LCA application in AM, respectively. The findings would be useful to decision-makers to develop suitable mitigation strategies and make more informed decisions with individual and/or cluster concentrations. This study can be fruitfully exploited as a guiding reference since no article has hitherto discussed, identified, or analyzed barriers in the understudied area.