I work on the strategic, economic, and organizational questions shaping additive manufacturing — where value is created, how scale is achieved, and what winning looks like in practice.
Additive Manufacturing has reached a point where technical capability is no longer the primary constraint. Across industries, the harder problems are strategic: where AM creates durable advantage, how it integrates with conventional manufacturing, and which operating models enable scale beyond pilots.
I focus on the questions at the intersection of manufacturing, economics, and organizations. I see AM as an emerging industry system — shaped by cost structures, value chains, standards, ecosystems, and managerial decision-making.
AM is an industry system — not a collection of technologies
The core question in AM is not technical capability, but where value is created, captured, and competed away across the value chain — from materials and machines to software, services, integration, and end-use applications.
Scaling requires tracing how value shifts across these layers as volumes grow and use cases mature.
As AM scales, firms are pulled into broader ecosystems—suppliers, customers, platforms, standards bodies, and institutions. What works at small scale increasingly requires coordination, alignment, and negotiation across the ecosystem.
Scaling therefore means navigating dependencies, power asymmetries, and shared constraints—not just head-to-head rivalry.
As the AM ecosystem takes shape, firms still operate within the economic realities of existing industries—cost structures, competitive dynamics, and regulatory constraints.
The strategic challenge becomes how to work within those realities while shaping new roles, partnerships, and value creation as the AM ecosystem matures.
20 years' strategy work across government, global manufacturing (Siemens Energy, GE), academia (UNC Chapel Hill), and independent strategy advising.
I focus on how value is created, captured, and sustained as additive manufacturing moves from pilots to industrial reality.
I work independently and collaborate with firms, institutions, and senior leaders on high-stakes strategic decisions.
If you’re thinking through strategic questions around AM, I’m open to a conversation.
You can reach me directly at:
ling@additivemanufacturingstrategy.com
Or connect on LinkedIn:
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