Infrastructure Sharing Model as a Support for Sustainable Manufacturing

Sharing Economy allows using cheaper and simpler methods of alternative resource usage for sustainable manufacturing. One of elements of Sharing Economy is Infrastructure Sharing. Its idea is based on the fact that there is a lot of production and research infrastructure, but due to the changes in terms of manufacturing companies’ and in research institutions’ needs these resources are used only in specific situations and vast number of infrastructure is not fully exploited. A review of the literature and trends observed on the European market shows that the phenomenon of Infrastructure Sharing requires a deeper reflection on this topic. The aim of the paper is to present a new model of Infrastructure Sharing dedicated to support sustainability of advanced manufacturing. The Infrastructure Sharing model formulated within International Synergic Crowd Innovation Platform has been developed to hinder the gap with identified problems with low infrastructure’s utilization. The paper presents the functionality of sharing unused capacities of production and research machines and equipment. Also, the implementation of the Infrastructure Sharing model within a dedicated pilot action is discussed. Stakeholders can use the new business model to increase infrastructure utilization rate and to help make the right investment decision in technology. Infrastructure Sharing offers the possibility to test infrastructure/technologies and gives the possibility to better utilize and commercialize technologies.