Analysis of additive manufacturing in an automobile service part supply chain

Abstract

The traditional supply chain performance depends on the efficiency of mass production, the availability of productive low cost labor and the geometry and materials of the products. Additive manufacturing, on the other hand, bypasses all these constraints and reduces the number of stages in the supply chain by allowing local production of low volume parts of greater complexity. We develop an approach for assessing the total cost when additive manufacturing is integrated into the service-parts supply chain given a set of inputs that characterize the supply chain. Specifically, we present several simulation and optimization models to help companies decide the end-of-life strategy of low volume service parts. Through sensitivity analysis, we identify regions of parameters where additive manufacturing is preferred. Moreover, we find that service parts with high lost sales unit cost and low fixed and variable additive manufacturing costs are the most suitable for additive manufacturing.