Assessment of the Potential Economic Impact of the Use of AM Technologies in the Cost Levels of Manufacturing and Stocking of Spare Part Products

• Published in: Materials 2018-08, Vol.11 (8), p.1429
• Main Authors: Minguella-Canela, Joaquim, Morales Planas, Sergio, Gomà Ayats, Joan Ramon, de Los Santos López, M Antonia
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Additive manufacturing; Anàlisi de processos de negoci i de fabricació; Aspectes econòmics; Cost; Costos de producció; Costs, Industrial; Design; Direcció d'operacions; Economia i organització d'empreses; Economia industrial; Engineering economy; Enginyeria de producció; Enginyeria mecànica; Fabricació; Free-form filament fabrication (FFF); Manufacturing processes; Production engineering; Spare parts; Stock; Topological optimization; Àrees temàtiques de la UPC
• ISSN: 1996-1944; 1996-1944
• DOI: 10.3390/ma11081429

Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies are appropriate manufacturing technologies to produce low rotation products of high added value. Products in the spare parts business usually have discontinuous demand levels of reduced numbers of parts. Indeed, spare parts inventories handle myriad of products that require big immobilized investments while having an intrinsic risk of no-use (for example due to obsolescence or spoilage). Based on these issues, the present work analyses the fundamental cost factors in a real case study of a company dedicated to the supply of spare parts for fluid conduction systems. Real inventory data is assessed to determine the product taxonomy and its associated costs. A representative product of the stock is analyzed in detail on original manufacturing costs, in AM costs and then redesigned with topological optimization to reduce the AM cost levels (via design for additive manufacturing). A general equation for cost assessment is formulated. Given the specific data collected from the company, the parameters in this general equation are calculated. Finally, the general equation and the product cost reduction achieved are used to explore the potential economic impact of the use of AM technologies in the cost levels of manufacturing and stocking of spare part products.