On the benifits of Additive

Manufacturing for spare parts supply:

Which parts to print?Progress report on Work Package 2 by Bram Westerweel

Status update & Agenda

• Work package status

• Research proposal is approved

• Coursework is finished

• Current research topic

• Model background

• Implementation

• Results

• Looking ahead

Evaluating the potential of AM for spare parts supply

• We have the option to replace the regularly produced spare part by an

AM version, which we still have to develop. Our research question is:

“Under what conditions does the AM part outperform the regular spare part in

terms of total lifecycle costs?

• Basic assumptions:

• Installed base of capital goods

• Single item, single stockpoint

• AM has a shorter production leadtime than regular method

Evaluating the potential of AM for spare parts supply

• Our model is based on evaluating total lifecycle costs (LCC) for the

regular and the AM part.

• We establish when both component types break even.

Balancing total lifecycle costs

Regular AM

AM

Regular

Total lifecycle costs

Production Inventory Downtime

Design Investment

Performance Benefits

Parameters:Leadtime

Component reliabilityComponent price

Results: evaluating break-even mean time between

failure (reliability)

Results: evaluating break-even mean time between

failure (reliability)

• What happens when we vary parameters, such as installed base size?

Results: evaluating break-even component costs

Looking ahead

• A working paper will be finished this summer. This will contain:

• Properties of the break-even characteristics (when AM outperforms regular)

• A numerical experiment

• A set of case studies (JLG, potentially Fokker)

• In september, we start working on a second topic.