ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING : Cost and Lead Time Estimation, Benefits and Challenges

Abstract: Additive manufacturing (AM) is one of the most widely explored technology in the field of manufacturing in recent years. With a rapid development in its process elements such as process speed, dimensional accuracy, surface finish and repeatability, additive manufacturing continues to expand from being a prototyping technology to substituting the conventional manufacturing processes.   Like many organizations, which are trying to investigate the economic benefits of adopting AM, Scania wants to study the costs of adopting AM to manufacture parts for its special products division. This study involves costs and lead time estimation, benefits and challenges of adopting AM to manufacture the given case study parts from Scania. The most suitable AM technology to manufacture these case studies is chosen by studying various AM technologies available in the market. The chosen AM technology is Electron Beam Melting (EBM). Simulations are done to estimate the build time of manufacturing these parts using EBM platform. It is also used to estimate the production costs using a suitable cost model and parts lead time. The results are compared to those of traditional manufacturing process. Further to this, benefits and challenges of adopting AM in the context of low volume production and supply chain challenges are also studied.   In the cost comparison exercise, it was found that with the current state of technology, cost of manufacturing through AM is roughly four times that of traditional manufacturing processes. However, the lead times corresponding to AM is just a fraction of those corresponding to traditional manufacturing supply chain. It can be concluded that it would not be economical to manufacture the case study parts through AM. However, from further research it was realised that it is important to take advantage of the capabilities of AM to be able to attain an economic advantage over traditional processes from the perspective of their supply chain complexity. One such option is to use Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) to optimise the design of the case study parts to incorporate AM’s part consolidation capabilities thus simplifying the supply chains and shortening the lead time significantly. This study is a good starting point for Scania to explore AM as an alternative manufacturing process. Further study in terms of DfAM can provide a conclusive result on the adoption of AM.