Quantifying the Economic Feasibility of Additive Manufacturing: Simulating Production Lifetimes in the Context of Spare Parts Production

In the literature there is a lot of talk about the economics of additive manufacturing—typically the terminology used is imprecise at best, and attempts to quantify the benefits from additive manufacturing are most often based on single case studies. This chapter sets out to create a more general picture of the overall economics and feasibility of using additive manufacturing by using a simulation model. The simulation optimizes the cost of production and the end result is information on how often and where in the production lifetime additive manufacturing is the cost optimizing choice. This information is compared to literature-based production strategies envisioned for additive manufacturing. The context of this model and the chapter is that of spare parts production, however, the results resonate beyond this context. The results presented are illustrative and widen the understanding of where during the production-cycle additive manufacturing is economically feasible.