A Quantitative Study of the Impact of Additive Manufacturing in the Aircraft Spare Parts Supply Chain

Additive manufacturing is a promising manufacturing technology which is finding its way into mainstream manufacturing industry. As compared to conventional manufacturing it has a number of advantages in terms of better energy efficiency, cutback in emissions, better design handling and lower manufacturing lead time. This work focuses on these aspects of additive manufacturing by evaluating its impact on the aircraft spare parts supply chain. An aircraft supply chain is very critical because even a small shortage of spare part leads to heavy financial losses. This makes it mandatory for the aircraft companies and operators to keep large stock of all the spare parts throughout the year and thus invest a lot of money in the inventory. The peculiarity of the aircraft spare parts is that they require several months for manufacturing using conventional manufacturing processes like casting, drilling, electrical discharge machining and welding. Conversely the manufacturing lead time of additive manufacturing is small as compared to these conventional processes and hence this work tries to advocate this feature of additive manufacturing to demonstrate how the total inventory of spare parts held in an aircraft spare parts supply chain can be significantly reduced using additive manufacturing.

Name thesis:degree_name

MS

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Engineering and Applied Science: Mechanical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Cincinnati

Year dc:date

2012

Author dc:creator

• Mokasdar, Abhiram S., M.S.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Huang, Hongdao

• Mechanics
• Additive Manufacturing
• Supply Chain
• Safety Inventory
• Inventory Holding Cost
• Lead Time

Statement dc:rights

• unrestricted
• This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1352484289

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:etd.ohiolink.edu:ucin1352484289