Selecting spare parts suitable for additive manufacturing: a design science approach

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM) help in delivering spare parts within short lead times and thus avoid maintaining huge inventories. Companies exploring opportunities to produce spare parts using AM face challenges in identifying suitable spare parts. Moreover, a single method may not be applicable for all companies. An idiosyncratic approach needs to be adopted by considering the characteristics of parts in the portfolio. This study follows a design science approach to address an evident research gap by developing a process to identify spare parts suitable for AM. The case data were analysed using multi-criteria decision-making and cluster analysis techniques. The research contributes by developing and demonstrating a methodology to identify spare parts suitable for AM from a portfolio of a large number of spare parts, where adequate discrimination was not obtained by ranking all parts together. The study develops generic guidelines for spare parts selection for AM and outline the generalizability of the proposed methodology beyond the domain of part selection for AM.

Keywords:

• Additive manufacturing
• spare parts selection
• multi-criteria decision-making
• cluster analysis
• design science

Acknowledgment

We would like to acknowledge Dr. Peder Veng Søberg from University of Southern Denmark for his helpful suggestion during the early stage of this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Atanu Chaudhuri

Dr. Atanu Chaudhuri is an Associate Professor of Technology and Operations Management at Durham University Business School, UK and Associate Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management at Aalborg University, Denmark. His primary research interests are in applications of digital technologies in supply chains, supply chain risk management and resilience. He is the Digital Supply Chain Working Group Leader at Mobility Goes Additive and Senior Associate Editor at International Journal of Logistics Management. His papers have been published in leading journals such as International Journal of Operations and Production Management, International Journal of Production Research, Transportation Research: Part E, etc.

Hasse Andreas Gerlich

Hasse Andreas Gerlich is employed at Accenture Denmark; working with implementation of supply chain related technology. Hasse holds a MSc in Engineering from Aalborg University.

Jayanth Jayaram

Prof. Jayanth Jayaram is Professor of Management Science and Moore Research Fellow at the University of South Carolina. His research interests are in additive manufacturing, sustainability, and supply chain management. He has published in journals such as JOM, POMJ, JIBS, and DSJ (to name a few). He currently serves on the editorial review boards of several journals including Journal of Operations Management as DE, Production and Operations Management as ERB member, and AE for Journal of Business Logistics, Journal of Supply Chain Management, IJOPM, IJPR and IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management.

Abhijeet Ghadge

Dr Abhijeet Ghadge is a Senior Lecturer in Logistics and Supply Chain Management at Cranfield School of Management, UK. He holds PhD in Operations and Supply Chain Management from Loughborough University, UK, and MTech in Industrial Engineering and Management from Indian Institute of Technology, India. He has over 13 years of industrial, academic and consulting experience working with a wide range of UK, European and Asian organisations. Dr Ghadge has published several peer-reviewed articles in operations, logistics and supply chain focussed journals. He follows practice-driven approach to problems across the broad domains of supply chain risk, sustainability and Industry 4.0.

Johan Shack

Johan Schack is employed at Louis Poulsen as a Sourcing Manager. His experience is focussed in supply chain optimisation of furniture companies. Johan holds a MSc in Engineering from Aalborg University.

Benjamin Hvidberg Brix

Benjamin Hvidberg Brix is a Management Consultant at Implement Consulting Group. His work focuses on supply chain planning. Benjamin holds an MSc in Engineering from Aalborg University.

Lau Holst Hoffbeck

Lau Holst Hoffbeck is a Supply Chain Management Consultant at Syncronic Aps. His primary focus is SAP- and Kinaxis SCM applications. Lau holds a MSc in Engineering from Aalborg University.

Nikolaj Ulriksen

Nikolaj Bøgh Ulriksen is currently writing his thesis to finalise his MSc in Engineering at Aalborg University. He has previously worked with SCM in aviation, biotech, and the festival industry.