From the course: Additive Manufacturing for Business

Industry examples from path II: Supply chain evolution

From the course: Additive Manufacturing for Business

Start my 1-month free trial

Industry examples from path II: Supply chain evolution

“

- Path Two approaches are a less common but growing application area for MedTech, aerospace and defense, and automotive. Overall cost reductions, particularly related to working capital, loom large here. In addition, speed to delivery and a reduction of stock out risks are big issues. In MedTech, we already have two great examples. We talked about them when I introduced the framework. Here, we saw hearing aid producers improve overall supply chain efficiency by switching to the use of additive manufacturing to produce customized devices with improved overall performance. We also saw the US military deploy additive manufacturing to produce sterile field surgical kits, allowing surgeons to conduct more procedures, reduce inventory, and degrees overall supply chain uncertainty on the battlefield. We're also seeing the military active in the application of additive manufacturing in aerospace and defense applications. The US military is exploring deployment of mobile additive manufacturing labs to manufacture quick replacements for products on the battlefield, thus reducing overall risk of stockout. Similarly, NASA is working to install the first additive manufacturing device on the International Space station, again, to mitigate the risk of not having the component that they need when they need it. In the aerospace sector, we see attempts to reduce spare parts costs and the overall cost of repair. BAE Systems is additively manufacturing, for example, window breather pipes for use in regional jetliners. These pipes cost 40% less than when traditionally manufactured, and are made on demand. The availability of spare parts and repair components is also a natural application in the automotive industry. Many see applications for the automotive aftermarket. The comedian, Jay Leno, provides a good example using additive manufacturing to reproduce parts for his collection of vintage cars. In more serious applications, and in aerospace and defense, some automotive components, including those used for heavy equipment in remote locations, can be expensive to replace. Directed energy deposition technologies are being considered for these applications, in order to refurbish instead of replace low to medium complexity parts.

Contents