Investigating the Potential of 3D Printing Technology on Spare Parts Business for Supply Chain Management in Appliance Industry

Salih Boysan, Julie Zhang and Ali Kashef
Additional contact information
Salih Boysan: 12900 McCahan Ln, Huntersville, NC 28078
Julie Zhang: Department of Applied Engineering and Technical Management, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, USA
Ali Kashef: Department of Applied Engineering and Technical Management, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, USA

International Journal of Operations Management, 2022, vol. 2, issue 3, 29-42

Abstract: 3D printing is a process used to fabricate three-dimensional objects based on the digitally controlled deposition of successive layers of material until a final structure is created. This research presents a case study in which two models were built to estimate the operation cost of a spare parts business for an appliance manufacturing company: a base model and an alternate benchmark model in which spare parts are supplied by the traditional manufacturing method or 3D printing. With the developed models, this research compares the total inventory cost of ownership and the number of suppliers for two supply chain management scenarios. Further, a third model (hybrid cost model) was established where spare parts are supplied partially by traditional manufacturing and partially by 3D printing according to maximize cost savings. The cost analysis from the three models concludes that the mixed model shows the best outcome for simplifying supply management complexity and ultimately reducing total cost of spare parts inventory. This case study can help appliance industries to assess and decide if 3D printing is a feasible production method for spare parts in terms of supply chain management strategy.

Keywords: 3D printing; Supply chain management; Spare parts supply; Inventory cost (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: M00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://researchleap.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/0 ... pliance-Industry.pdf (application/pdf)
https://researchleap.com/investigating-the-potenti ... -appliance-industry/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mgs:iojome:v:2:y:2022:i:3:p:29-42

DOI: 10.18775/ijom.2757-0509.2020.23.4004

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Operations Management from Inovatus Services Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Bojan Obrenovic ().