Why Additive Manufacturing Should Be Part of Your Supply Chain
Introduction
In the drive to increase efficiency and cut costs has led to manufacturing moving to low cost countries with often very opaque supply chains. The pandemic, the Suez canal blockage, and the increasing international instability has exposed just how fragile those supply chains can be. How can additive manufacture improve the agility and robustness of supply chains?
What is additive manufacture?
Additive manufacture or AM is the use of 3D printing technology for producing end use components, often in multiples.
When 3D printing first emerged in the 80s it was known as rapid prototyping, a way of checking a component's design before committing to tooling. In the past 10 years advances mean that 3D printed components may be truly end use. Initially additive manufacturing was adopted by automotive, aerospace, medical and other high tech, high value industries. Now, particularly in plastics, AM technology, such as Multi Jet Fusion (MJF), is at the forefront of bringing down the unit price, introducing higher throughput, quality and repeatability.
Additive manufacturing as part of a the supply chain
AM has many strengths that can complement a robust supply chain.
Agile
As many found during the pandemic having your tooling with an overseas supplier can seriously affect the supply chain. Tooling is difficult and expensive to move between suppliers, let alone countries. AM required no tooling which makes switching suppliers or having dual sourcing easy.
Parts can be produced on demand, react fast to peaks and troughs in demand, and designs can be iterated easily without expensive tooling changes and delays.
Low inventory
Minimise inventory, no moqs, no costs to mount up tools. With no moqs there's no need to have excess stock sitting on the shelf.
No capital investment
Tooling is a large capital investment and when amortised into the component price the breakeven of injection moulding versus AM might be tens of thousands of components, even hundreds of thousand if the component is small and complicated.
Reduced components and assembly
Without tooling there are far fewer design limitations, this means that very complex geometry can be achieved which may eliminate multiple components and assembly operations.
Very short lead times
Thousands of additive manufactured parts can be delivered in days. Costly interruptions to supply can be avoided by temporarily switching to AM until normal supply is resumed.
Bridge to higher higher volume
Tooling delays and modifications can significantly impact launch dates. By using AM to bridge the gap until the injection mouldings are ready product launch dates can be maintained.
Localised productions
Instead of one large globalised production source AM allows for components to be manufactured at local hubs closer to the end user.
Environmental advantages
Producing in small batches means that the need for disposal of old stock is unlikely. Transport is reduced by producing local to demand.
Conclusion
It’s fair to say that AM would have a hard time competing against conventional manufacturing when the product has a long lifetime and high production volume. Traditional production techniques win in this scenario, however when order sizes are small or there are changes in demand then additive manufacture is a great candidate.
An additional case for AM can be made to startups and SME who can enhance their comparative agility by creating, launching and disrupting faster.
Additive manufacturing should be an integral part of most company’s supply chain. 3D printing is no longer just a development tool or just the preserve of high tech, high value industries.
