Additive manufacturing of spare parts for the mining industry a pilot study on business impact from an aftermarket perspective.
Sammanfattning: The purpose of this pilot study was to identify and evaluate different business cases for Epiroc’s Parts & Services Division (PSD) regarding the use of additive manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D printing, for their spare parts within the mining industry. This study presents an approach for how spare parts promising for AM can be identified and shows the difficulties with AM. The study follows the design research methodology (DRM) standard for research within product and process development. Through interviews and literature searches, a "top-down" approach was applied. A developed cost-benefit model accompanied this approach and was used to identify and evaluate potential spare parts for AM from Epiroc’s current spare parts portfolio. The results were evaluated as promising for several of the spare parts in terms of reduced manufacturing, procurement, tool cost, and lead time reduction, which results in increased uptime for the customer. With reduced lead times, the availability increases for the customer, who may increase Epiroc’s sales and aftermarket revenues in the long run. There is also great potential for reducing the costs for warehousing, where spare parts of low demand can have their stocks reduced or eliminated by securing supply through on-demand manufacturing. Although many exciting business cases have been identified and evaluated, it has been acknowledged that CNC-machining in many cases is the cheaper alternative. Despite this, it is worth investing in AM from a strategic point of view as it is seen as a tool for the future. Before it can be adopted and implemented, Epiroc should do test trials with companies offering AM services. These can be used to update and tune the cost-benefit model accordingly to increase its reliability and validity. The model could also be developed further to incorporate AM’s additional benefits, such as weight and material reduction through design for additive manufacturing (DfAM).
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