Benefits and costs of additive manufacturing applications: an evaluation guideline

With an ever growing diffusion of additive manufacturing (AM) system in industrial and consumer level, as well as the direct and indirect dynamics which are being introduced resulting from its inclusion as a viable production system on companies’ portfolio, the need to reconfigure production system and adapt the production line becomes even more relevant than before. There are several studies which have emphasized on the importance of a paradigm shift in order to exploit advantages of AM, not only considering design and functionality of the product but also with regards to its impact on the entire value chain reconfiguration. Thus, it is of crucial importance to take into consideration that for this shift to be feasible and manageable, it needs to include both technical and managerial aspects of manufacturing. This work proposes a new perspective to provide a guideline for the proper evaluation of AM implementation from a holistic viewpoint. Starting from a priori analysis, the authors provide a three-steps evaluation guideline, thanks to which companies interested in additive manufacturing could verify both technical and economical feasibility of its implementation, comparing it to the conventional subtractive techniques. The proposed guideline is tested in real case study, which the main results are shown in section 5.