A major potential AM application for many industries is using the technology to fabricate spare parts on-demand in an effort to get rid of warehouses that are stocked full of spare parts just waiting to be used. Obviously, this could help save both time and money, but just how feasible is this solution?

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Companies now have an important choice to make – continue stocking spare parts, or only 3D printing them when they’re needed. Sounds simple, right? Maybe not. According to Jeannette Song , an operations professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business , parts suppliers realize they need to keep spares handy, but since they’re not psychic, and don’t know what will break and when it will do so, they also know that they need a range of parts, in large quantities no less, available in inventory at any given moment. “It […]

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