Supporting the Decision Process for applying Additive Manufacturing in the MRO Aerospace Business by MADM

The spare part industry in aerospace is highly demanding. For conventional manufacturing technologies it is difficult to meet these requirements. In contrast to that, the design freedom of Additive Manufacturing enables the production of complex and lightweight parts. The lack of experience with this technology hampers the decision where Additive Manufacturing can be economically applied. The cost drivers have to be newly evaluated and holistically investigated. Supply chain advantages have to be considered during the decision process, too. Therefore, aerospace characteristics are analyzed within the paper and a methodology based on Multi Attribute Decision Making (MADM) is introduced. To do so, the cost appraisal for Additive Manufacturing has to be detailed. Additionally, changes in the supply chain have to be identified and quantified. Quality criteria have to be taken into account as well. In the end it is shown how these influence factors can be combined to create a decision support.