Supply Chain and Cost Evaluation for Laser Powder Bed Fusion

Additive Manufacturing offers new possibilities in designing and producing products. Thus, several companies implement such technologies. Especially in the beginning of the AM implementation and for small lot sizes, an external supply chain is preferred in industry, but only marginally investigated in literature. Hence, this paper develops three aspects for the AM supply chain evaluation: At first, a literature review about supply chain and costing literature is conducted. Secondly, five scenarios for the internal production (make) and four scenarios of external supply (buy) are proposed. As a third aspect, a benchmark study, which is based on 140 quotes from AM suppliers, provides insights in external supply costs for LPBF manufactured parts.