A decision support system for configuring spare parts supply chains considering different manufacturing technologies

A well-configured spare parts supply chain (SC) can reduce costs and increase the competitiveness of spare parts retailers. A structured method for configuring spare parts SCs should be used to determine whether to centralise or decentralise inventory management, also considering hybrid configurations. Moreover, such a method should define whether or not to switch the production of spare parts from Conventional Manufacturing (CM) technologies to Additive Manufacturing (AM) ones. Indeed, AM is considered the next revolution in the field of spare parts, and the adoption of AM technologies strongly affects the characteristics of SCs. However, the choice between centralisation and decentralisation is not the subject of much scientific research, and it is also not clear when AM would be the preferable manufacturing technology for spare parts. This paper aims to assist managers and practitioners in determining how to design their spare parts SCs, thus defining both the spare parts SC configuration and the manufacturing technology to adopt through the development of a decision support system (DSS). The proposed DSS is a user-friendly decision tree, and, for the first time, it allows comparison of the total costs of SCs characterised by different degrees of centralisation with both AM and CM spare parts.

Automated summary

This paper aims to assist managers and practitioners in determining how to design their spare parts supply chains and adopt the appropriate manufacturing technology through the development of a decision support system. The authors propose a user-friendly decision tree that allows comparison of total costs between different levels of centralization and between additive manufacturing and conventional manufacturing for spare parts.