Multi-Objective Implementation of Additive Manufacturing in Make-to-Stock Production

As additive manufacturing (AM) develops and matures over the years, it has reached a stage where implementation into a conventional production system becomes possible. With additive manufacturing currently suitable for product personalization/high customization yet small volume production, there are various ways of implementation in a conventional production line. This aim of this paper is to explore the implementation of additive manufacturing in a complementary manner to process internal job orders of large quantities in make-to-stock (MTS) production. Splitting of production orders is allowed and production can be carried out by both injection moulding and additive manufacturing processes simultaneously, with the latter being able to produce various MTS parts in a single build. NSGA-III together with scheduling and rule-based heuristic for allocation of parts on build plate of additive manufacturing process is used to solve the multi-objective implementation problem, with performance measures being cost, scheduling and sustainability. The algorithm will be incorporated with scheduling and rule-based heuristic for allocation of parts on build plate of additive manufacturing process. An experiment using an industry case study is conducted to compare the performance measures with and without implementing additive manufacturing.