DiSC: Digital supply chains through additive manufacturing

The challenge

Companies and organizations face increasing demands for cost efficiency, shorter lead times, improved sustainability, and resilience.

At the same time, they need to manage:

• Complex logistics and disturbances
• Fluctuating demand
• Parts availability
• Transition from traditional processes

Finding a tangible and realistic AM business case is essential to drive the transition towards greater sustainability, resilience, and competitiveness. However, identifying suitable components for AM without a clear business perspective and automated tools is both difficult and time-consuming.

The solution

To identify which components are suitable for AM, both technical and business selection criteria need to be applied. At RISE, we have developed proven automation tools and methods, and continue to advance them, to describe any supply chain, compare it with one of five different AM-enabled supply chain scenarios, and quantify its business value based on the following three parameters:
• Cost 
• Lead time 
• Sustainability

The proven and tested method and tools enables you to:

• Automatically scan your complete spare part catalog (1-150000) to identify spare parts suitable for 3D-printing
• Analyze the entire supply chain and calculate cost, lead time and CO2 emissions
• Quantify business value and sustainability gains with AM
• Build scenarios for future production – from centralized to local printing
• Establish road maps and strategies to drive the transition. 

Our methodology and tools provides clear decision support based on time, cost, and environmental impact.

How it works

Together with you, we will:

1. Build cross-functional team and share knowledge based on latest research
2. Identify parts with AM potential
3. Analyze the supply chain
4. Calculate business cases and sustainability benefits
5. Provide recommendations and next steps

The delivery

You will receive a dedicated business case including:

• Automated analysis of your entire spare parts catalog (1–150,000 items)
• 1–5 selected components (or component groups) with AM potential
• Simulated scenarios for regional or local 3D-printing
• Clear calculations of lead time, cost, and sustainability savings
• Concrete recommendations for next steps to drive the transition