Modelling applications of wire + arc additive manufacturing in defence support services

Current technological developments in “Additive Manufacturing” (AM) have increased confidence in the disruptive potential of this technology. Leading organisations in Industrial Product-Service System’s (IPS2) are increasingly investing in R&D activities to better understand AM, its limitations and how to benefit now and in the future from its potential. AM capability acquisition may represent a source of competitive advantage and a means to develop new sources of income. This PhD contributes to the current research effort on “AM applications in Defence Support Services” (DS2) for Royal Navy’s platforms by providing significant evidence on the benefits of deployed AM. This PhD aims at developing a framework to assess costs and impact on availability of Additive Manufacturing applications in Support Services. This PhD’s contribution to knowledge is represented by the “System of Interest” (SoI) of a DS2 which defines its boundaries, links and elements, a Conceptual Framework for Additive Manufacturing assessment into DS2, Mathematical Models for estimating the Time and Costs of Additive Manufacturing considering the end-to-end process of delivering and printing an AM component, a Conceptual Framework to assess the Cost, Time and Benefits of AM and a Decision Support System for Additive Manufacturing applications in DS2 which allows to perform static and deterministic estimations on AM applications in the context of Defence Support Services. The main advantages of AM applications in DS2 are to provide platforms with the ability to sustain their systems, recover its capability after damage, solve obsolescence issues and collapse dramatically the supply chain.