An overview on the use of operations research in additive manufacturing

Abstract

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is a disruptive production technology that challenges many well-established, conventional practices in Operations and Supply Chain Management decisions. Consequently, new context-specific decision problems have appeared in this area, while existing decision problems must be adapted or extended to this context. In this overview, these decision problems in AM are highlighted and classified, describing the different decision in an unified manner and citing the underlying OR techniques that have been applied to solve them. The aim of the paper is that, by presenting an overview of the AM-related problems in a systematic, OR- or Decision-Making-centred (rather than technology-centred) manner, the OR community can become more aware of this stream of research and thus be more active and contribute with some high-quality work. Open research challenges, as well as avenues for future research are also discussed.