Catálogo de publicaciones - libros

Rapid Prototyping (RP) is the process of building three-dimensional objects, in layers, using additive manufacturing. Rapid Manufacturing (RM) is the use of RP technologies to manufacture end-use, or finished, products. At small lot sizes, such as with customized products, traditional manufacturing technologies become infeasible due to the high costs of tooling and setup. RM offers the opportunity to produce these customized products economically. Coupled with the customization opportunities afforded by RM is a certain degree of uncertainty. This uncertainty is mainly attributed to the lack of information known about what the customer’s specific requirements and preferences are at the time of production. In this paper, we present an overall method for selection of a RM technology under the geometric uncertainty inherent to mass customization. Specifically, we define the types of uncertainty inherent to RM (epistemic), propose a method to account for this uncertainty in a selection process (interval analysis), and propose a method to select a technology under uncertainty (Hurwicz selection criterion). We illustrate our method with examples on the selection of an RM technology to produce custom caster wheels and custom hearing aid shells.

Considering the large sums of money required to implement advanced manufacturing technologies (AMT), management must carry out appropriate evaluations and then make critical decisions. Traditional justification methods are insufficient by themselves because they cannot cope with benefits, such as flexibility and enhanced quality, offered by AMT. Selection and justification processes for AMT involve complex problems and require extensive analysis of a large number of criteria. An appropriate decision-making procedure for justification of AMT requires consideration of both economic and non-economic investments. An analytical model is presented for the selection of a rapid prototyping (RP) system from a set of mutually exclusive decision alternatives. The proposed model is based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) along with the Expert Choice software and it provides the means for integrating economic with non-economic benefits. A numerical example illustrates an application of the proposed model.