Production Management Fundamentals for Additive Manufacturing

The additive manufacturing (AM) is a new way to produce parts, which in the last years had a significant application in the traditional production environment, since it demon- strated its capability to produce parts without particular defects and with good mechan- ical properties. During the last two decades the AM was firstly used to produce polymers’ products and after metals’ products; this evolution made possible the breakthrough in the traditional industrial sectors such as the aerospace, the mechanical, and other related sectors. Nevertheless, the introduction of this technology in this context put on the table of the researchers and practitioners some questions about the management of this tech- nology in a more complex context, characterized by the integration with other machines. Aim of this chapter is to present a literature review of the principal facets of the AM related to the field of operations management and trying to define a model to account the costs of production and to schedule the machine activity.