Overview: Given the ongoing advancements in additive manufacturing (3D printing), many companies are considering using this digital technology for supply of spare parts. This study identifies advantages and barriers context parts chain management. The case examines perspectives a manufacturer customer chain. We present several questions that practitioners can use to (re)consider their companies.

The research in this paper is motivated by a real life spare parts networks for complex technical systems in oil refining sector. At the customers the availability of the installed technical systems often is essential for the primary process. Hence, they require a high availability. For improve the management of the spare parts inventory the main company (the customer) has developed a new strat...

In industrial contexts the proportion of the stock range that is devoted to spare parts is often considerable (e.g. Vereecke and Verstraeten, 1994) and small improvements in spare parts management may be translated to substantial cost savings (Eaves and Kingsman, 2004). Many research projects have considered issues related to the management of spare part inventories, but very few studies have e...