Abstract
The application of three-dimensional (3D) printing can enhance not only the competitiveness but also the sustainability of an aircraft manufacturing or maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) company. This study sought to identify the critical factors for such applications. Herein, first, the long-term opportunities and challenges facing an aircraft manufacturing or MRO company planning to apply 3D printing technologies are discussed. The critical factors for enhancing their sustainability are identified from the discussion results. The priorities of critical factors are usually ranked using the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP). However, existing FAHP methods cannot rank priorities reasonably when experts (or decision-makers) fail to reach an overall consensus. To address this problem, a novel partial consensus (PC)-FAHP approach is proposed that seeks to obtain a partial consensus among experts. After assessing the effectiveness of the proposed methodology with a case study involving three experts, the most critical factors were identified to be the long-term cost-effectiveness, number or types of aircraft parts that are or will be 3D printable, and advances in research and development that have been made already or are expected in the near future. In addition, the ranking result obtained using the PC-FAHP approach was different from that obtained using existing FAHP methods.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ahn IH, Moon SK, Hwang J, Bi G (2017) Characteristic length of the solidified melt pool in selective laser melting process. Rapid Prototyp J 23(2):370–381
Basak A, Das S (2016) Epitaxy and microstructure evolution in metal additive manufacturing. Annu Rev Mater Res 46:125–149
Buckley JJ (1985) Fuzzy hierarchical analysis. Fuzzy Sets Syst 17(3):233–247
Budzik G (2007) Possibilities of using vacuum casting process for manufacturing cast models of turbocharger impellers. J KONES Powertrain Transport 14(2):125–130
Business Performance Management Singapore (2013) AHP – high consistency ratio. https://bpmsg.com/ahp-high-consistency-ratio/
Chang D-Y (1996) Applications of the extent analysis method on fuzzy AHP. Eur J Oper Res 95:649–655
Chen T (2012) A job-classifyingand data-mining approach for estimating job cycle time in a waferfabrication factory, Int J Adv Manuf Technol 62(1):317–328
Chen T (2013) A flexible way of modelling the long-term cost competitiveness of a semiconductor product. Robot Comput Integr Manuf 29(3):31–40
Chen T, Lin Y-C (2008) A fuzzy-neural system incorporating unequally important expert opinions for semiconductor yield forecasting, International Journal of Uncertainty, Fuzziness, and Knowledge based Systems 16(1):35–58
Chen T, Lin Y-C (2017) Feasibility evaluation and optimization of a smart manufacturing system based on 3D printing. Int J Intell Syst 32:394–413
Chen T, Romanowski R (2014) Forecasting the productivity of a virtual enterprise by agent-based fuzzy collaborative intelligence – with Facebook as an example. Appl Soft Comput 24:511–521
Chen T, Tsai H-R (2017) Ubiquitous manufacturing: current practices, challenges, and opportunities. Robot Comput Integr Manuf 45:126–132
Chen T, Wang Y-C (2014) An agent-based fuzzy collaborative intelligence approach for precise and accurate semiconductor yield forecasting. IEEE Trans Fuzzy Syst. 22(1):201–211
Chen T-CT, Wu H-C (2017) Quality control issues in 3D-printing manufacturing: a review. Rapid Prototyp J in press
Daniel S, Doran MA (2013) geoSmartCity: geomatics contribution to the smart city. In: Proceedings of the 14th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research, pp 65–71
Erensal YC, Öncan T, Demircan ML (2006) Determining key capabilities in technology management using fuzzy analytic hierarchy process: a case study of Turkey. Inf Sci 176:2755–2770
Financeonline (2017) World airline fleets: top 10 aviation armadas with most airplanes. https://financesonline.com/world-airline-fleets-top-10-aviation-armadas-with-most-airplanes/. Accessed on June 30, 2017.
Gebhardt A (2007) Rapid prototyping-rapid tooling-rapid manufacturing. Hanser Publishers, Munich
Gnanavelbabu A, Arunagiri P (2018) Ranking of MUDA using AHP and fuzzy AHP algorithm. Mater Today Proc 5(5-2):13406–13412
Goel AK, McAdams DA, Stone RB (2015) Biologically inspired design. Springer, London
Güran A, Uysal M, Ekinci Y (2017). An additive FAHP based sentence score function for text summarization. ITC 46:53–69
Helsel S (2015) Airbus’ new A350 XWB aircraft contains over 1,000 3D-printed parts. http://inside3dprinting.com/news/airbus-new-a350-xwb-aircraft-contains-over-1000-3d-printed-parts/30291/. Accessed on June 15, 2017.
Huang R, Riddle M, Graziano D, Warren J, Das S, Nimbalkar S, Cresko J, Masanet E (2016) Energy and emissions saving potential of additive manufacturing: the case of lightweight aircraft components. J Clean Prod 135:1559–1570
Khorasani AM, Gibson I, Ghaderi AR (2018) Rheological characterization of process parameters influence on surface quality of Ti-6Al-4V parts manufactured by selective laser melting. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 97:3761–3775
Kroll E, Artzi D (2011) Enhancing aerospace engineering students’ learning with 3D printing wind-tunnel models. Rapid Prototyp J 17(5):393–402
Lima Junior FR, Osiro L, Carpinetti LCR (2014) A comparison between fuzzy AHP and fuzzy TOPSIS methods to supplier selection. Appl Soft Comput 21:194–209
Marks P (2011) 3D printing takes off with the world’s first printed plane. New Scientist 211(2823):17–18
Moon SK, Tan YE, Hwang J, Yoon YJ (2014) Application of 3D printing technology for designing light-weight unmanned aerial vehicle wing structures. Int J Precis Eng Manuf Green Technol 1(3):223–228
Murr LE (2016) Frontiers of 3D printing/additive manufacturing: from human organs to aircraft fabrication. J Mater Sci Technol 32(10):987–995
Ritchie JRB, Crouch GI, Hudson S (2001) Developing operational measures for the components of a destination competitiveness/sustainability model: consumer versus managerial perspectives. Consumer Psychol Tour Hosp Leisure 2:1–17
Rosen MA, Kishawy HA (2012) Sustainable manufacturing and design: concepts, practices and needs. Sustainability 4(2):154–174
Saaty TL (1989) Group decision making and the AHP. In: The Analytic Hierarchy Process. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, pp 59–67
Satty TL (1980) The analytic hierarchy process. McGraw-Hill, New York
Wang Y-C, Chen T, Yeh Y-L (2018) Advanced 3D printing technologies for the aircraft industry: a fuzzy systematic approach for assessing the critical factors. Int J Adv Manuf Technol in press
Wedley WC (1993) Consistency prediction for incomplete AHP matrices. Math Comput Model 17(4-5):151–161
Welte T (2016) Opinion: solving aircraft overload with 3D printing. http://aviationweek.com/connected-aerospace/opinion-solving-aircraft-overload-3d-printing. Accessed on June 18, 2017.
Yang K, El-Haik B (2008) Taguchi’s orthogonal array experiment. Design for Six Sigma: a roadmap for product development, pp 469-497
Yap CY, Tan HK, Du Z, Chua CK, Dong Z (2017) Selective laser melting of nickel powder. Rapid Prototyp J 23(4):750–757. https://doi.org/10.1108/RPJ-01-2016-0006
Zheng G, Zhu N, Tian Z, Chen Y, Sun B (2012) Application of a trapezoidal fuzzy AHP method for work safety evaluation and early warning rating of hot and humid environments. Saf Sci 50:228–239
Zyoud SH, Kaufmann LG, Shaheen H, Samhan S, Fuchs-Hanusch D (2016) A framework for water loss management in developing countries under fuzzy environment: Integration of Fuzzy AHP with Fuzzy TOPSIS. Expert Syst Appl 61:86–105
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lin, CW., Chen, T. 3D printing technologies for enhancing the sustainability of an aircraft manufacturing or MRO company—a multi-expert partial consensus-FAHP analysis. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 105, 4171–4180 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-019-03998-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-019-03998-3