LAUSR

Abstract Additive manufacturing (AM), particularly powder bed fusion (PBF), technologies have been utilized as a direct digital manufacturing (DDM) approach in the production of parts for end users. It has been predicted that, in 2030, a significant amount of small and medium enterprises will share industry-specific AM production resources to achieve higher machine utilization and local production near customers enabled by AM will increase significantly across all industries. By then, the decision making on the order acceptance and scheduling (OAS) in production with PBF systems will play a crucial role in dealing with on-demand production orders. This paper introduces the OAS problem in a competitive environment where on-demand production service providers with multiple PBF systems compete for orders dynamically released on the market. A principle decision making process as well as the decision strategies for service providers and customers are proposed based on the characteristics of production with PBF systems.