Ramp-Up-Management in Additive Manufacturing – Technology Integration in Existing Business Processes

In conventional manufacturing, ramp-up-management describes the planning and organization of the period between finished product development and the achievement of full production capacity for defined products. This classification has to be adapted and restructured by means of product independent and tool-free production in additive manufacturing. Therefore ramp-up-management already starts with decisions on the extent of the use of additive manufacturing, includes the building of technology-know-how as well as the technology integration into processes and infrastructure of the company and ends with the attainment of a sufficient process reliability for the AM-machine. This paper focuses on technology integration in processes and infrastructure, which is part of the German research project OptiAMix. In this project, new systems for process state analysis adapted to additive manufacturing and methods for the optimal integration of additive manufacturing are developed. Furthermore ways of using the synergies of existing infrastructures and new innovative production technologies are determined.