A SUPPLY CHAIN MODEL OF HIP STEM PROSTHESES PRODUCED USING 3D PRINTING: A COMPREHENSIVE DESCRIPTION OF THE SIMULATION MODEL

Medical device companies have a growing interest in additive manufacturing (AM) for orthopedic implant production. AM provides an opportunity for economically feasible customized implants to supplement the current traditionally-manufactured, standard-sized prosthesis. In this paper, a simulation model is developed to analyze the supply chain of custom hip stem production using AM. A test case is implemented into the simulation model to determine the supply chain’s responses in key performance indices, such as production lead time of a uniquely customized prosthesis and resource utilization, to resource level variations based on current state of the practice for additive and subtractive manufacturing. The method of this research was to use a simulation focused on measuring the performance of the supply chain for hip stem implants in order to determine supply chain resource requirements.