Using Additive Manufacturing to Mitigate the Risks of Limited Key Ship Components of the Zumwalt-Class Destroyer

Abstract

The DDG 1000 program's re-baseline, budget cuts, technology maturity issues, cost increases, and other unknown risks could have led these three ships into a perfect storm and a much cloudier, muddier future. Additionally, most of the DDG 1000 suppliers are sole-source and therefore enjoy a certain monopoly of power in the marketplace. Even though DDG 1000's increased parts costs associated with a sole-source or limited sources environment is a valid concern, the fact that the mere existence of DDG 1000's suppliers can significantly affect the program's performance is the primary concern for long-term O&S planning. As this project shows, without an effective way to lower startup costs and extract ROI, the government will not obtain competition or maintain a healthy industry base. AM, a revolutionary manufacturing process, is the potential answer to these problems. The DDG 1000's OSA and PBL, by design or by accident, have jointly crafted an environment for the introduction and implementation of AM. The DDG 1000 program does not have scale economies due to the number of ships; therefore, DDG 1000 needs to seriously consider AM as a means to satisfy its low-volume, infrequent-demand requirements, as well as to mitigate the risk of a limited supplier base. AM can help to improve material availability and alter the traditional obsolescence management approach that is more likely to result in lifetime buy decisions with possible limitations. With PBL, OSA, and AM, the program office can invite more interested parties to participate and thus mitigate the risk of losing existing contractors. Since many of the major AM developers such as SAP, BAE, Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon are also the primary service providers of the DoN, and since the Navy has similar or better resources for DDG 1000 to mirror the agreement that Airbus, SAP, and UPS developed, AM is a viable solution in mitigating the risks identified in this research.