  Electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft manufacturers await
numerous pre-orders for eVTOLs and expect demand for such advanced air mobility
(AAM) aircraft to rise dramatically soon. However, eVTOL manufacturers (EMs)
cannot commence mass production of commercial eVTOLs due to a lack of supply
chain planning for eVTOL manufacturing. The eVTOL supply chain differs from
traditional ones due to stringent quality standards and limited suppliers for
eVTOL parts, shortages in skilled labor and machinery, and contract
renegotiations with major aerospace suppliers. The emerging AAM aircraft market
introduces uncertainties in supplier pricing and capacities, eVTOL
manufacturing costs, and eVTOL demand, further compounding the supply chain
planning challenges for EMs. Despite this critical need, no study has been
conducted to develop a comprehensive supply chain planning model for EMs. To
address this research gap, we propose a stochastic optimization model for
integrated supply chain planning of EMs while maximizing their operating
profits under the abovementioned uncertainties. We conduct various numerical
cases to analyze the impact of 1) endogenous eVTOL demand influenced by the
quality of eVTOLs, 2) supply chain disruptions caused by geopolitical conflicts
and resource scarcity, and 3) high-volume eVTOL demand similar to that
experienced by automotive manufacturers, on EM supply chain planning. The
results indicate that our proposed model is adaptable in all cases and
outperforms established benchmark stochastic models. The findings suggest that
EMs can commence mass eVTOL production with our model, enabling them to make
optimal decisions and profits even under potential disruptions.
