Software-as-a-Service Helps Advanced Manufacturing Businesses Deliver at Scale
Within the additive manufacturing industry there are four key areas of interest; machines, materials, services, and software. While most of the industry focuses on the technology that makes 3D printing possible, it’s software that will most likely enable it to scale.
There’s no doubt that equipment is becoming more capable. Machines today provide better quality faster, while at the same time producing parts that are more affordable than ever. In fact, it’s changing the paradigm, allowing additive manufacturing to migrate from a cottage business that emphasized prototyping, to a large-scale industry focused on serial production of end use parts.
New use cases are being justified by all the benefits that digital technology enables. One of the more obvious is customization and personalization, but others include on demand and short run production, complex geometries that can’t be mass produced, and speed-to-market.
But disruption usually brings its share of growing pains and the additive manufacturing market is not immune. To leverage all those advantages, new workflows must be devised that enable 3D printing service providers and their customers to achieve maximum benefit.
That’s where software can be so beneficial. In a digital workflow, a file gets created, it gets sent to a machine for production, and the output is finished, packaged and shipped. The steps involved in managing that can be handled manually by people or automatically by an application. At some point labor is finite, software is scalable.
When companies finally reach the conclusion that it’s much easier and less expensive to automate, they’re inevitably faced with a decision: build or buy?
Whether we’re talking about customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), accounting or any other software tool, the prevailing wisdom is that when available, software-as-a-services (SaaS) is the better option. In the end it’s typically better and cheaper, because developing and releasing software is a core competency.
In developing markets, the SaaS model is often slower to evolve. Companies are forced to “build” when all they really want to do is “buy.” During additive’s formative years, that was more or less the case. Today far more options exist, but most individual packages are focused on specific business problems.
For example, DigiFabster is focused on front-end workflow. The company’s software manages quoting, order entry and project management. This helps advanced manufacturing companies automate many of the tasks that go along with customer communication.
Recently DigiFabster’s Peter van der Zouwen was interviewed by 3D-Adept Magazine. In it, he was asked about the company’s focus.
“Our goal is to increase our customers’ turnover and lower their sales overhead,” he said.
Note: for those who prefer to read the 3D-Adept article in French, it is available HERE
Sometimes that’s confusing for potential customers who expect a SaaS solution to be all-inclusive. To clarify Mr. van der Zouwen went on to say that,
“DigiFabster’s software emulates the actions and work-flow of a sales engineer, but much faster and thus cheaper. The software does not generate g-code to figure out the cost of a part to the last digit before offering -and neither would the sales engineer.”
For advanced manufacturing companies the strategy of automating lower-value activities like quoting can yield significant return on investment. In the article, Mr. van der Zouwen said that,
“As a rule, there are at least 3 suppliers invited for every RFQ, so it’s a 3:1 gamble against the supplier when he invests in labor for quoting. Since these costs have to be recovered somehow, they will end up in the price of the next offer, thereby lowering the probability that that offer will lead to a sale. This vicious circle can be broken with a quoting software like DigiFabster’s, which reduces the cost per quote to a fraction of a man-made quote.”
While there are certain business processes where DigiFabster’s software is most effective, labor does have its place. Mr. van der Zouwen also noted that,
“Once the offer is accepted, the real investment in engineering labor can be made to optimize production costs and product quality.”
While SaaS software packages like the one offered by DigiFabster each their area of focus, that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t talk with one another. To the contrary, they must communicate for an organization to operate as effectively and productively as possible. Typically this is handled via an application programming interface (API.)
DigiFabster offers a robust API that enables it to communicate with other business applications, including CRM, ERP and accounting packages. Together this can help an advanced manufacturing company drive out a significant amount of their transaction cost.
We had a further conversation with Mr. Van der Zouwen, who holds the title of CPO (Chief Product Officer) at DigiFabster, where he elaborated on the points above.
“It’s correct to say that the API is robust and can be used to link up with other tools like ERP,” he said. But we are getting a huge number of requests from our current customers to provide a complete MES (Manufacturing Execution System) that’s tailored to their needs. The affordable, out-of-the-box systems now on the market are too generic to fit AM’s specific demands well. So what we will do is develop such a tool in cooperation with a number of our clients. This is a typical win-win: Our customers invest production workflow know-how and in return get the tools they need. We get an additional offering besides the front-end application. Needless to say, our CRM and the new MES will be seamlessly connected.”
For companies in the additive industry, software is already playing a major role in their ability to deliver on the promise of digital manufacturing. As demand for end use parts grows, it will be more imperative than ever, that they automate as many tasks as possible, enabling maximum productivity from a finite workforce.
Mr. Van der Zouwen went on to note that DigiFabster’s technology spans beyond additive manufacturing.
“AM and other digital industries like CNC have a lot in common, especially given that what they manufacture is typically not catalogued and placed in inventory. Orders are often unique and exclusively based on the end user’s requirements. This demands a massive amount of sales engineering involvement before the order is placed, unless the process is automated. We’ve met that need for the 3D printing industry and now we’re providing a similar solution for other digital manufacturing technologies.”
Software-as-a-Service allows businesses to automate without distracting from their core mission of digitally manufacturing parts for their customers. Best-of-breed solutions like the one offered by DigiFabster are easier to configure and deploy and require far less upfront and ongoing investment. Further, customers continue to benefit as the software improves.
To learn more about how DigiFabster can help your advanced manufacturing business become more efficient, productive and profitable, schedule a demo HERE.
