SMART MANUFACTURING
all the way from prototyping and production efficiency , to producing parts additively .
“ So all of this customisation is guiding the industry towards additive manufacturing as the solution to be applied because you don ' t need millions of parts to enhance the production floor , you need maybe a hundred or a thousand . But the big trend that we are seeing , which has been accelerated sinceCOVID , is that companies do not want to be too dependent on global supply chains . They want to be able to have alternatives and to produce spare parts , as an example , on demand when they are needed , and where they are needed without shipping goods across the globe .”
Other trends Langfield is seeing include increased production needs , increased volumes being produced additively and the development of automation . “ In general , we are seeing two trends in manufacturing . One is that the needs of production are moving more towards additive manufacturing because the volumes that are being produced are becoming smaller . A ) because there is a shift away from keeping large amounts of inventory , to producing on demand which by definition requires a smaller amount of parts , and B ) customisations . More and more products are designed to be a lower lot size because they want to meet the exact needs of a certain buying persona . So you want to make sure that your additive manufacturing is fast , reliable , and certifiable against industry standards . You also want to make sure that you have a variety of materials available in order to produce additively .
“ Then there are also the technological advancements , automation and workflow . How do you make sure that the process from a cut design to the finished product is as seamless as possible and requires as
“In manufacturing today there are a lot of areas that can be improved ”
ANDREAS LANGFELD PRESIDENT EMEA , STRATASYS
76 December 2021