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POLYLINE Lighthouse Project | Navigating Uncertainty and Redefining Factory of the Future
The POLYLINE project brings together 15 industry and research partners from Germany to establish a landmark automated factory for additive manufacturing (AM). The 3YOURMIND Agile Manufacturing Suite will be the software layer that connects and manages the entire AM workflow. The German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is investing €10.7 Million Euro into the POLYLINE project. The goal of the project is to completely automate an AM production line for automotive parts from BMW - from CAD model to 3D printing and including quality assurance. The resulting production factory will be a lighthouse example of Industry 4.0, leading the way for the next generation of manufacturing.
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5 Lessons for AM, part 3/3: 5 Guidelines for Resilient Supply Chains
3D printing was able to support the covid response effort for critical, stop-gap production. But after less than one month, conventional manufacturing was already producing almost all of those parts, with the exception of parts that were generally better suited for AM. That illustrates that 3D printing has a critical, but limited role in the supply chain. Those guidelines can be taken to move 3D Printing from an innovation budget into a secure procurement plan as part of a resilient supply chain.
Read more5 Lessons for AM, part 2/3: Starting with Qualified Inventories
The way that the global community has responded to the covid situation has not only been a shock for the larger economy, it also presents an existential challenge to the 3D printing industry. For 3D printing to move out of the innovation department and into the procurement budget, it needs to be part of resilient supply chains. The good news is that the response effort to the medical supply shortages in covid offered some key guidelines to create this ongoing solution. Our first article spoke about how establishing smooth transitions between 3D printing and conventional manufacturing is key. In this article, we will explore the importance of working with qualified parts, how to use stakeholders in a center of excellence model to ensure that information is shared and steps to build fully resilient procurement processes.
Read more5 Lessons for AM, part 1/3: Can COVID-19 kill 3D Printing?
3D printing has shown high potential in reacting to the supply chain crisis. And yes, the distributed manufacturing concept carries hope for building more resilient supply chains. But the COVID-19 crisis fleshed out some crucial limitations of 3D printing as a response tool. The global economic downturn will severely impact innovation budgets where 3D printing is classified for most organizations. But there are also ways forward to show how to develop 3D printing as a daily procurement tool to create resilient supply chains. It’s time to thoroughly work on building digital AM qualified inventories.
Read moreWhen do AM Competency Centers Need 3D Printing Software
3D printing is already used by more than 50% of companies, but there is still a minority who require a robust software solution. The companies who have reached this milestone need a digital solution to manage the large volume of orders and access levels throughout their organization. Brian Crotty will provide an overview of specific signs that your company has reached a scale or level of complexity that requires a digital structure. He will also detail why enterprise companies are opting for the competency center model and how to transition from smaller production streams into a focused management solution that is accessible to the entire company.
Read moreBuilding a Digital AM Warehouse
COVID-19 has brought 3D printing into the spotlight as a stop-gap measure for rapid manufacturing response. But the last few weeks have shown that producing medically-approved 3D parts while negotiating IP and safety considerations is a much bigger problem. With adequate preparation, AM can also fill those gaps to provide a digital stock of spare parts in an industrial environment. Fabian Alefeld from Additive Minds of EOS North America and Alexandre Donnadieu from 3YOURMIND USA will present the lessons learned from responding to the crisis and what adjustments need to be made to digital production streams.
Read moreSynchronizing Production with Ultimaker Machine Connectivity
At formnext 2019, 3YOURMIND displayed running machine connectivity with ultimaker machines. Over the past years ultimaker has been an increasingly interesting player for producing jigs, tooling and assembly aids. Brian Crotty, Marketing Manager at 3YOURMIND will show how simple the connectivity is to configure, the types of information that can be received from the machines and what direct advantages that transparency provides to distributed production.
Read moreFind the Most Valuable AM Parts for Production
Most companies still struggle to build a collection of parts that are suitable additive manufacturing. Our experience over the years is that only one in one hundred 100 parts in the average inventory are good additive manufacturing use cases. The problem is there is no efficient way to find those parts. Evaluating that many parts manually erases the majority of the savings from switching to additive manufacturing - if someone takes the time to even look.
Read moreHow will Erpro optimize AM production for 17 million parts?
One of the most visible serial applications in additive manufacturing is Erpro Group’s 3D Factory who have produced more than 17 million 3D printed mascara brushes for Chanel. In 2020, they plan to double or triple the number of serial production lines they run - but without significantly increasing manpower. To hit that goal, they are putting tools in place to optimize their production lines. Most important will be reducing the number of manual steps and moving to a digital, paperless workflow.
Read moreThree Potential Steps for AM Workflow Automation
In this webinar and through our ERP platform demo you will learn: How to automate the process of reordering parts using our digital part inventory and how it can potentially be automated in the future. How to schedule parts in your AM workflow How we are eliminating as much human effort in making the life of a lot of employees life easier and more productive How to manage the quality control and assurance
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