Manufacturing - Endeavor Business Media
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Manufacturing - Endeavor Business Media

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Factory of the Future: A New Look at Manufacturing

Factory of the Future: A New Look at Manufacturing

It is a critical time for manufacturers to strengthen their operations and support the economy. 

With today’s labor shortages and supply chain issues, many manufacturers are accelerating the adoption of emerging technologies to reach their business goals. Additive manufacturing (AM) has become an important digital, ecological, and increasingly cost-competitive alternative to traditional production technologies. To deploy a scalable, sustainable, and future-proof AM capability, leading manufacturers are partnering with experts like Siemens Advanta to provide best-in-breed expertise. 

Panelists

Josh Angel
Vice President, Digital Transformation Industries and Real Estate 
Siemens Advanta
Ivan Madera

CEO 
Morf3D

Context

Josh Angel and Ivan Madera discussed different manufacturing approaches—including additive manufacturing— that support product innovation, reduce inventory, avoid downtime, and cut waste.

Panelists

Josh Angel
Vice President, Digital Transformation
Industries and Real Estate
Siemens Advanta
Ivan Madera
CEO
Morf3D
 

Context

Josh Angel and Ivan Madera discussed different manufacturing approaches—including additive manufacturing— that support product innovation, reduce inventory, avoid downtime, and cut waste.

Factory of the Future: A New Look at Manufacturing

Additive manufacturing (AM) has become an important digital, ecological, and increasingly cost-competitive alternative to traditional production technologies.
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Key Takeaways

Industrialized and additive manufacturing enables firms to reinvent products, processes, and their businesses.
To realize the full potential of industrial manufacturing and emerging technologies, companies must think about three domains:

1

1

Reimagining
products
Digital twins enable manufacturers to create innovative forms using conventional manufacturing methods.

2

2

Reinventing
manufacturing processes
This is possible using a digital twin of production and performance.

3

3

Rethinking
business
Additive manufacturing supports flexible, fast, and efficient production. It is ideal for custom batch production from a single unit to thousands of units.

Additive manufacturing delivers ROI in several ways:

Opportunities exist to reduce costs and improve process productivity by up to 80%. 

Opportunities exist to reduce costs and improve process productivity by up to 80%.

Process steps can be reduced by upward of 80%, leading to shorter development time and faster time to market.

Process steps can be reduced by upward of 80%, leading to shorter development time and faster time to market.

Many companies experience a 50% reduction in lead times due to optimized material and information flows.

Many companies experience a 50% reduction in lead times due to optimized material and information flows.

Manufacturers can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 30% by eliminating transport and reducing product weight.

Manufacturers can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 30% by eliminating transport and reducing product weight.

Morf3D has partnered with Siemens Advanta to construct a future-proof factory.

Founded by Ivan Madera to take advantage of additive manufacturing technologies, Morf3D creates flight hardware and parts for critical applications that couldn’t be easily manufactured in the past. Morf3D has an existing factory in El Segundo, California, and it wanted to build a new digital manufacturing center in Long Beach that would support additive manufacturing technologies. In early 2021 Morf3D partnered with Siemens Advanta to address the challenges of designing a future-proof factory.
Key questions that Siemens Advanta has helped to answer include optimal material flows, the ideal factory layout, and how digital twins can validate investment in 3D manufacturing. Morf3D is leveraging advanced design and simulation software from Siemens Digital Industries to develop, scale, and identify bottlenecks in advance of production. In addition, Siemens has helped Morf3D think about efficiently relocating from one facility to the next while reducing relocation risks.
“We engaged with Morf3D in a holistic way that took into consideration the digital factory planning process. We looked at logistics, process, and cost efficiencies, and designed around environmental health and safety requirements that the company faced.”

– Josh Angel, Siemens Advanta

“We engaged with Morf3D in a holistic way that took into consideration the digital factory planning process. We looked at logistics, process, and cost efficiencies, and designed around environmental health and safety requirements that the company faced.”

– Josh Angel, Siemens Advanta

To increase manufacturing flexibility, Morf3D is certifying and qualifying its production system rather than parts.

Customers

Production System

Digital Twin

Morf3D’s customers have highly variable requirements. Their parts have different levels of complexity, are made of different materials, and are in different stages of the production life cycle. As a result, Morf3D’s manufacturing footprint must be flexible enough to accommodate these conditions.

Customers

Production System

Digital Twin

To future-proof its new facility, Morf3D decided to certify and qualify the production system, rather than certifying and qualifying parts. The company transformed part production through the deployment of high-productivity work cells that can produce many different geometries. 

Customers

Production System

Digital Twin

To scale this approach, Morf3D is working with Siemens Advanta to create a digital twin of the factory. As Morf3D collects data, it gains insight into the constraints of the operation and certain processes. By running simulations, it can see the impact of varying constraints. 
“We need the utmost levels of flexibility. As we move forward, future-proofing requires a whole different view of the world. In collaboration with Siemens and other partners, we’re tackling the challenge at the root and identifying ways where we can integrate seamlessly and scale.”

– Ivan Madera, Morf3D

"We need the utmost levels of flexibility. As we move forward, future-proofing requires a whole different view of the world. In collaboration with Siemens and other partners, we’re tackling the challenge at the root and identifying ways where we can integrate seamlessly and scale."

– Ivan Madera, Morf3D

When deploying an additive manufacturing strategy, digital twins can play a central role.

When developing an AM approach, four considerations are very important: 
Strategy
Design
The Factory
Finance

Digital twins can be used to identify the most promising candidates for AM and to maximize their impact to the business. It is possible to simulate changes with the digital twin and then implement processes for manufacturability. The factory piece is where companies leverage digital twins to exploit the full potential of the digitalization plan. The digital twin can be used in conjunction with performance KPIs, like reducing lead times, design costs, and planning costs.

 

For Morf3D’s digital twins, Siemens Advanta worked closely with the team to collaboratively plan and design the digital layout in the software and then simulate material flows and actual processes. The closed-loop nature of digital twins is very important since continuous feedback is critical to success.

Successful additive manufacturing implementations require a personalized approach and a focus on change management.

Every manufacturer is unique, so the journey to AM requires a personalized approach. With its advanced manufacturing network and extensive expertise, Siemens Advanta creates unique solutions for different clients that meet each organization’s specific needs and utilize best-of-breed capabilities from the network. By focusing heavily on change management, Siemens Advanta helps customers create quick wins, prove the value of AM, and ensure success. A holistic approach to AM including change management is critical to realizing the full potential of these technologies for companies like Morf3D. 

“Our recommendation to customers is don’t try to collect data about power semiconductors by yourself. We have that information already because we process more data from these semiconductors than anyone on the planet. By providing data-as-a-service, we can help customers accelerate their activities.”

– Daniel Scharfen, Infineon Technologies

Looking ahead, partnerships and ecosystems will be crucial for scaling additive manufacturing.

Manufacturers must be prepared with facilities or plans that will enable the future of AM, and partnerships will be key. Morf3D’s Applied Digital Manufacturing Center, for example, is a consortium of partners with one focus: industrializing additive manufacturing. It brings together the best minds in the industry, including Siemens Advanta and equipment and process manufacturers.

With everyone at the table, it will be possible to transform the industry.

Additional Resources

Webinar Executive Summary

 

 

Explore trends and leading practices associated with Connected Machine and Servitization. Read the full summary of our roundtable!
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Development of an Additive Manufacturing Factory for Global Scale-up

Read this use case to learn how Siemens and Morf3D partnered up to design a new site for 3D printing.

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Evaluation of an Additive Manufacturing Concept based on Digital Twin for BMW Group

Siemens and BMW Group teamed up to develop a Digital Twin based on a 3D material flow simulation model. Read this asset to learn more. 

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