AM industrialization ahoy! Every pioneer only reaches his destination with a good navigator. But what level of automation does a company need for its specific applications and business cases? It is a long and complex road to evolve their production through additive manufacturing. This requires a. o. different degrees of automation, connectivity, repeatability and quality, process know-how and material knowledge. Recent developments along the entire 3D printing process chain promote the reproducibility, throughput and productivity of additive use cases - from material to final product. However, the applications only unfold their full potential if everything is aligned with the company's actual business model.
But pragmatists doubt whether industry or its companies are ready for it yet. The Additive Manufacturing Industrialization Navigator (short AM I Navigator) charts the course through the complexity in industrial 3D printing for companies with varying levels of industrialization in additive manufacturing and different application requirements.
AM I Navigator - What's behind it?
The AM I Navigator Initiative is being introduced at this year's Formnext by leading additive manufacturing companies – Siemens, DyeMansion, BASF Forward AM, EOS and HP. Its holistic maturity model is shapeing the stages of industrialization in the AM industry, increasing interoperability in additive manufacturing. The model defines the stages of industrial 3D printing along the entire process chain from material to machines to automation. Moreover, creating a common understanding of the different stages helps AM users find ways to scale and integrate additive manufacturing into traditional production workflows.
The factors for the respective stages come from different areas and include more than just production:
- a strategy setup composed of an additive manufacturing strategy, applications and business cases
- Organizational structures and cultural maturity of employees
- Expertise, automation and connectivity along the entire value chain from design through production to quality, maintenance and service
With the AM I Navigator to the right strategy for additive manufacturing
The status quo of additive manufacturing can be analyzed by applying a Maturity Check for each company following the structure of the AM I Navigator framework. The check is a structured approach that will show the current maturity level of additive manufacturing and the potential for improvement for the company in question. The approach is based on the Siemens Digital Manufacturing Excellence learnings. Depending on the use case and business model, a company requires a different "maturity level" in additive manufacturing. With the framework AM users can refine their current status as well as their future target into five levels: from basic manual production to fully autonomous additive production.
Based on this structured approach, detailed recommendations are available for action on how production can be further developed in the respective company. It is particularly important that the individual steps in the process chain are coordinated with each other. Only open and interoperable additive manufacturing adds value to the entire production. Suitable action steps will lead to the individually desired target state - depending on the application and maturity level of the company. The results from the checks are made available to the respective company and may act as best practices to provide a detailed picture of the evolvement of industrial 3D printing.
Cast off toward a larger initiative
Additional AM technology providers worldwide are welcome to join the first wave pioneers to further shape the AM I Navigator initiative together. The initiative is open to other thought leaders from all industries to build related offerings on it.
