Enterprise application software expert, SAP has announced the opening of the early access program as it looks to make 3D printing an integral part of the digital manufacturing landscape.
The programme is available to new customers as part of its joint collaboration with UPS.
SAP’s Distributed Manufacturing early access program intends to serve discrete manufacturers, industrial 3D printing companies and service providers, materials providers, postal companies and global logistics network. The company wishes to provide them with standard and scalable business processes for digitising, approving, certifying and manufacturing digital parts in an end-to-end digital manufacturing process. The programme is part of the SAP IoT portfolio.
“At Moog we are both suppliers and consumers of additive manufacturing as a service,” said Gonzalo Rey, chief technology officer, Moog Inc. “Our collaboration with SAP is accelerating the development of the tools necessary to find the best candidates for 3D printing. As a service, these tools can help accelerate the adoption process for everyone.”
SAP is currently working with 28 co-innovation companies in the program, and is expanding the initiative to offer more organisations the ability to test and approve 3D printing before the anticipated general availability of the new application from SAP planned for later this year. Participating companies can explore opportunities to drive innovation by rethinking product design, optimising manufacturing and logistics processes, and creating new business models. They can ‘right size’ their inventory for slow-moving parts while meeting time-sensitive customer needs, take advantage of opportunities to easily produce unique custom goods, and improve production consistency with high-quality, low-cost certified parts.
“This SAP program is a perfect fit for us,” said Nikolai Zaepernick, senior vice president, EOS Central Europe. “It provides an ideal collaboration platform to merge supply and demand for the industrial 3D printing technology we offer. As a leader in this field, EOS contributes a wealth of deep and long-standing technology experience. The platform, on the other hand, enables us to integrate our technology into existing supply chains and production environments on the way to becoming an established way of manufacturing.”
SAP’s collaboration with UPS brings together two trusted brands seeking to advance 3D printing with their digital supply chain solutions and additive industrial manufacturing and logistics network respectively.