With the pace of additive manufacturing (AM) advancement and the breadth of possible applications, there is much to discover, investigate and learn. In the last issue of TCT Magazine (2.4), I suggested that companies appoint a “Sherpa” to monitor changes and guide activities. This month, the call to action is even greater—join forces to accelerate your AM success.
This message of collaboration was sparked by two events, one past and one coming soon.
A few weeks ago, I participated in a meeting of CEOs and CTOs, representing large, global companies. We enjoyed discussions of additive manufacturing successes from the aerospace, medical and energy industries. Although the participants were sharing their triumphs, these conversations served only to fuel the primary reason for the meeting: discuss collaborative efforts that can accelerate victory in each company’s AM ventures.
These companies have varying degrees of measurable AM success, yet all were supportive of efforts to collaborate. Their rationale was straightforward—AM is too big, too dynamic and too important to tackle alone. While all the companies shared that rationale, the motivation varied. Some of the attending companies feared that they were falling behind while others yearned to accelerate innovation.
Collectively, these companies can create a body of knowledge, one that is not readily available today, that offers direction coupled with practical science and technical instruction. This knowledge improves the odds of success of all contributors. If large, global companies with AM successes see the need to collaborate, what does that say for all those without similar resource availability? Quite simply: Small and mid-sized enterprise can advance by pooling resources and sharing knowledge.
The coming event that turned my thoughts to collaboration is the Additive Manufacturing Users Group (AMUG) Conference. Annually, those that use AM come together to share their experiences and exchange knowledge. Those exchanges—the collaboration at the user level—are what make the AMUG Conference unique and what justifies return visits year after year.
The discoveries at the AMUG Conference—which range from practical tips to insights on stealth technologies to strategies for advanced applications—allow companies to do more with, and get more from, AM. Listen in on the conversations in the hallways and dining areas and you will witness new ideas and better solutions being born from the back-and-forth banter.
These two events illustrate the extremes of collaboration. The AMUG Conference is individual and informal. The C-level meeting envisioned a structured, corporate venture. Between the two, there are many other collaboration opportunities for your teammates, departments and organisation. Certainly, there is an option that fits your needs, your plans and your AM vision.
Some may consider collaboration with those outside of your organisation to be optional, but collaboration within is a necessity. With few exceptions, organisations have pockets of AM information. Even companies that are in the spotlight for using AM in advanced and creative ways have internal factions that struggle to understand and use the technology or beg for the funds to properly equip and staff an AM lab. Knowledge and understanding are lacking in these situations.
Those that have the insight have contained it within a silo. It is time to free that information so that others across the organisation can capitalise on it. It is time to free the knowledge through collaboration between departments, locations and business units.
You would also be wise to consider collaboration along the supply chain. As illustrated by the C-level meeting, virtually all organisations are in need of guidance, insights, research and data. Since there is already some degree of information transfer, why not extend that exchange to AM? Make AM excellence a joint venture between suppliers and manufacturers, a venture that can make the output better, faster and cheaper.
There is so much to learn and discover, and that body of knowledge will continue to expand as the future for this dynamic technology unfolds. Collaboration, in any form, will play a positive role in deploying practical applications today and building roadmaps to tomorrow.
