The “Ecosystem” of Industrial Additive Manufacturing: A framework for success

This article is aimed at those with an interest with implementing Additive Manufacturing (AM) towards industrial end-use applications. These applications differ depending on the industry sector. However, across almost all spheres of the industry, it’s been demonstrated that the easiest entry point for AM is when used for rapid prototyping in the form of visualization aids, design iteration form & fit checks, as well as shop aid/tool applications, which share approximately > 85% cost savings and > 90% of time savings when implemented correctly. The main reason of this easier AM adoption in most industry segments is the associated lightweight “ecosystem” required to reach those benefits. We will circle back to this use case later in this article. When it comes to end-use component manufacturing using AM, it is a very different story, and the associated AM ecosystem is more convoluted, and gets very specific to each industry sector. We will review a few in this article. The “end-use parts & tooling” AM implementation has seen more challenges of adoption, and this article will therefore focus on the industrial portion of AM usage and its associated “ecosystem” required to enable successful AM adoption.

Fig. 1: Credits: Wohlers Report 2019: State of the AM industry and main AM applications

Fig. 2: Credits: Forbes State the AM - 2019: Overview of the main AM applications adoption trends

The goal of this article is not to outline all possible AM applications, nor is to focus on specific materials or AM technologies. Rather, its objective is to provide the proper ingredients in the form of a winning “ecosystem” needed to enable and accelerate the organic growth of AM applications within your industry vertical. Only the people close to their respective application space / products will be able to bring AM to its full potential. The good news is that we do not need to “re-invent the wheel” to make AM an industrial success; we simply need to take a perspective on how we best implemented other manufacturing processes such as machining, casting, composite lamination, etc., and to understand the framework required to successfully and efficiently implement AM within our respective industry segment. 

AM Market organic maturation

For decades now, AM has been maturing. Different AM processes have matured organically at different paces, under the respective pressure of their market segment users pulling onto the technology towards industrial benefits, fueling the following:

1)   OEMs to develop better printer and post-processing equipment platforms

2)   Material Suppliers to offer better and cheaper raw materials

3)   Printing Service Providers to offer printing and finishing services with more and more versatility, affordability and controls.

4)   Software solution providers to develop adapted AM design and manufacturing solutions

5)   Standardization Organizations to develop AM specifications and standards

6)   Education and Research Organizations to take leadership in preparing our next generation workforce

You will recognize some of those elements in the proposed AM ecosystem framework.

Fig. 3: Credits: Gartner Inc. 2018 Hype curve representing market adoption of different AM technologies towards specific use cases. As the technology and users maturation increase, the AM technology/segment moves to the right of the curve. An industrial ecosystem and its understanding accelerate that process. For instance, “Consumer 3D printing” has come down the peak due to a lack of value proposition and limited ecosystem for the users. On the other end, “Automobile AM” is getting to a more mature level of adoption. Somewhere in between, "AM in Manufacturing Operations" still need help from a solid AM ecosystem implementation.

However, there has been, and still are, several limiting factors that challenge the adoption of AM for end-use manufacturing applications. Now that we are through the AM consumer hype curve of 2015-2016 (fig. 3), the industry sectors leading the adoption of AM typically meet the following criteria: 

1)   Have identified a/several significant business case(s) within their application space

2)   Have highly differentiated and/or customized solution requiring AM to reach the benefits

3)   Have made holistic investment to develop AM towards serving the business case

Examples of the leading market sectors meeting those criteria are:

Table. 1: Examples of favorable AM adoption factors for key industry segments

We will come back to some of those market segments later on in this article.

Fig. 4: Credits: Persistence Market Research, 2019: Overview of the main market segments adopting AM for industrial uses.

Industrial adoption of AM: start with the business case

The first step in the adoption of AM in any given company is to get to know your own product and its detailed manufacturing workflow. With that in mind, it will be possible to identify and formulate the right business cases and see where AM can be beneficial. AM does not have to produce the final part to show benefits. It can also be impactful saving time and cost on a step (or several) in the manufacturing workflow. Tooling is a GREAT example of that. Without a good reason, why bother investing in AM?

Print because you should,

not because you can.

There are several ways to breakdown the usage and benefits of AM. Fig. 5 provides one of many possible examples:

Fig. 5: Credits: Forbes - State the AM 2019: Example of recent industry survey of main AM benefits of using AM

From a corporate industrial perspective, the benefits of AM can be summarized in three main categories:

Fig. 6: Summary of the benefit categories associated to industrial usage of AM

Using this indicator chart (see fig.6), it is possible to formulate a strategy to identify good product/component families that would capture as many benefits as possible. As a starting point, the best approach is to target maximum combined benefits and a part family (multiple variance of a similar design) that has the broadest product portfolio penetration and therefore, offers the “biggest bang for the buck”.

AM Ecosystem

Every manufacturing technology has its associated ecosystem. It is common practice in business development and market investment to understand the connectivity between the different elements of a technology, a market or even a given supply chain. Over the past century, we all got very familiar with conventional manufacturing technologies such as (but not limited to) machining, casting, injection molding, semiconductor manufacturing, thermoforming, composite lamination, and many more. Each presents a specific ecosystem.

Fig. 7: Credits: AMFG. Example of an industry landscape map focused mainly on the manufacturers of AM equipment and related solutions. Such methodology is often used for investment purposes, and offers a baseline framework to establish a manufacturing technology-based ecosystem.

Applying a similar thought process, we can define the AM ecosystem as all elements/components that, when combined and used properly, are required to enable the adoption and effective use of AM. We propose the following structure for the AM ecosystem (fig. 8):

Fig. 8: Proposed Additive Manufacturing ecosystem framework showing the different components required to truly, and effectively enable AM within a given company or industry segment.

The content of the ecosystem elements needs to be adapted to each specific application space. However, the main framework should still apply.

We mentioned earlier that rapid prototyping (different from engineering development) is among the easiest adoption of AM. It is because most, if not all elements of the ecosystem are very “light”. For instance, to print a design fit & check prototype, product mock-up or a shop aid/tool, datasheet level material is likely sufficient, with no/limited specialized AM software, data tracking and minimum DfAM training generally required. It is, however, very different and much “heavier” in case of, for example, medical, space or aviation applications.

Even within a more demanding application space, different AM part criticality and loading conditions will drive a slightly different version (and associated cost) of that ecosystem (e.g. statically vs dynamically-loaded, FAA/FDA vs non-FAA/FDA parts).

In order to understand better the importance of each ecosystem component, we detailed in table 2 their description, and how they might adapt to each AM user market segment.

Table. 2: Ecosystem element descriptions an details, best practices and variability examples depending on market segment of the AM user.

To make this more concrete, and to understand the connectivity between the different elements of the AM ecosystem, let’s use a publicly well-known AM part from GE Aviation (fuel nozzle for the LEAP engine) and let’s highlight how the AM Ecosystem hypothetically* came together to play a role in the making of this stellar production part.

Fig. 9: Simplified illustration of how the different elements of the industrial AM ecosystem came together to enable GE Aviation fuel nozzle production application.

Disclaimer*: This illustration was not reviewed by GE for this article, and only uses publicly obtained information through press releases, articles, videos and other published data. Insider and/or confidential knowledge was not used for this discussion. This is only used as an educational example, and does not represent GE’s opinion or strategy.

Setting up for success

Establishing an AM ecosystem might appear overwhelming, and the reality is that it takes time and “a village”. For example, it took GE Aviation nearly 6-7 years to establish their ecosystem for the Fuel Nozzle AM part (see fig.9). It is generally through the catalyst effect of a winning business case that an organization realizes the need for that ecosystem and progressively starts building it up. The good news is that there is no need to “re-invent the wheel” for every company wanting to get into industrial use of AM. We only need to “adapt the wheel”. It does not have to happen all at once to start yielding industrial benefits. The key to success is to identify a good starting point. Here are a few ingredients for success:

1)   Start by identifying a strong business case, even if it is based on a ROM analysis only, using a part with the lowest level of criticality. There are plenty of good published examples and use cases in every market segment to build that first business case. This will establish a good “bang for the buck” effect, and fuel momentum to attack the remaining gaps in the ecosystem to enable other part families within your application space.

2)   Establish the ecosystem components required for THAT part (re. item 1). The lower the part criticality and requirements, the easier the point of entry will be, the lower is the R&D funding, work force and industrialization cost needed.

3)   While focusing on the few starting winning/promising business case part families, map out a progressive strategy to access more demanding requirement applications. As a result, you will fill out the gaps left in the ecosystem. It will take years to expand materials, processes, suppliers, etc. But, with a progressive roadmap, and a few strategic “AM wins” along the way, leadership support and associated funding will follow most of the time (with an “ounce of visionary ingredient”).

4)   Establish champions across your organization, at ALL levels. The best way to do that is to bring benefits to THEM. For instance, a Design Engineer will quickly become champion if you can prove that there is better ways to build a part, and faster ways to design it through sample AM parts (engineers like to "geek out" on parts), and SW tools and DfAM training. An executive, on the other hand, will focus more on cost savings, time-to-market, competitive advantages and customer satisfaction demonstrations.

5)   Although for many early industrial AM adopters (e.g. GE, Space X, Boeing, Airbus, Northrup, Honeywell, Stryker, Medtronics, BMW, Jabil, etc.) it took several years to organically come to this realization, one common “note” is that, at some point, they eventually consolidated AM activities with dedicated team members in a Center of Excellence-like structure (e.g BMW, GE, Honeywell, SpaceX, Stryker, etc.) . This is one excellent way to build momentum and synergy to accelerate the pace of the ecosystem establishment.

6)   Whenever possible, consider areas of the ecosystem where you can get a “jump start” or an acceleration. For instance, depending on the market segment of the user, expensive and lengthy areas of the ecosystem are material properties, process specification and DfAM methodologies. Luckily, there are consulting groups (e.g. AddWorks, AddiveMinds, APWorks, AdditiveBlueprint, etc.), standards organizations (e.g. ASTM, ASME/AMS, UL, etc.), and consortiums/research institutions (e.g. EWI, Penn State, MIT, LLNL, ONRL, UL, NIAR, America Makes, UoT Austin, EuroAM, Castheon, CDME, etc.) that can be useful to “acquire” knowledge. Not to mention, industry partnerships can help tremendously when we finally realize that the ecosystem elements are not the IP component of our work (for the most part), but rather, the IP resides in what we do with it. Strategic OEMs (e.g. GE Additive, EOS, 3D Systems, Stratasys, SLM Solutions, Renishaw, DMG Mori, AddUP, RPM Innovations, Thermwood, Voxeljet, ExONE, HP, Essentium, Carbon3D, and many others) and printing service providers (a.k.a. additive contractors: e.g. Morf3D, GE Additive, Oerlikon, Cumberland, Premium Aerotec, Jabil, Protolabs, Siemens, Sintavia, CORE/MCT, Stratasys Direct, 3D Systems, Norsk Titanium, Hexcel Technology, and a few more) can also be a great source of win-win knowledge transfer opportunities.

Key takeaways

Obviously, there is a lot more nuances to the AM ecosystem that highly depend on your market sector, your business model(s), your specific application/product, your customers and a few other factors. This article is meant to simply provide a useful framework to start with when trying to stand up an AM strategy within an organization towards industrial uses of AM. There are most likely different perspectives on the road to AM success. Here are some possible key takeaways:

• AM can sometimes be a replacement to current conventional manufacturing technologies. However, it most often offers a disruptive way to think differently about part design and part manufacturing , and comes as a powerful complement to existing manufacturing methods. Without DfAM, the AM benefits are hampered.
• Some of the AM processes are no longer an immature manufacturing technology, but its level of integration in our organization’s business practices and processes still require some work. It will most likely take another two decades before it becomes mainstream and standardized across all markets. The good news is that, today, organizations do not have to go through the sometimes decade-long process of maturation before benefiting from AM. There are best practices that can be leveraged. Similar to other manufacturing technologies, one way to accelerate the process is to establish an AM ecosystem, and consider AM holistically.
• The establishment of the AM ecosystem does not have to happen all at once, and gaps within each ecosystem element can be filled over time, while growing the application space it serves
• As important as it is to dive into industrial AM the “right way” and ensure AM part quality, it is also paramount to avoid hasty uses of AM (without proper controls). It may be very counterproductive when public failures of AM parts occur (towards customers and/or leadership). It’s harder to gain support to establish an AM ecosystem than to lose it.
• Start with low criticality parts that present the highest business benefits. By focusing on part families vs unique “one-off” applications, it will soon become obvious how AM can move the “business benefit needle” clockwise on the dashboard gauge of your leadership.
• Plan for a dedicated team/person acting as AM SME internally, to help build a strategy, and help execute it together with the rest of your organization. Plan on building champions and knowledge with ALL relevant stakeholder groups of your organization to help accelerate the ecosystem build-up (e.g. design engineering, manufacturing engineering, materials & process, system engineers, program management, executives, procurement, communications and finances).
• If your business model or size does not support the establishment of an AM ecosystem internally, through the help of your internal AM SME, search for suppliers/partners that have it in place. Ensure to invest in an internal AM SME to know what you need and how to identify the right external resources. Otherwise, you might be driven by your suppliers/partners/consultants. Don’t jump into consultancy services unless you know how the information and data received will fit into your AM ecosystem. That way you will spend wisely and effectively your R&D funding of your ecosystem.
• Encourage your leadership to invest in the AM ecosystem rather than rushing into buying printing hardware. Printers without its ecosystem will either limp along for a long time (from a business benefit and growth perspective), or may end up in failure.

Additive Manufacturing represents a very powerful tool to propel our innovative minds and designs. Throughout human history, our engineering and science achievements have been tightly paced the manufacturing technologies at our disposal. By positioning AM with a solid foundational structure within our industries, we will take human ingenuity to a higher level by offering more design freedom to match our imagination… The AM application space is ripe for growth.

About the author:

Steve Fournier has a formation in Engineering Physics, with over 17 years of experience in Silicon Valley R&D, product and business development, engineering management and manufacturing of optical telecom & lasers, semiconductor and aerospace/aviation products/systems. Over the past 10 yrs, Additive Manufacturing (AM) has become a major professional area of interest and expertise. He is currently manager of the AM department at General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) in California, USA.

Note: The views and conclusions described in this article are his own, and are not representing GA-ASI.