Adaptation and customization, beyond software

Advanced Manufacturing

In the age of digitization, a company’s ability to customize their offer is crucial to enable them to become the preferred choice of current and future customers. This is an adaptation which is necessary in every sector, and the metal industry is not exempt: how do you differentiate yourself from the competition? The key is not in the product, nor in the software per se, but in the processes and in the way that the various pieces of software are adapted to them.

To achieve this, it is important to have a consulting team that knows how to analyze the unique features of each customer’s company, compare what is available in the market, and find a specific value proposition which is unique to this customer.

This knowledge process starts by capturing the company’s unique features, detailing the existing systems and the functions they fulfil in the process, the objectives they seek to achieve, and the obstacles and difficulties encountered in daily operations. It also identifies those employees in the customer’s company whose involvement is considered essential to successful implementation. Taking these elements into account, the engineers design a scenario which includes all the detailed requirements. This is confirmed with the customer and proposals are then generated that seek to meet the customer’s objectives and maintain their competitive advantage.

To achieve this, it is necessary to rely on a partner with experience, drive and knowledge. That is to say, with professionals who listen, propose alternatives and implement customized proposals. You need to have people who are able to understand the problems and day-to-day issues in the production plants, helping to improve the performance and coordination of the systems and providing advice on how to evolve the production processes to a higher level of maturity with the objective of increasing productivity and improving efficiency. Such a partner will go to the extent of trying to anticipate future issues in plant management to prevent unforeseen events that could delay or stop production, such as problems with stock or job overload on machines.

Based on all this information, the consulting team will design specific tools. In the CAD/CAM machine programming software, for example, they will analyze the need to adjust the configuration of the times and costs recalculation to reflect the machine’s specific operating characteristics and thus improve the interworking between the machine and the software. In the case of manufacturing management (MES), they will determine the key points in the chain and develop an overview of the critical information required to improve processes and quality.

There are often old systems from third party operators within the customer company and it is necessary to find a way for the old and new systems to communicate effectively and become integrated so that they cooperate as if they were a single system.

At other times, a successful implementation in one company can be extended to other customers, adapting to each particular situation to maintain the company’s unique value proposition with customized tools which enable them to compete without falling into price and cost wars, since they will be able to offer their own, unique proposition that will appeal to their customers.

Nowadays, machines are becoming more and more similar to each other, so that a manufacturer of sheet metal parts, tubes or metal profiles that seeks to be different from its rivals is not going to achieve it solely through its machines or software and where, at the same time, increased levels of competition put cheap solutions on the market, but with fewer options. That is why differentiation is the way to gain market share in this competitive digital ecosystem.

In short, it is a question of seeking solutions that make it possible to co-ordinate, control and adapt production in real time, making it more agile, flexible and profitable; solutions which turn the factory into a Smart Factory, where process automation, machine sensorization and interconnectivity with the cloud environment will enable a higher level of competitiveness to be achieved. No matter which sector the company belongs to - industrial, agricultural, shipbuilding, automotive, aeronautical, energy, iron and steel, climate control or distribution - there is a solution for everyone. Their unique solution.