3D Printing Studios, an industrial 3D printing and technology services provider with bases in Singapore, Sydney and Melbourne, has partnered with SAP Distributed Manufacturing to scale up customer collaboration in the Asia Pacific Japan (APJ) region.
Launched April 2017, SAP Distributed Manufacturing is a system that connects customers with service providers to “make 3D printing a seamless part of digital manufacturing.” Part of the SAP Leonardo portfolio, the software is part of the firms’s Internet of Things drive, allowing customers to manage and make the most of Big Data, analytics and business networks, as in the proprietary enterprise resource planning suite SAP S/4HANA.
More than just prototyping
The ultimate goal of 3D printing is for the technology to reach the industrial scale of manufacturing and become an alternative means of production for end-user parts. The industry as whole has also moved to decentralized manufacturing, putting the customer both literally and figuratively closer to the production process. This is how additive has become a central pillar of Industry 4.0. As such, the demand for supporting software solutions is high.
Jason Joo, Managing Director for Asia and Co-Founder of 3D Printing Studios, explains, “Having been in the 3D printing industry for almost a decade and being the early pioneer in this region, we have grown with our customers and have seen an increase in demand from companies adopting 3D printing for “Industrial Grade” printed parts meant for functional applications.”
“This moves the use of this disruptive technology beyond just for prototyping.”
Toward Industry 4.0
SAP’s Distributed Manufacturing platform is a scalable solution allowing for the integration of new digital strands as a business grows. The system provides an “end-to-end, quote-to-contract process” currently linking more than 45 early access customers including Airbus’ APWORKS, EOS, HP, voxeljet, Stratasys and Jabil.
Khor Chern Chuen, Managing Director, SAP Singapore, comments, “SAP has been a strong proponent of co-innovation, and SAP Distributed Manufacturing is a great example of a product that resulted from our co-innovation with customers and service providers to make 3D printing a seamless part of digital manufacturing,”
“In Singapore, we have been co-innovating with our customers to deliver new solutions to the market via our SAP Co-Innovation Lab. This collaboration with 3D Printing Studios is part of our aim to support manufacturers develop and adopt standard and scalable business process.”
“The ultimate goal is to help them intelligently manage their operations in a collaborative network to drive more effective Industry 4.0 strategies.”
From Singapore to South Korea
In this partnership, 3D Printing Studios seeks to serve B2B customer bases across 12 countries, including expansion in Singapore and Australia and beyond to New Zealand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, India, Sri Lanka, Japan and South Korea.
Joo says, “Asia is the fastest growing market region with many emerging economy currently booming and growing at a very healthy state, the adoption of 3D printed products being use is a very encouraging indicator and we want to be in the lead position to capture a significant market share from the manufacturing space.”
Business partnerships, materials releases, hardware and more are all posted daily by 3D Printing Industry on Twitter and Facebook.
Sign up to our 3D printing jobs site here, and our newsletter here.
Featured image shows SAP’s run like never before software motto. Image via SAP
