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The Fastest Way to Scale Your 3D Printing Business

Scaling a business is more than just adding customers and profits. Scaling includes having an easy automated process in place for new potential clients to start a project with you. Technology is certainly a big part of this, but more so it involves a mindset to give your customer the tools needed to get answers that move them along the path of doing business with you more often.

We know that prospective customers often just want to know, “how much will this cost?” so we must be able to have a quick answer for them, ideally one that’s automated but also inexpensive. Larger service bureaus are able to afford the front-end tools that prospects increasingly expect – notably, the ability to quote a project online in seconds.

Let’s cut right to it: You need a tool to quote projects faster and more completely, more comprehensively. Ideally, this “get a quote” calculator is built right into your website working 24/7 for you. You want to be able to quote the project without investing tons of your time, your top engineer’s time, or demanding more of the prospective customer’s time.

Perfecting the quoting process for 3D printing services is what pushed me to start MakerOS, and it’s one that we continue to solve. We’ve noticed that successful companies go beyond a robust quote methodology and website tool.

Ultimately, they start connecting internal processes (including sales and customer experience tools), and then link it to a healthy customer relationship management (CRM) process (one built specifically for 3D printing and additive manufacturing companies which dramatically help retention and future referrals).

Let’s look at these three areas to improve the customer experience and your profitability:

Start with the Quote 

  • Convert more prospects into paying customers when you use a holistic quoting methodology. People are going to come to your website expecting they can enter some basic parameters, a copy of the file to be printed or made, and get a rough idea of the cost.
  • Capture relevant information for salespeople and engineers during the quoting process. Information that will close any gaps between sales and engineering will create better collaboration and optimized workflows for you and your customer. Relevant information might include specific instructions the customer shares with the sales person, but in many companies would not get transferred immediately to the engineer. The earlier you put information in front of key people, the sooner your customer realizes he or she is at the center.
  • You are not in the business of providing quotes; you are in the business of completing projects for clients.

Connect Your Processes to Set Yourself up for Success

  • Sync the sales process with engineering and product development to become more efficient
  • Automate a lot of the admin work to free up time to focus on the final product. Most CRM tools will allow you to send automated messages keeping customers up-to-date on what is happening with their project build.
  • Provide a professional experience for your customer

Retain Customers

  • Since receiving a fast quote is practically a requirement today, by doing so you will reduce attrition and build a client base. You will have more opportunities to converse with your prospect and win them over if you give them what they want – the quote – as fast as possible.
  • When you include clients in your workflow, give them access to data about what will happen or is happening with their job, they will see you as a trusted provider. A bit of a shameless plug here: we believe the MakerOS Client Portal and Communication Hub enables a level of client collaboration because it focuses on unique aspects of running a 3D printing service bureau — keeping you in production mode.
  • When you put the customer at the center, open up visibility into your production process, your clients will become champions of your business. They are more likely to give you referrals because of this transparency.

You’ll be better able to grow when you make it easy for your customer to do business with you via smart quote tools accessible on your website. After you have gained their trust with a fast and responsive quote, given them transparency into the workflow as the job gets done, you earn the right to keep in contact to encourage future business (using your customized CRM process). Keep scaling.

We built MakerOS with a holistic methodology to enhance your ability to quote 3D printing projects, taking into account all aspects of the business. You can test our 3D Printing Pricing Calculator that we developed to complement our new methodology.

MakerOS is a web-based, all-in-one collaboration platform for 3D printing and digital fabrication companies to develop products faster, regardless of company size or stage.

If you’re looking to ensure you’re pricing correctly, or how to scale your 3D printing business, contact us to learn more.

About the Author:

Mike Moceri has deep experience in manufacturing, design, and software. In 2013, he co-founded the world’s first 3D printing retail service bureau in Chicago. In 2014 he founded Manulith, a 3D printing and product design agency, where his clientele included Fortune 500 companies within the aerospace, automotive, and medical industries. Mike is also a mentor at Stanley+Techstars Additive Manufacturing Accelerator, a mentor at WeWork Labs in NYC, and formerly a mentor at TechTown Detroit. He’s previously been featured on MSN, Make Magazine, NBC, and the Encyclopedia Britannica. D-Business Magazine called him the “Face of 3D printing.” Mike is currently the founder and CEO of MakerOS, an all-in-one collaboration platform for additive manufacturing services to efficiently work with clients throughout the entire lifecycle of a project.

The post The Fastest Way to Scale Your 3D Printing Business appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

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Interview With Valuechain on ERP and MRP for Additive Manufacturing

3D printing is still for many companies something that is divorced from regular business processes. Somewhere in a ventilated room a few printers hum and prototypes are taken out of them every once in a while. Meanwhile, in businesses that use 3D printing for manufacturing, 3D printing software controls, logs and verifies builds is being implemented. In large enterprises, systems integrators and IT departments now have to find a way to tie 3D printing production to internal systems such as ERP and PLM. Early on, I was once sitting next to a nice man on a plane who warned me to never ever get involved with an ERP implementation. Ignoring his advice, a few years later I found out it’s like trying to cram your whole company on an Excel sheet while an external vendor sells you the most expensive thing ever without anyone understanding what it does and how to use it. Its kind of like a super complex corporate Kinder Egg toy but you never manage to assemble it and instead of tossing it you’re stuck with it forever and now only Mary knows how to get more Post Its. I’ve always seen it as either multivitamins for corporations or one of those magnet therapy wristbands for companies. Either once you’re old an wise enough you start doing it because its smart to do so or its a special kind of hokum that some believe in fervently while the majority of people ignore its existence. Somewhere between that experimental department in the office and 3D printing for manufacturing ERP, CRM and all the IT tooling in your firm will meet, however. And its going to suck. Systems integration companies will do well trying to knit together the improvised processes we have with the established ways of managing a company. Being involved in this process and being a player that could extricate firms from this mess would be a good play indeed. More and more grafting 3D printing onto a firm will be a fast growing business. This is why 3DPrint.com reached out to Jim Walters, MD of DNA ltd. to talk about Valuechain a company that purports to have a way to do just that.
What is Valuechain?
“Valuechain Technologies is a global enterprise software business which provides modular ERP solutions for advanced manufacturing sectors, and supply chain intelligence solutions. Focusing on niche processes such as additive manufacturing, Valuechain’s modular ERP integrates CRM, compliance auditing, data capture, advanced reporting, NPI and supplier portals to digital business processes to improve productivity. Valuechain’s supply chain intelligence applications include supply chain performance management, multi-tier supply chain mapping, and supplier / customer portals. Designed by Valuechain’s leadership team, with over 100 years’ experience owning and running advanced manufacturing companies, Valuechain’s solutions are developed in collaboration with our 500+ SME clients and leading manufacturing companies including Airbus, Bentley Motors and Rolls-Royce, to provide scalable solutions for companies of all sizes.”
Do you believe in the Digital Twin concept?
“The ability to visualise products and processes in a virtual environment can reduce waste significantly by accelerating technical problem solving and knowledge transfer through lower risk prototypes and simulated pilots. This compresses new product introduction and enables businesses to engage stakeholders prior to major investments in people, product, plant, processes and systems which not only mitigates risk but also reduces quality non-conformances, costs and drives on-time in full delivery.”
How would I digitize my entire manufacturing process?
“The priority must be to create capacity for change which for many companies is about streamlining data capture and removing waste caused by fragmented systems and processes. It is important to understand current performance measures and prioritise improvement areas with tangible success criteria. Through digital production control, work flow and business intelligence solutions such as Valuechain’s solutions it is then possible to do more with less and operate smarter by providing key personnel with reliable business intelligence to make informed decisions. Too many businesses focus on historic KPIs ie. what happened, rather than focusing on why things are happening and what is likely to happen, it is therefore critical to capture diagnostic analytics to capture risks and lessons learned to embed corporate learning that can underpin AI driven predictive analytics.”
What kind of Additive Manufacturing software do you have?
“We have either a complete end to end MRP solution including our AM TRACE module, which will handle the whole of life production and sub con / post processes operations from estimating through to invoice or alternatively the AM TRACE module is available as a bolt on “app” for existing and legacy MRP ERP or MES solutions. We also currently have two versions of this, AeroDNAam DNAam and new this year is our DNAam Start-Up Program to assist smaller SME companies enter the AM sector.”
For what industries is DNAam meant?
“DNAam was designed for AS9100 Aerospace manufacturing initially but since its launch at Paris Air Show in 2017 with the backing of our first clients and innovation partners AIRBUS and Zenith Tecnica in New Zealand. However not surprisingly the unique and dynamic TRACE solution for materials and consumables associated with the manufacturing process has attracted interest from the Medical Automotive and Heavy industries also such as shipbuilding along with Oil & Gas. That will only continue to grow for us.:
How does this optimize build planning?
“We have 2 levels of capacity planning / scheduling – which can show machine availability + planning control.”
Do you optimize nesting as well?
“DNAam manages the production process for AM parts, and integrates with software for design which may optimise nesting.”
Is this meant only for powder bed fusion operators?
“Initially, DNAam was developed for EBM production, however, over the last year we have expanded its capabilities to work with a variety of technologies, including FDM, Laser, SLS, WAAM, Polyjet… pretty much anything.”
Why is traceability so important?
“Highly regulated sectors such as aerospace and automotive require end-to-end traceability to ensure accountability for compliance throughout the product lifecycle. Additive manufacturing offers significant opportunities to optimise raw material usage but only if unused powders and materials can be recycled. However scaling up traceability for all recycled and blended AM material batches has prior to DNAam has been complex, manual and prone to human error.”
What unique features do you have?
Visual Stock management tool: DNAam’s visual stock location management Drag and drop Gins between locations as they progress along the production process, from Goods In to Powder Storage, to Machining to Blend area. Any time you move a Gin, a record is automatically recorded of who moved what, when, and to where; so you have complete audit traceability.
  • Configurable chemical elements for each material , to store sample results.
  • Graded material control.
  • Detail production data capture forms (iQapture)
  • Visual AM-Trace tool: Two major challenges of implementing AM parts in aviation are traceability of the powder and achieving repeatability in the process to standardise it. The trace tool allows us visualise every build in which a batch of powder has been used by clicking on it. This intuitive tool provides complete traceability which can be used to scale-up AM production, not only in aerospace but in all types of industries.
Why should I buy this?
“DNAam has been innovated in collaboration with some of the world’s leading advanced manufacturing companies such as Airbus, to embed best practice, scalable AM business processes and capture AM business intelligence. As a modular solution DNA.am can work alongside existing ERP solutions for primes and tier 1’s, or as a cost-effective turnkey ERP system from quotation through to invoicing for smaller AM businesses or even start-up AM bureaus.”

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Interview with Alex Ziff of 3DCompare

For the past decades the only way to get your 3D printed part made was through 3D printing service bureaus or by buying industrial machines and producing in house. Since around 2008 people have also been able to use desktop 3D printers at home or the office to 3D print, and 3Dhubs networked those destkop machines. A whole host of companies tried to tackle the same business idea which was to resell spare capacity on existing industrial machines. Several companies have already come and failed at trying to be a public face and platform for connecting service bureaus to consumers or businesses. These businesses could be real challengers to service bureaus because they have lower overhead and can focus on marketing and building software tools. In 2D printing companies such as Vista Print and pure play online print companies are wreaking havoc on the competitive landscape. Will something similar happen in 3D printing? We interviewed 3DCompare founder Alex Ziff to find out about his company.

3D Compare is a 3D printing and CNC upload service. You can upload your file and based on the material, shape and where you are located the company gives you the best price for that part. At scale this would be efficient for services working with 3DCompare and for consumers as well. By matching consumers to the right vendor at the right price the company could make pricing in 3D printing market efficient. Meanwhile half a dozen startups have tried to do this for CNC and 3D printing and have failed. Has 3D Compare cracked the code to do this well?

Why were you founded?
 “3DCompare.com was founded to brings transparency, ease of use and reliability to the growing On Demand Manufacturing services.”
So you don’t actually 3D Print anything?

3DCompare.com actually does not 3D Print anything ourselves, but our partners do, via our algorithms that help match them with our users. 3D Compare offers a wide range of technologies and materials for any company to manufacture from initial concept to mass production, by connecting verified manufacturers with customers. With quality and openness in mind, 3DCompare has been receiving great feedback from its customers since inception in late 2017. In less than a year, the platform has dealt with 17,000 quotes.

Where is the value add for your customers?
We have 2 types of customers: the users who need to get a 3d object manufactured and the actual manufactures who are using our manufacturing CRM.
To the user, 3Dcompare brings value with an efficient and easy to use our instant pricing on demand manufacturing platform where they can get anything designed and manufactured by the verified partners.
To the verified partners, we bring a marketing and technology stack with:
  1. A Marketplace Platform
  2. A White label Instant pricing tool (IPT)
  3. A CRM & CMS for Manufacturing
The White Labeled Instant Pricing Tool (IPT):  Quotes made instant and easy for your customers. The 3DCompare team has built an IPT that is very easy to integrate into your business website to offer your users an instant 3D printing quote and a request-a-quote form that links seamlessly to the CRM Platform to manage all your orders and customers.  The reason for us releasing a White label Instant Pricing Tool (IPT) for the On-Demand Manufacturing market is we believe that there is a gap in the market for a low-price high-end tool like this so that any one from a large enterprise to small businesses and hobbyists looking to get up and running can benefit to drive growth.
Their CSM & CRM platform (connected to the IPT) helps reduce administrative time, and the new update brings several new exciting features. They now work with both PayPal and Stripe as payment providers. This means they don’t hold your funds like others – it’s straight into your account.As we now add in more features, we are still looking to grow our number of Business partners who can offer first class high quality services to businesses looking to produce their 3D objects on our On-Demand Manufacturing marketplace.
What kind of customers are you targeting?
“The customers we are targeting are businesses who need to manufacture a 3D object. However anyone can use the platform.” 
What materials and processes are printed most often with you?
“The most common processes are at the moment FDM, SLS and SLA, Metal 3D Printing. As for the most common materials, we had PLA, Nylon, Dental Resin and stainless steel.”
How do you think you will win?
We are best positioned to succeed with its growing base of verified partners, its strong technology offering and its business model. Indeed 3DCompare.com offer a free version of the White label Instant pricing tool (IPT) for up to 30 quotes or a Monthly subscription fee starting at £9.99 for up to 100 quotes/month. 3DCompare has an outstanding understanding of the on demand manufacturing market, they have a clear vision to capture the opportunity and a passionate and talented team of developers and marketers.
Do you think that desktop 3D Printers will kill services?
“I think quite the opposite. The mass adoption of desktop 3d printers is serving as a catalyst for the spread of on demand manufacturing into the $15T manufacturing sector. 3Dcompare is proud to be part of this tremendous opportunity.”