Companies large and small will have access to on-demand manufacturing at the touch of a button, thanks to a new agreement between SAP and UPS.
The agreement will see SAP combine its extended supply chain solutions with UPS’s additive industrial manufacturing and logistics network to get products to market more quickly and cost-effectively.
This will include the digitisation and implication of the production part approval process through SAP, which the companies believe will enable a significantly higher number of industrial 3D print-ready production parts to be approved and certified. These can then be ordered through UPS On-Demand Manufacturing will full integration with SAP manufacturing and procurement processes.
It will also enable companies to automatically quantify the financial viability of 3D printing vs traditional procurement and manufacturing options, and then order via UPS for production and delivery, with tracking from within SAP.
According to UPS, its new on-demand network will benefits customers such as:
- Manufacturers wanting to reduce inventory for slow-moving parts,
- Manufacturers with short production runs where the cost to create the mould or tooling could make these orders too expensive for traditional manufacturing,
- Manufacturers and retailers of custom/semi-custom goods as additive manufacturing allows cost-effective customisation of goods,
- Industrial designers and engineers who want high quality rapid prototypes, and
- Entrepreneurs, start-ups and manufacturers who don’t currently have access to 3D printers or have limited capital and time and will use 3D printing for rapid prototyping and manufacturing of initial production runs.“Technology innovations such as 3D printing are revolutionising traditional manufacturing and redefine our notion of the industrial supply chain,” said Bernd Leukert, member of the Executive Board, Products and Innovations, SAP SE.
“By bringing together the on-demand manufacturing and logistics expertise of UPS and the extended supply chain leadership of SAP, we can enable direct digital manufacturing and an on-demand industrial manufacturing network that connects from manufacturing floor to the customer door.”
The announcement was made at the 28th annual SAPPHIRE NOW conference.
