Supply and demand are getting misaligned and manufacturers need to re-evaluate strategies to get the market back into balance.

That was a key message delivered in a late June webinar we held about manufacturing and the supply chain, offering insight on planning for the future. If you missed it, I encourage you to listen to Lisa Anderson’s insights (see sidebar below).

In addition, she says that plans made in the past are no longer valid and that a new, immediate strategy is needed, along with a 3-month and a 9-month strategy to leverage existing opportunities and create new ones.

End-to-end supply chain visibility isn’t new, but with medical manufacturing feeling the impacts of the pandemic, re-evaluating supply chains and looking to digital transformations have become more important. And a recent survey offer insights.

Fictiv’s 5th annual 2020 State of Manufacturing Report found severe levels of COVID-19 disruption and a clear industry commitment to digital transformation. Findings show only 17% gave top marks to their supply chain’s performance (when asked to grade on an A-F scale). Looking deeper, 83% agree COVID-19 has been an extreme test to their supply chain; 95% are working to increase their supply chain agility; 91% plan to adopt dual- and triple-sourcing strategies; 84% say they will be more cautious about off-shoring; and 73% have minimized or have plans to minimize reliance on China.

When asked about digital transformation initiatives, 87% responded it was a high priority, yet only 14% believe those digital initiatives are well funded. A wide range of business goals were stated for following a digital transformation, ranging from reducing costs (46%) to adapting to a more virtual world (44%), increasing supply chain visibility (42%), driving efficiencies (40%), and accelerating time-to-market for new products (37%).

With digital transformation initiatives a high priority for many, 81% note they face difficulties in finding expertise. “The lack of expertise available in the market to help drive those benefits is a significant drag on the ability to succeed,” the report authors note. This is “all the more reason for digital manufacturing partnerships to play a powerful role in driving critical change.”

While Fictiv’s report dives into many other aspects of supply chain and digital transformation, a key takeaway is “companies’ investment in manufacturing partnerships to make supply chains dramatically more agile, predictable, and resilient will gain a significant competitive advantage in their markets.”

How are you embracing digital transformation and securing your supply chain?

Elizabeth Engler Modic

Amid a pandemic and worldwide protests about policing policies and racial inequalities, the first half of 2020 has been filled with events that aren’t unifying for any country. And, at a time when global cases of COVID-19 exceeded 8 million, and U.S. cases topped 2 million, people still remain split into two distinct groups – mask vs. non-mask wearers.

As much of the world hit pause in early March, it became obvious that the novel coronavirus had found worldwide governments unprepared to adequately respond. The U.S. response was invoking the Defense Production Act, giving the president authority to direct industry to produce critical equipment and supplies. While the act was established in 1950 during the Korean War to direct private industry to produce weapons, vehicles, and other material for war, through a 2009 Congressional amendment, the act now includes domestic preparedness and national emergency response efforts.

So, while much of manufacturing slowed to a crawl, the need to ramp up domestically produced medical equipment and supplies was apparent. To date, the federal government has committed $15.2 billion to roughly 4,000 companies to produce everything from hand sanitizer to personal protection equipment (PPE), ventilators, and testing kits.

Companies involved in textiles pivoted to making masks. Spirits producers turned from distilling whiskey to pumping out hand sanitizer. Auto manufacturing facilities turned from cars to ventilators. And, companies with additive manufacturing (AM) capabilities began producing assemblies for face shields and other needed medical equipment and devices.

The cover story in this month’s issue details how Xometry, using 3D printing and partnering with its network of nearly 4,000 manufacturers, worked with customers to quickly scale production of masks, face shields, ventilator parts, continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) to ventilator conversions, contactless temperature measurement devices, and powered air purifying respirator (PAPR) components. Xometry is also serving as extra capacity to large manufacturers working to meet demand, using 3D printing, injection molding, and sheet-metal fabrication to produce components. In one case, they helped scale ventilator airflow splitters production, creating hundreds per build by using HP Multi Jet Fusion additive manufacturing (AM).

As you read this issue, you’ll also learn about NRL & Associates – a company that hasn’t had a chance to catch its breath since early March – and how they got expedited delivery of a Fanuc RoboDrill so they could ramp-up production on ventilator component assemblies for a returning customer. And, as dental labs experienced drastic slowdowns as people weren’t allowed to visit dentists, our 3D/AM section looks at how Formlabs, USF Health, Tampa General Hospital, Norwell Health, and ROE Laboratories are 3D printing nasopharyngeal (NP) test swabs.

The rapidly spreading pandemic caught many government agencies, economists, and manufacturers by surprise, shredding rosy economic outlooks and forcing many businesses to radically restructure operations. However, manufacturing best practices embraced throughout the past 20 years have made industries more adaptable and flexible – better able to rapidly transition to vital medical components.

There’s one thing of which I’m certain, united manufacturers throughout the U.S. are doing all they can to overcome these unprecedented challenges.

Elite manufacturing teams quickly adapt to change, establishing clear process steps to efficiently develop medical devices and quickly ramp up production. So, as the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak spread, creating a need for critical medical devices and personal protective equipment (PPE), Xometry engineers knew they needed to put their agile network model to work.

Using 3D printing and partnering with their network of nearly 4,000 manufacturers, the company worked with customers to quickly scale production of masks, face shields, ventilator parts, continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) to ventilator conversions, contactless temperature measurement devices, and powered air purifying respirator (PAPR) components. Larger companies are relying on Xometry’s production capacity to meet demand, and smaller companies have come to the company for parts they typically don’t manufacture. In each instance, Xometry has learned the job and they’ve been able to respond.

Greg Paulsen, director of application engineering at Xometry, reflects on this business model to demonstrate the robustness of the industry and his company’s capabilities.

“We have a very wide variety that makes us almost technology agnostic,” Paulsen says. “It really helps us focus on the problem-solving aspect for a customer who needs parts done a certain way. We have technologies available that can meet their time, scope, and cost. Because we’re distributed, we have this very elastic kind of self-healing supply chain.”

Face shields

Given the immediate need for PPE, Xometry wanted to work on a scalable product they could create quickly and at low cost. For a few months, the company has been partnering with volunteer group MASKproject to manufacture an origami face shield – a piece of PPE that the wearer can quickly assemble by folding and combining a plastic shield with a strap. The origami face shield design was an outcome of the crowdsourced group Helpful Engineering, focused on COVID-19 emergency medical needs.

Die-cut clear plastic is easy to assemble in the field and can be produced quickly, enabling Xometry to create 10,000 units each day.

The clear, anti-fog plastic, full-face shield comes in two pieces – a shield and strap. It takes about 1 minute to assemble, requiring the shield to be folded and combined with the strap component. The shield protects the wearer’s face from hazards including large, potentially virus-laden droplets expelled when patients talk or cough.

“If or when situations come up, or if there’s a substantial need, we can turn this into a much more streamlined process,” Paulsen explains. “If we’re able to consolidate and make 10,000 [units] of a design that works well for that, then we could share those economies of scale. So that idea of a virtual responsive inventory is very interesting to help future-proof or speed up responsiveness.”

The work was highly scalable, and as a result, Xometry saw it propel as a percentage of their active network and active jobs. There was more molding work and die-cutting, and these scalable items are pushing demand for higher quantities and shorter lead times.

“That ability for us to scale based on what they need when they need it and how they need it is just so important,” Paulsen adds. “With that elastic capacity, we can stretch when we need to stretch and compress back when they need to go back.”

Medical equipment

For other larger manufacturers working to meet demand, Xometry serves as extra capacity. They have used 3D printing, injection molding, and sheet-metal fabrication to produce components. Equipment components the company helped scale were ventilator airflow splitters. They were able to create hundreds per build by using HP Multi Jet Fusion additive manufacturing (AM).

They also worked on adapters and developed them to convert a CPAP machine to work like a ventilator. Other ventilator components were developed as well.

For these products, they took open-source CAD files and scaled to mass-production quantities very quickly.

“We are the parts manufacturer for those making the components for the ventilators,” Paulsen explains. “There are a lot of physical, mechanical components that are going into these devices. They’re using us because we are still open, and we have the supply chain that allows us to hit very short lead times.”

Thermal imaging device

X.Labs, a startup R&D firm specializing in advanced sensing and warning technology, turned to Xometry to fabricate housings and mounts for their contactless heat-detection product, Feevr. The thermal imaging device identifies individuals with elevated temperatures by using a software-enabled camera to look at thermal readings and highlight if the individual is above peak temperature. Using selective laser sintering (SLS), Xometry manufactured various housings and mounts for the device. The process used Nylon 12 and HP Multi Jet Fusion with TPU 95A material, as well as injection molding and compression molding to meet design requirements. Engineers were able to develop the product and make it available in a matter of weeks.

Xometry was able to create a stopgap solution with AM to get their first articles out. While the first 100 units were made using 3D printing technology, Xometry engineers, in parallel, were producing hard tooling for injection- and compression-molding to create a housing for their battery case. They also developed a rubbery housing for X.Labs’ thermal camera. Xometry was able to create the packaging for them quickly, and with that hard tooling, they’ve been able to scale up output significantly to hit immediate needs.

“This has been a true stress test,” Paulsen adds. “We have different supply chains all across the U.S. shutting down and others altering production. It’s been a positive observation to see how Xometry is working with small business machine shops and keeping them resilient.”

Future production

Paulsen says Xometry has learned many lessons from the crisis response, and hopes to apply those learnings to be more observant of changes once the industry is back to normal. If a similar situation comes up again, the company will be ready with a more streamlined process in place for customers to connect directly with those who can do finishing jobs in-house and services are in place to help machinists.

“I think this whole idea of a virtual responsive inventory is very interesting,” Paulsen concludes. “It would be a way to help future-proof or speed up the rate of responsiveness for future events. If we’re able to consolidate to make 10,000 products and have a design that works well for that, then we could share that economy of scale.”

Xometry

About the author: Michelle Jacobson is the assistant editor of TMD. She can be reached at mjacobson@gie.net or 216.393.0323

End mills

Patriot High Performance end mills, originally optimized to tackle difficult-to-machine applications such as in titanium and pre-hardened steels, excel in an array of exotic, alloyed, and ferrous part materials. Shown to extend tool life 20% in some applications, the design is suitable for high efficiency milling (HEM) applications, delivering higher metal removal rates and increased productivity that provides a measurable return-on-investment (ROI).

Bi-directional AGV with kitting cart

Model CA-B50100-BST NSI automated guided vehicle (AGV) with kitting cart offers a product kit for a specific assignment or multiple kits for small batch production and manufacturing efficiency. The bi-directional model provides flexible movement along its guidepath and when necessary, rotates in place. Dual-drive wheels give the AGV higher load capacity and the ability to travel laterally.

Both ends of the AGV are guided, as each dual-drive wheel independently follows independently follows the magnetic guidepath, reducing the required amount of routing space, especially in turns or space restrictive areas. Travel speed is up to 50m/min. and estimated towing capacity is 2,222 lb (1,000kg).