Overview
More than 30 years ago, 3D Systems brought the innovation of 3D printing to the manufacturing industry. Today, as the leading additive manufacturing solutions partner, 3D Systems brings innovation, performance, and reliability to every interaction - empowering their customers to create products and business models never before possible. Thanks to their unique offering of hardware, software, materials, & services, each application-specific solution is powered by the expertise of our application engineers who collaborate with customers to transform how they deliver their products and services. 3D Systems’ solutions address a variety of advanced applications in healthcare and industrial markets such as medical and dental, aerospace & defense, automotive, and durable goods.
Supernova Award Category
Next Generation Customer Experience
The Problem
3D Systems is part of the additive manufacturing industry, which is disrupting traditional manufacturing, yet, they are also a manufacturer themselves. As technology advances, everything in manufacturing now depends on service to deliver the right customer outcomes.
As customer expectations for zero unplanned downtime and reliable technology grew, 3D Systems knew they needed to dramatically change their services organization to keep pace with customer needs. They searched for ways to get ahead of their customers’ demands—hoping to alert their users to potential issues like clogged filters or environmental conditions (such as temperature) that might affect the quality and output of the parts and products they print. Their goal was to shift to more proactive service, deliver a quicker response time on service needs, maximize uptime, and become more accurate when addressing customer challenges to reduce repeat visits.
The Solution
Given 3D Systems’ focus on proactively addressing needs, they needed an FSM provider who could leverage machine data off of connected assets, help them collect & leverage technical attributes on these assets, as well as provide smart, remote triage capabilities. This digital transformation would help them solve customer problems remotely and proactively—a huge advantage as COVID-19 changed our world.
To do this, 3D Systems rolled out ServiceMax in 2018, seeking to make the data they collect more actionable. In parallel, they implemented a solution to collect IoT data, but as volumes grew and requirements became more demanding, 3D Systems transitioned this IoT infrastructure to Amazon Web Services. Next, 3D Systems added Remote Triage (powered by Aquant) to proactively predict service needs—something that would be virtually impossible to do without AI-driven technology collecting data, observing patterns, and anticipating needs.
The results
3D Systems now has solutions designed for a connected world. The data collected is helping to improve the hardware they manufacture, as well as better inform the service process. Historical item usage data is helping to forecast future demand. And asset data is driving new innovation and improved customer experiences. All new products are connected, and 3D Systems has close to 1,000 connected assets at customer sites today. Because most of the 3D printers that 3D Systems operates are Internet-enabled, they continuously collect data on how the printers are performing and use that data to proactively mitigate future issues. The better the data is, the better the printing system is. Today, they can maintain uptime and resolve customer issues much quicker. As the asset “talks” to them more and more, 3D Systems is shifting from being reactive to proactive to predictive. Their goal is to use IoT to help customers derive more value from their print systems, improve their uptime, and enable more efficient service delivery.
Metrics
3D Systems has seen reduced truck rolls, reduced parts consumption, improved FTFR (first time fix rate) and mean time to repair, and an increase in customer satisfaction.
In the last 2.5 years, 3D Systems’ NPS score has grown from 22 to 65, a 195% increase! Other results include a 62% reduction in parts usage and a 39% decrease in repeat visits. Most importantly, 3D Systems has benefited from increased equipment uptime due to a more accurate and rapid response mechanism.
The Technology
Since 2017, 3D Systems has relied on ServiceMax’s powerful installed base, work order management, and reporting capabilities to improve first time fix rate, mean time to repair, engineer utilization, and ultimately provide a better customer experience. ServiceMax is also the system that enables 3D Systems to make the IoT data they collect actionable. Meanwhile, IoT data and infrastructure comes from Amazon Web Services and Remote Triage capabilities are powered by Aquant.
Disruptive Factor
3D Systems’ technology itself is disruptive—helping organizations in dozens of industries print parts on demand or create entirely new products.
During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, a customer of 3D Systems paused their printing of dental applications and began creating prototypes of N95 masks, as well as valves for ventilators. While these aren’t their normal print jobs, this 3D Systems customer decided to disrupt their normal routine to show support for their community during a global pandemic.
3D Systems’ own digital transformation is aiding their customers’ ability to deliver new breakthroughs in their respective markets, as well as print products that support global supply challenges.
Shining Moment
Certainly, the incredible increase in 3D Systems’ NPS score (nearly tripling the score in less than 3 years) was the most visible and important achievement and is truly representative of a next-generation customer experience. This experience is one that is proactive, connected, and anticipates customers’ needs, ensuring the technology their customers rely on to create innovative products and parts truly delivers.