DigitalituM Podcast Episode 15 - Mark Winker - replique - Additive Manufacturing as a Service

 Manufacturing Without Warehouses – Additive Manufacturing as a Service with Replique’s Mark Winker

🔧 Episode Summary:
In this episode of the DigitalituM Podcast – At the Intersection of Manufacturing and Digital Transformation, host Markus Rimmele speaks with Mark Winker, business leader at Replique, a German startup revolutionizing how spare parts and industrial components are produced and delivered through Additive Manufacturing as a Service (AMaaS).

Mark shares Replique’s mission to digitize supply chains through on-demand, decentralized, and secure 3D printing. From Miele's smart spare parts strategy to fully digitalized product lifecycles for OEMs, this conversation covers the rise of distributed manufacturing, IP protection in global part fulfillment, and the mindset shift manufacturers must embrace to stay competitive.

Whether you’re a machine builder, OEM, or innovator looking to eliminate costly inventory and reduce CO₂ emissions, this episode is your crash course in the real-world business case for additive manufacturing.

🎯 What You’ll Learn:

• What is “Manufacturing as a Service” and how Replique enables it
• How Replique helps OEMs digitize their parts catalog and avoid global shipping headaches
• Why 3D printing is ideal for spare parts, bridge manufacturing, and small batches
• How Replique secures intellectual property and prevents unauthorized printing
• What separates Replique from instant-quote 3D printing platforms
• Examples from Miele and other OEMs benefiting from on-demand manufacturing
• Why ownership of industrial 3D printers may not be necessary (or wise)
• The role of AI and ERP integration in the future of digital manufacturing

📦 Use Case Spotlight – Miele:
Instead of overproducing plastic parts with expensive injection molds, Miele uses Replique’s digital warehouse to print accessories and spare parts only when and where they’re needed—reducing waste, cost, and logistics complexity while improving customer experience.

🛠️ Mark Winker on Industrial Additive Manufacturing:

"Most OEMs don’t need to own the printers. What they need is a digital, secure, and distributed manufacturing workflow—and we deliver that."

🌍 Guest: Mark Winker
🔗 Mark Winker on LinkedIn
🌐 www.replique.io

👤 Host: Markus Rimmele
Founder of DigitalituM, Markus helps European industrial companies adopt digital tools like AR, IoT, MES, and Additive Manufacturing in the U.S. market.

🔗 Markus Rimmele on LinkedIn

💡 If this episode sparked ideas: ✅ Follow & share the podcast
✅ Reach out to Markus or Mark
✅ Explore how on-demand digital manufacturing can simplify your spare parts logistics

🎧 Subscribe for more stories at the intersection of Manufacturing and Digital Transformation.

Stay tuned for more inspiring conversations about manufacturing and digital transformation. Also, remember to follow and subscribe to the DigitalituM Podcast for exclusive insights from industry leaders and innovators.

We appreciate your likes and comments. If you feel you can add value to this podcast series and want to be our guest, send an email to Sales@DigitalituM.com

Transcript

 Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (00:01) Welcome to another episode of the Digitalitum Podcast at the intersection of manufacturing and digital transformation. My guest today is Mark Winker with Replique a unique manufacturing as a service company in the area of additive manufacturing. Welcome Mark to my podcast. Mark (00:27) Thank you, Markus, for having me. It's a pleasure. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (00:30) So let's dive right into it. Tell us a little bit more about you and how did you get to Replique? What's your journey in that? Mark (00:44) my journey is a long one in the meantime. I'm a sales to the core guy. You know, I've always been in industrial sales all my career, always with a very international focus. I've started my career in oil and gas, very globally from Texas to South Africa to Asia. Constructed tanks in every part of the world. Then I switched later on in my career. I switched into the aluminum industry There I had the main focus on automotive and offshore Then I've spent a year as in consultancy business and then I joined replique in 3d printing as This was a very future exciting project, let's call it, that has proven to perform. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (01:48) Mm-hmm. Yeah, and Replique is not that typical type of German company, even they are German company, but they are not in a typical space and they don't do it in a typical way. Can you just roughly explain what is the business model of Replique and what you guys are actually doing? Mark (02:18) So the business model is basically manufacturing as a service on a global scale. So what we are doing is we're bringing physical assets into the digital world by creating a digital twin of any part that is manufactured today, put it into our digital warehouse. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (02:23) Mm-hmm. Mark (02:45) bringing stocks from the physical world that cost space, cost inventory money into the digital world, save the space, get rid of the cost and only produce them on demand when they're needed actually somewhere. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (03:08) at the location where you need them, worldwide. Yeah. Mark (03:11) Exactly. So we have a global network of manufacturing partners. When a part today is needed in Germany, we produce it in Germany. And when our German customer, for example, needs a spare part for a machine that he has installed in the United States, we produce it in the United States. So we eliminate the shipping, we eliminate the customs import situation, and therefore Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (03:34) Mm-hmm. Mark (03:41) are there with the part needed in the minimum possible amount of time. That's basically the idea behind. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (03:49) But just to make it clear, you guys are not a 3D printing shop or an additive manufacturing shop. You don't own all the different additive manufacturing machines all around the globe. Mark (04:04) No, we are a digital supply chain solution provider, I would say. Slash platform. Yes. So, yes, we are a digital platform model where everybody can, where every OEM can participate, upload his parts and get them produced, decentralized, always there where the demand is created. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (04:10) platform. Mark (04:32) in the closest possible proximity to, first of all, reduce times until a part is at the valued customer and at the same time reduce CO2 footprint for physical shipment because we rather ship around or send around digital production files rather than physical products. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (04:32) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. But at the end, it's also a price and a time efficiency as if you're sent apart internationally, you have to go through custom and duty and there's always a delay on that. Mark (05:01) short Shipping usually isn't the issue. That's pretty controllable. you know, when you talk Germany, when you talk United States, customs is a pretty standardized process and it's controllable. But what about if you're an OEM and you have customers in India? If you have customers in Vietnam, in South Africa, in Congo, their customs is chaos and prone to really unhealthy situations for you and your customer relationship. And this is what we're trying to get rid of by always producing as close as possible to the place of demand, at least always within the economical area so that you get rid of all the import tax situation. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (06:09) Now we need to wait a minute. I have a contractor at home and he's using his trill, hammer drill Let's wait until he's done. We're building a new Sun Room and that cannot be done with additive manufacturing yet. Mark (06:23) Sure, worries. say that it's just not you know of Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (06:40) Let's put it this way, not in a cost efficient way as the typical lumber is the price efficient method, at least here in the US. Mark (06:55) Yeah, if you compare American house construction and European house construction, I'm pretty sure your Lambo kind of installation way is the more cost efficient, at least today. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (07:11) Yeah, it's the material, but it's also the know-how of the workers as they know how to deal with it and know how to work it and make it all possible. If you put new technology, new material into it, you have to also train the people in how to use it and it takes a long time to get that adoption, at least here in the construction industry. where you also have different skill sets, it's definitely an issue. Mark (07:45) I can send you a robot that is printing you your winter garden from concrete and you just have to fix the windows at the end of the day. So it's not all about labor, it's about technology and digitalization. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (07:53) Mm-hmm. Yes, and I'm aware of this 3D printing concrete wall model. I've seen that and that's actually pretty unique, which then also helps in the whole topic of labor shortage, what we have here in the US in all industries from construction into manufacturing. Mark (08:26) Yeah, but I think let's skip away from the production bit and focus on our core theme manufacturing. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (08:34) Exactly. So let's go back to Replique and how this all started. What was the more or less the problem what the founders of Replique wanted to solve and what was their vision when you guys were founded, which is a couple of years ago to my understanding. Mark (08:53) Yeah, that's completely true. Replique or the idea for Replique was born in 2020 within BASF, the chemical company, with the background of labor shorting and getting qualified personal and qualified materials and parts into the organization. So the idea was how can we digitalize or digitize part sourcing and make hot-saucing more efficient. So that was the idea back in BASF. Then BASF has decided within their digital strategy board that the idea that we have on digitizing warehouse and making parts available on demand whenever they need it, wherever they need it is too far off of the core business of BASF. So they have put us in the Chemovator, which is the startup incubator of BASF. There we have spent and appreciated two years of, let's call it a probation state, where the business model could have been tested on the market, could collect experience feedback and get improvement until market readiness. We had that by the end of 2022 where we acquired a portfolio of nice large corporate customers that were very diverse in industries. And then we took the decision to spin out and get an independent company. So by March, 2023, we spun out from BASF, founded the Ripley GmbH, which is a private owned legal entity. And today we're a fully privately owned company. completely independent. I can't hear you? Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (11:22) Are there still any ties into BSF in terms of ownership or are you completely separated now? Mark (11:32) BASFs, you know, they have helped us growing up, have financed our baby footsteps in the beginning, and therefore they got a minute share within the company. So they're a partial owner, but they have no voting rights and no decisive rights. They just, in case we're getting successful, they're getting a share of the profit, if not exactly. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (11:39) Mm-hmm. Yeah, makes sense. Yep. Yep. They're getting their fair share of it. Cool. As there are already a couple of this additive manufacturing companies and also some type of manufacturing as a service platforms out there, how do you guys differentiate from the others on the market? Mark (12:21) That's pretty simple and pretty straightforward. So most of the 3D printing or manufacturing as a service platforms that are out there, they operate on a... Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (12:25) Mm-hmm. Mark (12:37) Short-term business focus. So you upload a part, you get an instant quote and you get a part within a very short delivery time according to the 3D model that you've uploaded. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (12:52) Yes. Mark (12:55) But being an industrial person, you and I, know a part most likely is not ready by the 3D design. There are tolerances, surface qualities, dimensions that cannot be displayed yet properly in the 3D model. Therefore, there is still a 2D manufacturing drawing. allocated to the part and this is where the complexity lies in. So getting an instant quote and the part produced from a 3D model today is not a problem but it will not give you a part that you can put into purpose right away because surface is not right, tolerances are not right, whatever. You still have to post-process it in some sort of whatever. So the basic idea of Replique was to go into the spare parts scenario and make the, you know, store the part or the part design digitally, have it approved by the OEM and then make it repeatable, independent of the demand location. But therefore you always have to provide part to the customer that can go directly into purpose. Either is it a machine part that goes into a CNC center, into a packaging line, whatever. It always has to fulfill the purpose. You unpack it and you put it there where it has to go. So that's the first differentiator. And the second differentiator is that we don't follow AI generated automated pricing tools because they're always a whole works. They're always a mix. They never are precise. So every part you send to us, you upload to us through our website, it always goes through a physical human engineering check. and feedback. So we always have a consultancy involved, always focusing on the optimized outcome for the part that you need, technically. And then once the technical specification is clear, we fine tune it commercially so you get the best out of the technical specification, but also from a commercial point of view. always within the focus of your supply chain scenario. Is it a spare part? Is it a batch production? Is it bridge manufacturing or is it serial production? Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (16:03) That's quite interesting. So you're not on the pod level. You actually think of a whole bill of material of a machine, of equipment, and you help manufacturers which may produce these pods in traditional methods, CNC and all of that, and help them. How could the same part be manufactured through additive manufacturing? And we both... Mark (16:31) more efficiently. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (16:32) efficiently and we both know you cannot just take the CAD model of a CNC part and say, okay, I put that now on the 3D printer and I want it to have the same way. There are some optimization and all of that involved, right? Mark (16:53) Yes and no. So we can, as I said, originally our idea is coming from the spare part business model. So we really can reproduce any part, either is it a polymer part, a metallic part or a ceramic part. We can reproduce it one to one to what originally has been there. But Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (17:03) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mark (17:22) That's the spare parts scenario through geopolitical situations that happened in the last couple of years. Corona, Panama, canal draft, no ships going through. On the other side, we have the Arabian Canal, where the Houthis are making trouble, hindering ships. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (17:37) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, pirate attacks and all of that. Mark (17:52) Yeah, hijacking ships, hindering ships from going through. Now we have the war in Europe with Ukraine and Russia, which is not, you know, for you guys in the States, it's some place in Europe eventually. But here in Europe, it's really war in the heart of Europe. It's not far away. It's our neighbor country. And we... Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (17:59) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mark (18:20) We are Europeans, really involved and affected by that war, much more than you Americans are. So these all have been major global supply chain disruptions that have forced companies, OEMs to work against those disruptions. And what is typically the appropriate measure to... Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (18:26) Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Mm-hmm. Mark (18:49) cope with supply chain disruptions. You stock up. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (18:54) Mm-hmm. Mark (18:55) But what's the consequence of stocking up? Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (18:58) It's expensive. Mark (18:59) higher inventory, higher cost, more bound capital, a lot of administration. Why? When you can take it digital. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (19:11) Yeah. And so that's actually where you guys come in place as an alternative to stock up and bind all this capital and have this parts laying around in the warehouse and collecting dust in your model. It's manufactured at the time it's needed. Mark (19:35) where it's needed. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (19:36) when it's needed, where it's needed, and also from a production timing standpoint in a quick, efficient manner. It doesn't take 12 weeks to manufacture that part. You guys do it, I don't know, in a day or so. Mark (19:48) Yes, exactly. know, that's the... Theoretically a day, yes, or theoretically overnight, yes. But you know, there is always a process allocated to the part. You know, when everything is clear, I can drop the 3D file into my slicer, have it prepared for 3D printing, and have it overnight, no problem. But you know... Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (20:07) Of course. Mark (20:24) There is always, you know, there are engineers involved, purchasers involved, qualities involved, supply chain is involved. When you're talking B2B, there's always an industrial process allocated to purchasing or sourcing parts. So you have to respect the administration around. But the biggest benefit basically is there is no tool making. There is no programming. Once you have the 3D model of the part, boom, you can produce it and you can produce it. In a minimum amount of time, when you compare a single piece production between 3D printing and casting or 3D printing and CNC machining, it might take long on bare machine time. But when you consider the setup time, the programming of the CNC machine, the handling in and out, the post-processing, packaging, Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (21:33) Yeah, the overall time it takes to manufacture from planning to engineering to programming to making it, that's the whole time. And in additive manufacturing that can be cut out. You mentioned you guys do manufacturing as a service, but you don't own the printing equipment. This is run through independent partners. The question which Mark (22:01) Right. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (22:03) comes on that is on the whole topic of cybersecurity, as there is always that potential that your data of the IP of a product technically could be stolen or some 3D printing shop somewhere else is all of sudden manufacturing these parts. What do you guys do? to prevent this and why is this not an issue in the RepLig business model? Mark (22:43) Yes, first of all, let me confirm you're totally right on a distributed manufacturing scenario. This is the main concern. So starting replic, this concern was something that we need to get out of the way immediately. So this is really at the DNA of what we are doing is IP protection. So we are having Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (22:52) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mark (23:11) multiple steps to secure the IP security for our OEM customers. One is very easy. We only work with our audited, accredited and certified trustworthy partners where we establish a relationship with. We go there, we inspect them, we support them, we develop our partners also, you know, with growing demands, growing technical challenges. We're guiding them. So it's a it's really a partnership relationship. It's not just a sweatshop somewhere in China where we're sending files to and getting the cheapest possible part. There is no bidding. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (24:07) Mm-hmm. Mark (24:10) behind your part. You know, not the cheapest will get it. The most specialized and most dedicated to your industry partner will be your partner. And once we define that partner for you, it will remain your partner, your production partner, except you're scaling your business on a multi-location scenario. So internet. nationalization. Then we're always having the right partner in the right market for you on hand that does exactly the same thing that you would do at home in your workshop. Then secondly we have a digital way of proving that which is a patented security system that basically controls the number prints being released and all the quality data that is connected with the manufacturing. And if the quality criteria are met or not, that's the decisive factor of getting a shipment release or not. And when it comes to amount of parts, so we can generate the work order dash the production file in a way that it's built up like the old spy movie messages. know, we drop it on the on the 3D printer. It says five pieces can be printed. Five pieces are printed and then we take the data. the printer again that it's never in the ownership of the 3d printing partner. So you must see it as a self-distinguishing or self-deleting message once the amount is fulfilled. So we also can hinder illegal multiplication of your parts being produced and in consequence. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (26:30) So to sum it up, all the data is fully encrypted and the partner, the printer at the end of the chain doesn't even see the printing file and therefore cannot repeat it or change it or get it. Mark (26:48) Exactly. He cannot change the quality parameters and he cannot change the file parameters. The only thing he's forced and allowed to adapt to is the local temperature settings. You know, if you're printing a part in Texas, it's a different climate setting than printing a part in Singapore. So there are a couple of parameters of the print that are quality. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (26:56) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, of course. Mark (27:21) relevant that we can't manage from abroad, you know telling someone what's your humidity, what's your temperature, that's a controllable field of errors being put in. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (27:21) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Understand and how does then an end-to-end process look like? Let's take the example. I'm a small medium manufacturer of machinery out of Germany. I have a client in the US. I have this part or the spill of material. I come to you guys and ask you, how can we do it? Walk me through the process, what all happened roughly until the part gets to the end customer. Mark (28:13) For you as a customer, it's very simple. And the most critical part is your internal validation process. So we're working in all kinds of industries from home appliances to medical equipment, machine parts, commercial vehicles, automakers, historic vehicles, yachting, you name it. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (28:22) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mark (28:43) But. As long as the design is there, you will get the part that is within your design. Simple as that. And usually the way it is going is the OEM sends us a part file with the specification. We produce it according to the specification. We send the prototype to the OEM. The OEM puts it into his validation. Once the part is internally validated by the OEM, he gives the production approval to us and then we freeze the design. But again, this is not just the appearance of the part. So it really includes all the production process data, the quality data, the tolerances, the documentation, shipping instruction. Everything is digitally there and then will be brought into the reality by producing the part by additive manufacturing. post-processing, packing according to your instructions, quality documented according to your instructions, and ship it into the same appearance that you would ship a part to your customer. So you can have a part in your digitality appearance at the customer. without the part ever touched a premises of you. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (30:29) Yeah, that is quite amazing. Let's talk about examples. Yeah. Mark (30:35) fully documented and eternally stored and controllable and followed up. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (30:41) with the full traceability. That's definitely a big argument. So can you share some notable use cases or success stories where RebLeak significantly impacted a company's supply chain or production? Are there companies you can name or if you cannot name them, just kind of explain them in what industry and what was the use case there? Mark (30:43) Correct. There are many to name in the meantime, even though we're a young company. Miele, the home appliance company, most probably I would assume is also a known name in the United States. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (31:19) Mm-hmm. They just opened up their first manufacturing place in Alabama, which is not far from us here in Atlanta, to make stoves and ovens for the American market. Mark (31:38) let me think why they did this recently. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (31:42) There are some reasons for that. We talked earlier about the whole reasoning. Mark (31:49) Sure, good move by Miele for sure. However, so it's a known brand. They have a lot. They have a very wide line of home appliances ranging from vacuums to coffee machines to dishwashers, washing machines, you name it. So all these thingies need spare parts. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (32:14) Mm-hmm. Mark (32:15) They have accessories that are not there in the original supply. So what you do, you want to engage with your customer even better. You want to make them more loyal to your brand. So you're offering them spare parts on demand, additional accessories. And how do you do that? Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (32:19) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mark (32:37) So what we do for Miele is mostly polymers, plastics. Looking into traditional manufacturing, how you get high volume parts produced. You make a mold from a tooling steel that costs you at least $10,000 and takes at least six weeks to establish. And then you can produce Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (33:08) and then you put that in a mold injection machine and then you can run parts. Yeah. Mark (33:12) Yeah, but nobody is running that injection molding machine for 37 parts. They run the machine for 10,000 parts or 100,000 parts. So you're always left with a large MOQ. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (33:28) Which means again, putting a lot of parts in the stock. Mark (33:30) That's not the case. money in it. You know have to purchase those 50-100 000 whatever number parts. You have to allocate a warehouse place to it. You have to create a cost center for it. You have to put people there that are taking care of the in and outs. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (33:53) Yeah, then you still need to distribute it to all the different locations where this parts is used. And if it's worldwide, you have to do worldwide distribution. And then the shipping costs are most likely way higher than the individual part cost. Mark (34:10) Yeah, and you know, you counteract to those high global shipping costs by having regional warehouses. you're multiplying your administration costs in the United States, in Europe, in Asia, in Africa, you know, just to serve those markets. With a digital warehouse, forget about that. You have a digital warehouse. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (34:17) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mark (34:38) And when a single customer, an end user, and in case of Miele, it's the private consumer, orders a part. We produce the part in the webshop of Miele. So Miele only has two things to do. Three things, sorry. They have to provide a place to buy, which is their webshop. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (34:45) Mm-hmm. in the web shop. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mark (35:05) They have to accept a customer order and they have to accept a customer payment. So I need a digital or online shop. I need a credit card, PayPal, digital payment solution. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (35:10) Mm-hmm. Yeah, payment processor. Mark (35:26) And I need a place to collect orders. That's it. The rest of it we are taking care of. are producing the part on demand according to specification and the exact digital twin of what you have approved in your internal validation process. We can produce this wherever in the world. We document it according to your quality requirements. We pack it. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (35:49) Mm-hmm. through the local partners. Mark (36:02) according to your packing instructions and we deliver it to the end user. And the end user not even know that that part or that package that he received never touched a manufacturer OEM's premises that everything is handled by us. The customer is happy, the OEM is happy. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (36:20) S. Yeah. Mark (36:27) And that's what it is all about. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (36:28) And I assume the end customer even get full traceability and knows when he actually receives the part, which we have nowadays as well. Mark (36:37) Sure, you know, that's the standard shipping service every courier service provides you. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (36:48) That is quite amazing. And the savings again is you don't need to make that mold. You don't need to do that warehousing, that international shipping, all the delay involved and the administrative impact, different currencies and so on and so on. In a digital warehouse, you save on space, you save on cost, you save on people. Therefore, I... Mark (37:01) of the administration. The full infrastructure you as an OEM have to provide is a place to buy it, either physically or digitally. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (37:30) And the payment service and the internal ERP was managed at all. Yeah. Mark (37:34) Exactly. Yeah. So we're talking to young design, or we're working with young design brands that create furniture, seating furniture. They don't have a warehouse, they don't have a workshop. It's just the designer with an idea who created a webshop selling the product online, have it decentralized, produced through us, shipped to the customer, and he just sits there and earning money from his design. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (38:00) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Which sounds all, yes, and that sounds all like a no-brainer and everybody should do that, but there's always a but. What are then the biggest challenges for you and Rebleak in scaling up this additive manufacturing as a service and make it a Mark (38:15) How cool is that? Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (38:42) available for everyone or have the industry actually use it as the new way of doing things? What are the obstacles in there and the challenges? Mark (38:55) First of all, it's digitalization. You know, we... Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (38:58) Mm-hmm. It's something new and people are just not aware, ready. So it's a mindset thing. Mark (39:05) If you talk, if you talk, it's a mindset thing. Yes. You know, if you, if you talk to machine manufacturers that are building CNC centers. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (39:18) Mm-hmm. Mark (39:21) They know everything about metal forming in every possible way. Casting, sheet manufacturing, CNCing, whatever. But 3D printing is a different technology. That's new, that's not reliable, even though it's there since 30 years and it has proven to be. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (39:30) Mm-hmm. Mark (39:45) an additional tool in the toolbox that you rather should use than ignoring it. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (39:52) Mm-hmm. Mark (39:54) So that's the first thing. The second thing is that 3D printing is not. therefore any use case. Volume still isn't an issue. So if we're polymers, 100, 200,000 parts per year, maybe 500,000 parts per year are a good volume for 3D printing. Everything above goes into mass production technologies like injection molding, for example. In metal additive manufacturing, the annual serial volume is much smaller. There we're talking about 10 of thousands of parts. Just to make it commercially competitive. So these are the two basic barriers that we have to overcome. One is price and one is value. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (40:56) Yeah, volume. Mark (41:00) volume. Having understood that, but having generated that nice digital workflow around part sourcing, we have realized that it was easiest to apply to 3D printing, but that we can apply it also to forging, to metal. metal casting, injection molding, vacuum casting, CNC machining. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (41:31) Yeah, more or less all types of manufacturing methods. Mark (41:35) Yeah. So with the machines getting more and more digital, we can provide more and more of the digital warehouse distributed manufacturing model to any manufacturing technology today basically in a controlled manner, in a documented manner that is easy to integrate. So we're having Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (41:50) Mm-hmm. Mark (42:05) preset interfaces to your most standard ERP systems. We can tailor everything to be connected to your purchasing organization that nobody has to leave his usual way of working. So we're not coming up with complex processes and stuff. So you just stay in your SAP system or whatever you're using and doing the same stuff and we're taking care of the rest. And at the end of the day, you get in good parts in time, in quality, in volume that you've ordered. And at the end of the day, that is what the customer wants. They don't care about production technology. Good parts, high quality, right price, right volume at time. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (42:47) Yeah, that's what's better. Yeah, I agree. As you guys are a startup and not that long, at least not many decades on the market as others, but there's also the future and technology and new things. There is currently this big hype about AI. What do you see in how your business model will Mark (43:14) We will manage that. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (43:33) will go further by adopting even more technology and for example AI. Can you speak about that? Mark (43:45) Give me a second. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (43:46) Yes. I guess you're looking something up. Mark (43:52) Yeah, I just want to show you something. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (43:54) Yeah, and you actually can share your screen if you want to. Mark (43:59) Yeah. So let me quickly share. Sorry for that. So AI this Marcus. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (44:27) Mm-hmm. Mark (44:29) AI this. How would you solve a real life physical problem with AI? You simply don't. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (44:38) Yeah, that's just for the viewer who just listened to it. This is a picture of the Evergreen cargo ship gets stuck in the Suez Canal, exactly which hold up the entire world supply chain. And currently in the news is the other topic of, for example, the Panama Canal and some tensions there and the impact this specific canal Mark (44:47) stuck in the Suez Canal two years ago. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (45:07) has to vault economy and there can always happen something. Yeah. Mark (45:12) Yeah, so AI real world problems, physical real world problems, you don't solve them with AI. First of all. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (45:19) Yes, I agree. Mark (45:22) So yeah, AI offers some cool opportunities, but it's not the holy grail for everything. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (45:28) Mm-hmm. Mark (45:35) for additive manufacturing or for digital manufacturing, the beauty lies in getting designs to life. So AI will help less educated people, not educated engineers that can make a technical drawing and evaluate the 3D model out of that to produce parts according to specification and drawing. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (45:46) Mm-hmm. Mark (46:07) Today only engineers can do that. Designers can do that. In the future AI will help the consumer to create products according to his own needs. Where he can create a model, he can upload it and he can have it produced not in 10,000 of pieces necessarily. He can have it produced by one, just for himself. personal use for his personal improvement of life. And we're seeing this already today in medical applications where standard things like costs getting tailored to the patient's specific needs. know his physics of the arm, my arm is looking different than yours just by outer dimension. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (46:44) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, by, for example, using 3D scanning methods to scan that individual body part and then make a custom, whatever it needs to it. Mark (47:16) Yeah, sure. So, but then you're only at the outside of your arm. then, yeah, but let's talk about the rapture or something. You know, you really can create tailored aids for the patient. And this is already happening today in a large scale. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (47:24) Yeah, but that also works for the inside for any... Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mark (47:42) Insoles for shoes are 3D printed today because you really can produce them according to patients needs and you don't have to have a draft man sitting there and carving something expensively from a block of something. You scan it, you upload it and you get a part. sweet and simple. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (48:12) Yeah, that's how it should work. As we're coming to the end, what would you recommend to companies looking to integrate additive manufacturing in their supply chain? What things should they look at and what is necessary and what are things which are not adding any value? Mark (48:40) I will generate a lot of hate from my friends at the machine manufacturers now, but owning printers is not the solution. Having a desktop 3D printer that can print you your... glass holder for the dishwasher. That's something you can do at home. But when you're talking about industrial applications, we're talking about capital investments. An industrial 3D printer, even if it's just polymer, it costs you 200 grand. So you better have a business case for the machine before you put down the investment. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (49:14) Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's all about the utilization of that machine. If it just sits there and you don't use it, yeah. Mark (49:22) You know, say like, like the CNC center or injection molding machine or whatever machine you buy, it's a capital investment. You have to have a business case. Digital distributed manufacturing online storage is giving you the opportunity to skip building up the expertise in the manufacturing process and it's helping or it's giving you the opportunity to skip the investment into the actual machine because manufacturing capacity is out there a lot. Design engineering knowledge is out there a lot. You don't need that. Just have an idea. Come to us and we make from your idea. We get you to the physical product into the international manufacturing and distribution to the end consumer. These are things you an organization, know, no, no, let let's pull it clear in the past, you had to build up an organization for that. Today, you need an idea and a sales channel. That's all you need. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (50:28) Yeah, now you don't need anymore. Yeah, I agree. Mark (50:34) The manufacturing can be outsourced. The distribution can be outsourced. And that's what we're doing. We're helping customers to make money on a very easy and convenient and controllable way, documented eternally. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (50:42) Very good. And if any of the listeners are saying now, hey, that's actually a pretty cool idea. I wanna learn more about it. What's the best way to get in contact with you and explore potential partnerships? Mark (51:08) If you're in the Americas, talk to Markus from Digitalitum. If you're in the rest of the world, go to www.repleek.io or simply drop me a mail or call me, find me on LinkedIn. Markus is happy to share my content details with you. We'll find a connection. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (51:12) Yep. and Exactly, we put that all down in the show notes. Mark (51:31) Awesome. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (51:33) Yeah, Mark, thank you very much to share your insights about manufacturing as a service, additive manufacturing, the business model of Replique, which is pretty unique. That sounds actually cool. Mark (51:50) Yeah, like that. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (51:53) Yeah, so you can get the copyrights from me on that of using that, that Repleek is unique. Okay. Yeah, thanks again for being part of this episode and sharing more insights at the intersection of manufacturing and digital transformation. Mark (52:02) I've heard that before, Marcus in the Warriors. Thank you very much, Markus, for having us or having me. It's been a pleasure. Always good to exchange with you and looking forward to our next chat. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (52:27) All right. Mark (52:29) Cheers. Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (52:30) Cheers.