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Plastic Components, Inc. (PCI) is a leading, globally-competitive supplier of critical molded plastic parts for a diverse range of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). However, the company was struggling with managing operations with several nonintegrated, manual databases, which was putting a heavy load on the company’s staffing resources. Data was scattered throughout the company, and there was no standard for reporting, so information was often unavailable or inaccurate. Without accurate data, PCI couldn’t easily provide value quotes to its customers, and because the system lacked inventory management controls, inventory could not be checked without calling a live person. The company was looking for a single database solution that offered centralized, accurate, and relevant data that was accessible to everyone in the company.

Poly-Cast Plastics (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. was established in 2006 to support a United States customer that was simultaneously setting up a plant in Suzhou, China. In addition, Poly- Cast recognized a large business opportunity in the emerging Chinese market. Since it opened, the China facility has grown rapidly, from a modest two machine and three employee start to a current 10 machine spread. Additionally, the Suzhou facility has a full and independent team on the ground to run the daily operations and offer Poly-Cast’s customers a very competitive solution that eliminates the risks associated with doing business in China with unknown suppliers. In response to two challenges—the complexity of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) tax system and Poly- Cast’s lack of resources at the company’s start-up— Poly-Cast decided to sub-contract all of its financials for the first several years of operation. Unfortunately, the outsourced China CPA only managed the financials for PRC tax law (tax accounting), rather than providing accounting for manufacturing. This financial report structure, in addition to being expensive to outsource, made it very difficult to pull any data that would help Poly-Cast better run its business. The lead time alone to process a monthly financial was often 30 to 60 days, and Poly-Cast felt it was always looking backward.

Jabil Packaging Solutions (JPS), a provider of precision molded plastic products, was facing dynamic changes in the healthcare and packaging markets. Technologies, regulations, patient and consumer behaviors, population demographics, and business models were all experiencing transformation, making the future of healthcare difficult to predict and navigate. In 2013, Nypro was acquired by Jabil to provide new long-term solutions for Jabil customers as well as to continue to serve Nypro’s diversified customer base. When JPS was acquired by Jabil, they moved to SAP, which was their core enterprise system; but they wanted to keep the real-time manufacturing enterprise system (MES) software they had been using. JPS Iowa had been using the complete IQMS solution for nearly two decades, but was adamant about keeping the MES piece after moving over to the SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.

Global Interconnect (GII) was under pressure to deliver fail-safe products while managing a complex global supply chain. Their antiquated MRP system had reached its limits, making it difficult to manage their growing business and expanding supplier base. For instance, to prevent counterfeit items from entering the supply chain, GII bought a significant number of parts domestically and consigned them to their factories in China. This practice required manual calculations of needed components based on finished assembly usage and inventory levels at the factory. Additionally, communicating with their Hong Kong and China operations required them to share and access data around the clock, which was challenging due to time differences. Furthermore, GII had to account for inventory with a manual backflush process, which was time-consuming and prone to errors.

Dymotek, a leading custom molder in the United States, was facing challenges in managing its growing business. The company had been using a combination of systems since its inception, which no longer satisfied the needs of its ambitious growth goals. The company needed a system that could provide real-time information to their customers and adapt to changing demands in an increasingly challenging global marketplace. The company also needed a system that could provide an exact understanding of the costs of goods produced, including the cost of equipment usage involved in production. Furthermore, the company needed a system that could provide excellent customer service, such as providing daily updates on production to customers with tight inventory requirements.

DPS Skis, a company that designs and manufactures advanced skis, was experiencing rapid growth and found that their existing QuickBooks accounting software was not robust enough to support their expanding operations. The company's business model, characterized by high seasonality and the manufacture of an expensive product, left little room for error. As DPS grew and set up its own manufacturing facility in Salt Lake City, it became apparent that QuickBooks was not up to the task, particularly in managing inventory and order entry. The company also faced challenges when it began working with an app called Sellpad, which was eventually pulled from the market, leaving DPS without tech support and a need for a new system.

Load Trail, LLC, a leading provider of high-quality trailers, was facing challenges with its existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, Epicor’s Vantage solution. The software was unreliable and had limited scheduling capabilities, which was affecting on-time material planning and processing. This was leading to decreased cost savings and was negatively impacting customer relationships. The software lacked the necessary functionality to maintain excellent customer service, operational efficiency, and competitiveness in the market. As a result, Load Trail began to seek a more comprehensive software solution to manage future growth and better serve its customers.

Ventura, a semi-automated assembly and production company, was facing challenges in scaling their systems to support global growth. With eight plants globally running from a single ERP instance on a server in Zeeland, Michigan, the IT team was struggling to keep up with the demands of the growing company. The system was slow, taking up to 2 hours to run reports supporting production operations, and there were concerns over the availability and disaster recovery objectives. The company needed a new system architecture that could scale more efficiently and increase the speed of system updates.

Plastic Components, Inc. (PCI) is a world-class injection molder of plastic parts. The company has established a reputation as a visionary manufacturer because it runs fully automated facilities: no direct labor is involved in their manufacturing process. However, at a little over a decade into their development, PCI’s information system was a potpourri of Excel spreadsheets, Access databases, and legal pads with pencils. They didn’t have a good handle on production scheduling, inventory, and true manufacturing costs. To address this situation, PCI conducted an assessment of a number of ERP systems, including IQMS. PCI committed to IQMS’ Manufacturing ERP, and spent nine months getting ready for implementation.

Apple Rubber Products, Inc. is a manufacturer of rubber components for the medical device and aerospace industries. The company was facing challenges with its paper-based quality control program which involved multiple filing systems. Information was stored in various locations, leading to wasted hours keying duplicate data into different places, searching through file cabinets, and sending paper documents around to different buildings for approval. The company needed a centralized quality system to streamline its operations.

Thogus Products Company, a custom plastic injection-molder and contract manufacturer, was facing a changing business environment. The company's focus was shifting from automotive parts to a diverse product mix from various industries. This shift required improved access to and availability of critical business and production operational data, increased productivity, reduced data storage costs, and support for growth. The company's previous data system was not used properly, leading to bloated data storage costs and unreliable information. The company needed a system that would eliminate waste, simplify processes, and provide real-time insights into all manufacturing operations.

PAC Strapping Products’ plans for expanding the business were being held back by manual approaches to managing inventory, billing, pricing, orders, and other processes. These manual processes led to errors, delayed customer payments, and days to weeks of extra work for employees. As the management team began mapping out a strategy for expanding the business across both traditional customers and new markets, they realized that they would need to automate their operations to keep pace. An evaluation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems led the company to select the DELMIAWorks manufacturing ERP system.

SEA-LECT Plastics Corporation, a leading supplier of injection molding manufacturing, design, product development and tooling services, was facing the challenge of automating all facets of injection-molding production. This included estimating, quoting, sales, order processing, planning, scheduling, tooling, design for manufacturing, production, inventory, procurement, and delivery. The company aimed to increase efficiency and improve quality, as well as to better understand actual costs per job to maintain profit margins while improving the company’s competitive position. The company initially relied on Sea-Dog’s custom-developed enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and Excel spreadsheets to manage its injection-molding operations. However, the manufacturing services provider needed to find innovative solutions to streamline and improve all functions related to injection molding production to support growth.

Bastian Solutions, a leading materials handling company owned by Toyota Advanced Logistics, was faced with the challenge of meeting the high expectations of today's shoppers for on-demand fulfillment. Retailers require innovative materials handling systems that can navigate tight warehouse and shelving spaces to fill orders quickly. They also need picking technologies that can handle a wide variety of product shapes, sizes, and densities without having to invest additional capital in multiple custom grippers for the picking arms. To address these complex set of problems, Bastian Solutions set out to engineer an improved solution. This effort resulted in the Bastian Solutions Shuttle System, an advanced, customizable electrical robot arm-and-shuttle combo that autonomously picks and moves a range of differently sized and weighted products. However, creating a new disruptive materials handler like the Bastian Solutions Shuttle System required Bastian Solutions to use a disruptive method—additive manufacturing. But without on-site 3D printing capabilities, Bastian Solutions sought out a partner that could help make their vision a reality.

Husqvarna Group, a leading producer of outdoor power products, was looking to evolve with shifting technology and customer demands. They were interested in exploring how 3D printing and additive manufacturing could drive impact for their business. The challenge was to identify parts that could be made more efficiently and sustainably through additive manufacturing, driving a reduced carbon footprint, improved customer experience, and lower costs. The parts needed to be produced at production scale and quality, and they needed to pass rigorous testing and certification for production and sale.

Cobalt Robotics is a company that produces security robots designed to augment human security efforts rather than replace them. The robots are designed to be approachable and warm, making people feel comfortable interacting with them. This necessitated special attention to the cosmetic components of the robots, which are the external parts that humans will see and interact with. Cobalt needed these cosmetic parts to be made exactly to their design specifications. Prior to working with Fast Radius, Cobalt struggled to find a cost-effective supplier that could deliver on the exact specifications of the product.

Coapt, a Chicago-based company that produces myoelectric pattern recognition systems for upper limb prostheses, was looking to produce the second generation of their product, COMPLETE CONTROL. This required not only retooling the system’s software, but redesigning the hardware components as well. They needed a manufacturing partner that could move quickly to meet their product release timeline. They also wanted to test and make many parts differently in the next wave of COMPLETE CONTROL, including the geometries, textures, and aesthetics of the parts. With so many variables to consider, it didn’t make sense for Coapt’s engineering team to prototype using legacy processes like injection molding.

Rawlings, a company with over 150 years of experience in the baseball industry, aimed to revolutionize the baseball glove by developing the REV1X. The glove leverages the Carbon Digital Light Synthesis (DLS) process to improve gameplay and speed up reaction times. The traditional foam or wool parts in the glove’s thumb and pinky were replaced with latticed pieces, made from FPU 50, that are lighter and thinner. The REV1X lattices are tuned with variable stiffness that better conforms to the player’s hand, leading to better control of the ball. Additionally, the REV1X is ready for gameplay immediately, and it’s more durable and long-lasting than traditional gloves. Once Rawlings perfected the design for the REV1X, they needed to mass produce a glove that would meet their exacting standards for performance and durability on the field.

The executive aviation company had been providing award-winning services for the past 50 years and had a requirement for a quality lighting fixture by a company that stands behind their product. The challenge was to find the best product for the application to achieve the recommended light levels, with a special request. In this particular hangar, the lights hung down below the water suppression unit located above the airplanes. Due to a past situation when the fire sprinklers were accidentally activated, the customer had to replace their entire lighting system after it had been damaged. They requested the replacement lights to be wet location rated. The last challenges to overcome were to seek final approval from the executive team – CFO and Head of Maintenance – coupled with working the lighting upgrade into the budget.

Absci, a drug and target discovery company, was facing several challenges in its operations. The success of their work heavily relied on coordination across teams. However, they were managing sample handoffs in spreadsheets, which not only had the risk of error but also lacked sophisticated collaboration features, making it difficult to share and reference data. Additionally, the performance of their AI models depended on the quality of the training data. They occasionally experienced data-related deviations such as duplicate or incomplete datasets and risked copy/paste errors. Lastly, they lacked a universally accessible tool for data connectivity, making it difficult for stakeholders to drive organizational and scientific decisions.

Serotiny, a therapeutic discovery company, was facing challenges in managing their research data and processes. They were using a collection of Microsoft products to keep track of protocols, experiments, samples, and results. However, these tools were not designed for biotech R&D, making it difficult to organize and find past samples or results. The lack of easy-to-use templates meant that teams often had to write new protocols from scratch, taking precious time away from research. Additionally, their legacy molecular biology tools were clunky and did not integrate with their other systems, leading to tedious, slow, and error-prone copy/paste actions.

Joywell, a company on a mission to replace sugar with nutritious sweet proteins, faced several challenges in its quest. The company's data lacked context, making it difficult and time-consuming to make business decisions. The data was scattered across multiple people, notebooks, and machines, resulting in weeks of extra work and preventing teams from answering important business questions quickly. The teams struggled to aggregate large sets of data as data generated by different instruments would come out in different formats. This required scientists to perform a manual, tedious last step of standardizing 10-20 different file formats or risk leaving questions unanswered. To meet its ambitious goals, Joywell needed to ensure its processes are robust and repeatable not just within its lab but also at partner labs.

Lead Pharma’s new entity discovery and development capability has grown significantly during recent years. In response, assay throughputs and analysis requirements have increased within the company’s research functions and based on their experience within larger organizations, scientists at Lead Pharma were concerned about the limitations of traditional paper laboratory notebooks. Paper-based cross-referencing of scientific information heavily relied on team knowledge and was consequently vulnerable to staff turnover. Industry processes also required laboratory journals to be checked and countersigned by a scientific colleague or supervisor; a procedure dependent on the timely availability of appropriate staff members. Paper notebooks were used in combination with conventional Microsoft software packages (e.g. Excel, Word) and digital databases, resulting in a labor intensive, mixed-media approach.

Redx Pharma, a UK-based pharmaceutical company, is undergoing rapid expansion and developing new drug candidates across eleven different therapeutic classes using its innovative Redox Switch™ platform. This growth creates a dynamic research environment that requires an informatics platform capable of holding increasing amounts of complex and diverse data. The system needs to be user-friendly and intuitive to facilitate quick and efficient adoption by users. It also needs to prevent input errors and comply with directives from regulatory authorities.

Antabio, a biopharmaceutical company, was initially a small start-up with a single program in the hit to lead phase. As the company expanded, the scientists were making more molecules and introducing different assays. They were using a simple chemistry enabled database to associate structures and data. However, they quickly became frustrated with the time taken to analyze data, risks inherent in manual data manipulations, inability to capture or link the data to the raw data and parameters of the assays, lack of ability to follow any variations in assay protocols, and lack of project oversight.

Fundación MEDINA, a non-profit research organization based in Granada, Spain, specializes in natural products microbiology, chemistry, and high throughput screening. They are developing drug discovery programs in infectious diseases, oncology, and neurodegeneration rare diseases. The organization is also establishing contract research collaborations and partnerships with pharma and biotech companies to discover novel therapeutics. However, they needed a system to manage their experimentations in terms of time, efficiency, and drug discovery processes.

LifeArc, a UK medical research charity, is dedicated to transforming early-stage science into medical breakthroughs. The organization has a diverse range of scientific activities, from small molecules to engineered antibodies, which generates a variety of data types. This data is stored in operational databases and needs to be accessible for visualization and analytics. LifeArc also collaborates with a number of external organizations, adding to the complexity of the data sources. The challenge was to create an informatics system that could handle this complexity and streamline workflows, while also facilitating the process of ideation, which had historically been separated from informatics.

Debiopharm, a pharmaceutical company, was facing challenges in managing its Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) stock and shipments. The company synthesizes compounds at internal labs and at numerous Contract Research Organizations (CROs). Similarly, analysis is done both internally and at specialty CROs around the world. With so many stock movements, there was a risk of error. The company was looking for a solution that could provide real-time, accurate account of shipped samples and remaining stock, streamline the request and fulfillment process, and offer real-time tracking of stock sent to Debiopharm sites and between CROs.

BASF's Agricultural Solutions division was facing challenges with handling increasingly complex and comprehensive data in R&D for new crop protection products. The division had a strong mandate for continuous innovation and digitalization and sought to optimize workflows involved in the design cycle. The digitalization team invested time mapping and analyzing their R&D digital workflow to understand who generates and who uses the data. They established the requirements for a system to support both data capture and its subsequent application to decision making.

CalciCo Therapeutics, a biotechnology company based in Oxford, United Kingdom, focuses on the development of novel CRAC channel inhibitors. Their research efforts are devoted to developing selective molecules to treat a range of inflammatory and autoimmune conditions where there is clear evidence linking CRAC to human disease. The company has developed proprietary ‘know-how’ comprising novel systems for selective CRAC channel screening and molecule characterisation. However, they faced a challenge in storing, analysing and sharing their distributed research data. They needed a system that could manage their chemistry and biological data, and also facilitate collaboration with multiple third-party organisations.