For manufacturing and industrial companies, Return on Investment (ROI)
has long been the metric used to set budgets and drive business
decisions. However, in today’s Industry 4.0 environment, companies must
look forward – not backward – when investing in technologies like
Additive Manufacturing, and ROI can’t measure up to the task. To help, ABI
Research, a global tech market advisory firm, announces the release
of its Additive Manufacturing Total Lifetime Value Calculator (TLVC),
which provides a more comprehensive, future-focused criteria for driving
smarter investments.
The Additive Manufacturing TLVC is an in-depth and detailed tool for
comparing the potential costs and savings of implementing an Additive
Manufacturing (AM) platform at various levels of scale or for potential
projects. The AM TVLC empowers manufacturing leaders to research and
compare the best AM platform investment strategies and understand the
overall impact of an investment throughout its lifetime, as well as any
savings that will continue to recur after use/production ends.
“Total lifetime value reflects the overall impact of a potential
investment decision—the cost of acquiring a market position and its
longer-term upside. Additive Manufacturing, much like generative design,
AI, 5G, robotics, and IIoT platforms, is one such area where we need to
think more in terms of lifetime value than ROI. Companies cannot make AM
platform investment decisions in isolation,” says Ryan Martin, Principal
Analyst of the Industrial Solution at ABI Research.
The TLVC has over 40 inputs that address all the considerations that
must be taken into account when making an AM platform investment
decision. The outputs provide the total implementation costs over the
selected period, total material savings, total engineer time savings,
supply chain and maintenance-related savings, payback period, production
capacity, cost-per-part, and production comparison by metal AM
technology process. The final output is the total lifetime value, which
shows the sum of all the savings minus all the costs from implementing
AM for various potential deployment strategies.
“Clearly, one of the biggest costs to consider is a cost that can’t
truly be accounted for until it starts to unfold: opportunity cost. AM
allows companies to develop new products and, with a systems approach,
pioneer new markets. Most companies get started small—as they should—but
quickly see the benefit and want to scale. The difference today is that
technologies like binder jetting, when combined with generative design
software and part nesting, make metal AM a true production-level
candidate in the manufacturing arena. It doesn’t matter if you are an
automaker, aerospace provider, MIM supplier, or otherwise—now is the
time to evaluate the potential impact of these decisions, before they
are made. This is why ABI Research developed its Additive Manufacturing
Total Lifetime Value Calculator,” Martin concludes.
The Additive
Manufacturing Total Lifetime Value Calculator is part of the
company’s Industrial
Solution, which will help manufacturers digitize operations to
create better quality products at lower costs. Total Lifetime Calculator
spreadsheets allow companies to specific information on the short-and
long-term value they can expect for their situation, product, and
strategies.
About ABI Research
ABI Research provides strategic guidance to visionaries, delivering
actionable intelligence on the transformative technologies that are
dramatically reshaping industries, economies, and workforces across the
world. ABI Research’s global team of analysts publish groundbreaking
studies often years ahead of other technology advisory firms, empowering
our clients to stay ahead of their markets and their competitors.
For more information about ABI Research’s services, contact us at
+1.516.624.2500 in the Americas, +44.203.326.0140 in Europe,
+65.6592.0290 in Asia-Pacific or visit www.abiresearch.com.
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