Episode 21: Meet Ultimaker’s new CEO, Jürgen von Hollen
In the latest episode of Talking Additive, Matt Griffin sits with Ultimaker’s new CEO, Jürgen von Hollen.
Together, the pair will discuss Jürgen’s previous roles in industry and emerging tech, the core philosophy that shapes his leadership and management style, and what it was like for him to join the Ultimaker team in the middle of a pandemic.
Jürgen is a global citizen at heart, having lived in eight countries across Europe, America, Asia, and Africa. He began his career at Daimler-Benz Aerospace and held senior management roles at Daimler-Chrysler Services, Deutsche Telekom, and Pentair. He was also Executive President of the Engineering Solutions Division at Bilfinger SE, a leading international Engineering and Services company. There, he led a global staff of nearly 10,000 and achieved annual sales of more than €1 billion.
Before joining Ultimaker, he served as President at Universal Robots, where he also contributed to impressive growth and to the global adoption of easy-to-use, safe, and economical robots.
His technological and world experience make Jürgen a perfect fit at Ultimaker, where he plans to focus on transforming the company into a platform to accelerate the world's transformation to flexible, empowering, and sustainable solutions.
ULTIMAKER INNOVATOR HIGHLIGHT: Stick around to meet Cody Cochran from Azoth LLC, a highlight from the 2020 Ultimaker Innovators list!
TRANSCRIPT SECTIONS
NEWS - “Talking Additive” at the Ultimaker Transformation Summit, April 20-23, 2021
"If a company's going to be successful, it is dependent on its ability to be flexible"
It takes an ecosystem of partners and customers to evangelize the promises of innovative technology
"If you take complexity away, that's when you truly see innovation"
The elements shaping Jürgen's vision for Ultimaker's second decade
Meet our guest - Jürgen von Hollen
Jürgen von Hollen: That's what I see also in the additive manufacturing world, we've made it pretty complex. We, as manufacturers or participants in this world of 3D printing are really pushing it from our perspective, our tech and I've never met a customer who says, "I need a 3D printer." No, they are looking for a solution to a problem they have. And 3D printing may be one of those alternatives that could help them.
My experience is, when you take complexity away that's when you truly see innovation using the technology. Because people start thinking, "Well, I can actually do this." And then it really accelerates the potential applications out there. I think ease of use is so important, especially with emerging technologies.
Matt Griffin: Hello and welcome to Talking Additive episode 21, the first episode for season three. We have for you a very rare and special episode. For our story we sit down with Jürgen von Hollen, Ultimaker's new CEO. Now, when this interview took place two weeks ago, Jürgen had only held the senior leadership role for a very brief 69 days. And while he has been the very definition of a 21st century, fast-moving, emerging tech executive, undaunted by the pandemic travel restrictions, he burst into action via remote conferencing from his home in Frankfurt, Germany to greet Ultimaker's team across its entire global footprint. And in the process, racking up an impressive meeting tally already well into the high hundreds.
This is not an interview meant to document a chief executive officer declaring his crystallized vision for a new era of Ultimaker under his stewardship. Instead, in today's episode, our conversation will draw as much from Jürgen's deep thinking about the transformation of industry, which he has seen firsthand most recently for the past four years at the helm of the pioneering and market segment defining cobot company, Universal Robots. As from his passionate ideas for the expanding role for Ultimaker as the preferred platform, powering the design and manufacturing ecosystem of tomorrow.
It is not that often that any of us on Talking Additive have had the opportunity to be a fly on the wall at the very moment. The company leadership reflects on the state of the industry and formulates its guiding vision to strike out in bold new directions. But today, dear listener, we bring you with us on just such a journey. Buckle up because Jürgen does not disappoint, more on this and other topics on Talking Additive.
On Talking Additive, we sit down with business leaders, innovators and allies, to discuss the impact of adopting 3D printing in their businesses. How does adopting additive manufacturing positively benefit a business today? How is the role of 3D printing evolving within design, manufacturing, education, and our lives and what will be possible in the future?
Welcome to the 21st episode for Talking Additive podcast. Talking Additive launches new episodes on Tuesdays every two weeks.
Since 2011 Ultimaker has built an open and easy to use solution of 3D printers, software, materials and support ecosystem that enables professional designers, engineers and manufacturers to innovate every day. Ultimaker prides itself on solutions that are flexible, productive and scalable. It's global team of over 400 employees work together to accelerate the world's transition to local manufacturing and digital distribution.
Jürgen von Hollen becomes CEO of Ultimaker
Starting January 1st, 2021 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jürgen von Hollen became the chief executive officer for Ultimaker.
In this role, he sets the agenda for the company's ongoing rapid growth, focusing on driving the adoption of professional 3D printing with Ultimaker as a platform to accelerate the world's transformation to flexible, empowering and sustainable solutions. From his executive bio, we learn that Jürgen is a global citizen at heart having lived and worked in eight different countries across Europe, America, Asia and Africa. He started his professional career at Daimler-Benz Aerospace and held senior management roles at Daimler-Chrysler Services, Deutsche Telekom, and Pentair.
He was also the executive president of the engineering solutions divisions at Bilfinger SE, a leading international engineering and services company. In this role, he led a global staff of nearly 10,000 and achieved annual sales of more than 1 billion euros. As I've already mentioned, before joining Ultimaker, Jürgen was president at Universal Robots where he also contributed to impressive growth and to the adoption of easy to use, safe and economical cobots worldwide.
In the first half of our show, we will get to know Jürgen, his background and core philosophy that shapes his leadership and management style and what it was like for him to join Ultimaker in the middle of a pandemic. In the second half of our show, we widen our discussion to the evolution of manufacturing and design, both in general and also through the lens of additive manufacturing. And we wrap up the interview with a number of candid glimpses into the vision that he is formulating even now for the role that Ultimaker will play as a platform to empower transformation for its entire ecosystem.
He will be sharing the results of his planning in just a few weeks when he kicks off the Ultimaker Transformation Summit. A virtual open house and conference, coming up on April 20th through 23rd. Make sure to mark your calendars for this important additive manufacturing moment. Talking Additive will be there participating in the conference, more on this halfway through our episode. And the interview with Jürgen isn't all we have for you today. As always at the end of the show, stick around after the theme music for our latest Ultimaker Innovators spotlight bonus segment.
This one features Cody Cochran from Azoth. And now without further delay Talking Additive's first interview with Ultimaker CEO, Jürgen von Hollen.
Who I am: "I'm all in, or I'm not in"
So looking at some of the projects from your past, you've been comfortable in a land of emerging tech and in particular technology that's transforming how business functions. Do you wanna talk a little bit about what helped direct you into those kind of areas?
Jürgen von Hollen: The world of tech and emerging technologies is a challenge in itself, right? Es- especially in early stage startups, there's not really a benchmark, it's a new product or a new innovation. So you really literally are starting greenfield. That's pretty exciting for me. And it comes back to who I am. For me, I'm all in or I'm not in. And one of the secrets is that I, I went to become a pro triathlete very early on in university because I just saw this complexity.
Wow, it's all about self-discipline and controlling all these variables and you can't do that just doing it partially. It's either you're all in or you're not. And I think this leaning in is how I look at the industry we're in, this emerging tech and- and the challenges we have. And- and I look at it and I say, "Wow, if I can get control of that, start shaping it and aligning it to a solution, bringing a company forward." Yeah, that's what really gets me going.
Matt Griffin: Do you wanna talk a little bit about how, as you move from technology to technology, you uncover these opportunities to explore?
Jürgen von Hollen: Like you mentioned, I- I've worked in many different types of industries. I've noticed that, that we always tend to look for the most complex things to solve first. And in fact, in most situations, it's the basics that have to be put into place to get that initial success going. And- and I think that's why it's for me almost satisfying that when you move from industry to industry, that there are similarities. Otherwise, I think it'd be very difficult to move laterally across industries.
There's so many similarities when it comes to the way you implement a structural change in a business, the change management, the benchmarks. We all like the idea of the theoretical strategic level discussions and everything else. But where the rubber meets the road is really when you are able to translate strategic directions and visions to daily operational tasks. I have learned over the years to take out complexity. The- the key to success is making it simple, keep it really simple. Otherwise, it- it just makes it more and more difficult to achieve your goals. And I think that is where management is required.
What Jürgen learned about emerging tech from his previous role, at Universal Robots
Matt Griffin: Before you came to Ultimaker, for a number of years, you were the CEO of a company in the cobot space that is transforming how automation and manufacturing happens. What are some of the similarities, that you picked up on that you find really interesting as w- w- ways to tackle problems in the additive manufacturing space?
Jürgen von Hollen: If you look at my- my previous role at Universal Robots, again, greenfield in the market basically invented a product segment. So we enjoyed a lot of market share. But again, if you look at what we had to try and do to grow the company, it was all about the basics. Go-to-market as a simple part of it. What- what I've also learned is that, maybe people learn this at MBA school, having the best tech does not necessarily mean you're gonna be the most successful. And I think that's where this complexity starts getting interesting. That was the same thing with my previous role.
It was not just about the tech. It was about everything else around it, that holistic solution that basically addresses a customer need. A- and- and that's what I- what I see also in the additive manufacturing world, we've made it pretty complex. We, as manufacturers or participants in this world of 3D printing are pushing it from our perspective, our tech, and I've never met a customer who says, "I need a 3D printer." No, they are looking for a solution to a problem they have.
And 3D printing may be one of those alternatives that could help them. I believe that's one of those similarities is that you've gotta take it from a customer viewpoint and- and a user experience perspective. When you start looking at it from that perspective, you can actually take away these barriers. That's not always easy, especially when you're coming from a tech perspective, it's- it's kind of an assumption that we all know what we need. And in fact, in AM, it's not that way. There's a lot of customers struggling to figure out what is the best tech to use.
Matt Griffin: As a, I would say outsider except that I definitely know that you were exposed to additive manufacturing all along in other vertical focuses. But as someone coming into this space, tell us more about some of the opportunities before meeting the customer needs and exploring this as a solution environment.
Jürgen von Hollen: And when I was looking at the opportunity, due diligence on the AM 3D printing market and trying to understand the situation. I had seen, how effective the technology could be. Once you knew how to apply it, the advantage was tremendous. If you're putting it in the right positioning and the right applications, very effective. You know, so from- from that perspective, I realized that there's definitely [laughs] a huge market potential for the technology in general. But at the same time, my experience has shown me that I've never seen a standard production process in any company around the world. It's always something specific.
So the world of production and manufacturing is very fragmented, even sometimes in the same company globally. So, the specificity or fragmentation is a huge challenge because when we're talking about being user experience focused, you've gotta think about that environment. I looked at Ultimaker to see if we had the right ingredients, potentially to create that platform where we could take away those barriers and allow customers to very quickly define how to deploy the technology in the right places, in the application. When I'm looking at a business, I'm always looking at it from a DNA perspective. The culture of the company and people is where it basically starts and where it ends. The tech is a by-product of that.
I think we are at the beginning of 3D printing's potential
Matt Griffin: 3D printing's been around for 35 years or so, but desktop 3D printing has only been around for about a decade. And, in general, this change has added more access and actually flipped things to the end-users pushing for what they actually want to accomplish with this technology. Instead of just following a mandate of the people making the equipment. That seems a perfect match for this scenario you were talking about. What are you seeing as possibilities for growing the market and providing more customers with these tools as solutions for what they're doing?
Jürgen von Hollen: Fundamentally, I still think we're at the beginning. I think we're... it's still embryonic. We've really only started scratching the surface. Because, when I look at the use cases out there, we're still in that stage where people are trying to prove out the technology for specific applications. It's very difficult to figure out what combinations or packets should I be using to actually deliver something. Once we start focusing o- on the true customer requirements, the market will open up much faster than we think, accelerating that growth.
Matt Griffin: How do you see the competitive landscape for a- additive manufacturing at this snapshot in history?
Jürgen von Hollen: There's a lot of competitors, but it's completely normal, right? So as soon as you have high growth rates, in any industry, you typically get a lot of entrance and good competition is the right thing. Because, it also forces us to keep pushing ourselves. The good news about that of course, is that then it's just not one company's voice, it's many voices trying to build this. I- I do believe there's a lot of competitors and I do think there will be consolidation 'cause we see it happening today already.
Part of that maturing process of an industry is consolidation, but it's also that companies start having to figure out their business models more accurately, right? So the fundamentals of good business start taking shape, throwing more money at something only makes sense if it's a working something, right? So if the engine is really working, then it can make sense of more investment. But if there's more investment and the engine's not working, that doesn't really work.
Matt Griffin: So you just wrapped up a period of time at another industry defining, market segment defining company. And Ultimaker has been here for the entire desktop 3D printing revolution, if you will, and has, tracked along and been a first mover for shifting to B2B and things like this. What are some things that you'll be able to bring from your past experiences in understanding that segment defining position to Ultimaker?
Jürgen von Hollen: Starting from a, a customer perspective, if you, we understand our true differentiation, right? From a technological perspective, but also the go-to-market and support and people perspective. I- I think the market definition becomes clear in some ways. For example, I think our technology, this professional desktop is for all different size customers. It's not just about the large or the medium size, it's also about the small. But the small and medium customers are even more fragmented and geographically spread out and need local support.
So, the challenge gets bigger to get to that customer segment. And that's what I was mentioning before. Is that, your business model has to reflect that and make sure that it adapts to the requirements of the customer and the customer ultimately dictates how we should be going to market. And so, we need to make sure that we define the segmentation in the industry based on the customer's viewpoint.
If I have a flexible technology or automation product, the need for flexibility in the small customer segment is very large. They typically don't have long production runs, they have a high product mix would fit very nicely there. So in the large, they also have flexibility requirements in certain parts of their production application, but they have very different requirements from a go-to-market or support perspective. As Ultimaker matures, we will have to adapt ourselves and the business model for those specific market groups.
The small medium represents probably the mass market out there, right? And- and we're not tackling it right now. A large customer base has a large voice. So sometimes the small and medium don't get a chance to be heard. And I think that's one of those potential issues for most companies that you have to have this variability in listening to different customer segments.
Matt Griffin: If you were to pick out a customer focused opportunity that you've observed as a concrete example of ways that this could be retuned, does something come to mind?
Jürgen von Hollen: I- if I look at a prototyping application, the support requirements for a large customer are almost non-existent. Because they typically have pretty strong automation teams and engineering teams. Whereas a small customer kind of looks at the tech and is saying, "Okay, help me. What do I have to do?" And so you could have a same type of application, but a fundamentally different support requirement. That's where the complexity comes into it.
And I think the ability to address more and more the specific requirements of a smaller medium company is gonna open up that market exponentially. There's many people still kicking the tires, trying to understand the use cases. But once we are able to package a lot of that stuff and- and take away the risks, maybe even do it locally, right? So have a ecosystem partner that's sitting in a specific country that can do it in the right language. That's a huge benefit that's required to address the small medium.
The people element of leadership is the most challenging and the most rewarding at the same time
Matt Griffin: Do you wanna talk a little bit about what has influenced your management style and maybe past experiences that have helped you to, to see the opportunities there?
Jürgen von Hollen: The people element, from a leadership perspective, is the most challenging and the most rewarding at the same time. Things like culture and values and purpose are so diffused, but they're so important to keep the team together. The- it keeps the inertia going and people motivated. It's almost goes against everything 'cause yeah, you have to think about structures to manage bigger teams and finding that balance is very difficult culturally, for- for a business.
But... so I, I just spend a lot of my management time with staff understanding what's happening on the operating level. There's these big differences when you're running a company that's 150 people big, or a company that's 500 or 1,000 or 5,000. Your management style has to adapt to each one of those levels. Going back two years ago, we were 100 people and today we're over 300 people. You as a leader, have to change your style very dramatically to manage those changes.
So people is really the core of everything from my perspective. If people ask me, where I see success? It comes back to this complete focus, make sure people are focused on driving the key targets of the company and- and that strategic direction so that everybody, literally everybody knows what they have to be doing and how they affect the overall company target. That gives them the right to speak up no matter where they sit in the organization, you empower them to be able to s- say, "I think I can do it better, or we're doing it wrong." Developing this inertia where people are looking for the optimum and continuous improvement.
Matt Griffin: I wanna circle back and talk to you about what attracted you to Ultimaker. You've presented this in point of entry all along, but if you were to, to sum up what drew you to Ultimaker and helped match it to the kinds of challenges you'd like to solve and opportunities for growth?
Jürgen von Hollen: You know when I was doing my due diligence on Ultimaker and, and the 3D industry, I always start with the- the people. I was looking for a specific type of DNA where it's not about a superficial product, but this inherent willingness to understand and truly deliver a good quality product. That depth is what I saw in my first interviews that I did with- with Ultimaker team, understanding that we were not going to just do a superficial update but rather it has to add value.
That was something for me that's- that was important. Within the people thing was also this culture that we had. And the culture of this open source and try and do the right thing is very powerful, if one can leverage that. Those are the things that I saw around the people and the strength of the people.
The second thing was, when I started looking at the ecosystem of materials, Ultimaker understood that it was not just about the printer, it was more than that. It was about the software, it was about the materials and the combination of... that creates something. And a, that's when I realized that, wow, all the key ingredients are there. It's now just bringing it together and driving the ecosystem in a mutually beneficial way.
I fundamentally believe that having an ecosystem and having a number of companies going in the same direction is much more powerful than having one company do that. So, tha- that's how I did the evaluation. And next to that was the market itself is exciting, right? If you look at AM, there's so much potential. And I, like I said before, I do believe we're still at the beginning. There's so much to come that the combination of having the right team, a good ecosystem and then with this large growth out there, that was a great combination.
Joining Ultimaker at the height of a pandemic
Matt Griffin: And how has it been like joining Ultimaker at the height of a pandemic? I mean, you didn't get to come and walk around the halls like you might have, if you were joining at a different time, what was that experience like?
Jürgen von Hollen: Yeah, it was challenging [laughs] it was even maybe perhaps even more challenging for me 'cause my style of management is typically to be leading from the front and being with the teams and traveling and going to the locations and going to customers and partners. None of that has happened. I have not been officially to any office, that we have. So, not to the headquarters. I have met two people in the interview process. It has really changed also my management style, but I don't think I could have probably done the same pace of change that I've been doing.
And the amount of time I've saved from travel time, I've actually put that directly back into video calls and getting to know the teams and participating in as many meetings as possible. So from that perspective, it has opened my eyes. I'm a firm believer that we will also probably never go back to the same old way. I think we're gonna see a big difference. Like I said, for me personally, it is challenging and I- I definitely don't think I- I enjoy spending 12 hours a day in front of the- the monitor, but it is doable. So I think that's one thing that when I ste- step back and say, "Okay, it's not nice but it's actually, it- it's effective. It can work."
Matt Griffin: This year, Ultimaker will be celebrating its- its 10th anniversary. So you're a- arriving at- at a key moment right when Ultimaker can embrace some of the new challenges so that in the next decade also you are getting a chance as you meet everyone to get a sense of the history and the brand. Wh- what are some thoughts that you have about Ultimaker as a brand and- and its, its first decade of activity?
Jürgen von Hollen: I- I'm only, let's say eight or nine weeks in. From that perspective, I'm still learning so much about Ultimaker and the depth of its cultural DNA and connecting where we came from to where we wanna go, there is a red line. I think there's so many parts of Ultimaker, it's not about adding things to it, it's about focusing things. Because there's so much we could do. I definitely don't wanna lose the heritage of where we came from. I wanna stay true to that. I'm spending a lot of time and effort on the values and, and the purpose of the company, always comes back to the core and we- we're not gonna let go of that because I think it's important to be true. Making rapid changes on culture and- and the core values, I don't believe that's the right way of doing it.
Matt Griffin: If you had to pick out one of the challenges that you're going to face at Ultimaker that you find most exciting, it could be the hardest that would match with- with your background or it could be one that you just think is a- a untapped opportunity to, to explore and- and expand what's happening. What would you pick?
Jürgen von Hollen: We- we have a lot of opportunities to have impact, but I do think coming back to that shift from being a product focused company and moving to an application or platform based company, that is a huge challenge, right? Now you could look at that and say, "It's so complex, let's not do it." [laughs] Or you could go after it and say, "Let's figure this out because if we can figure this out, then we have something pretty unique." And that includes, for example, the people, the competence we have in the company today, a lot of it is there. The question is getting it connected to the right areas, whether it's the application, technology development guys or- or- or whatever it might be. It's just trying to get it all into the right areas and focus it. I do believe it is that structural cultural change in the strategy and trying to move towards the customer user experience as being the biggest challenge.
Matt Griffin: We'll return to take our discussion deeper into Jürgen's insights into the additive manufacturing industry and the transformation of manufacturing when we get back.
NEWS - “Talking Additive” at the Ultimaker Transformation Summit, April 20-23, 2021
Announcement - Ultimaker Transformation Summit, April 20-23, 2021
This is Matt Griffin host of Talking Additive, Ultimaker's 3D printing podcast. Talking Additive is pleased to announce that our team will be participating in the first ever Ultimaker Transformation Summit on April 20th to 23rd. Unlock the magic of transformative innovation at the Ultimaker Transformation Summit and be inspired by the industry leaders making it happen. Talking Additive will not have an episode that week because I and my fellow Talking Additive producers will be presenting the conference, taking place within this virtual open house environment. To experience the technology of tomorrow, today and to spend time with the Talking Additive team, live in chat and onscreen, register for your spot soon.
—> Sign up at 3d.ultimaker.com/summit
Ultimaker staff from around the world will be joining for this event, which will kick off with a special presentation by our guest today CEO, Jürgen von Hollen.
Enjoy Talking Additive, we'd appreciate it if you would subscribe and post a review to Apple podcasts or wherever you prefer listening. And we encourage you to catch up on past episodes with some of our favorite Ultimaker Innovator list guests, including Matthew Forrester at L'Oreal, CAPT Brad Baker from the United States Naval Academy, Matt Torosian from Jabil and more.
"If a company's going to be successful, it is dependent on its ability to be flexible"
We now return to our interview with Jürgen van Hollen, CEO of Ultimaker. Now let's discuss the systemic changes in the manufacturing ecosystem.
What are some ways that additive manufacturing is really suited to the kinda volatile universe that we're now in?
Jürgen von Hollen: What we saw from the last year is how many companies repurposed their production lines to support the COVID activities in health equipment or medical equipment. And I think that's an example, right? The ability to quickly and flexibly start changing production to do that. I think additive manufacturing help that. The other part that we see is this ability to do it locally, decentralizing a lot of that production or prototyping, speeding things up helps, again, in making those life cycles shorter and being able to adapt and innovate faster.
There's so many different parts of the complete supply chain where AM can play a role. The- the use cases of the last 18 months reflect how strongly that is actually happening. Everything that you're using for your company has to be flexible. If a company is gonna be successful, it's gonna be dependent on its ability to be flexible. Because, things are changing and we saw that with COVID. Overnight, we were all scrambling, all leaders of every company 'cause no one had foreseen something of this magnitude. Now, many of us were able to quickly change and adapt and redeploy the resources, but many didn't. And I think this volatility is gonna be something that, that we're all gonna have to live with and so coming back to AM, I see that as, you know, an accelerator of that flexibility. It's an enabler for companies to be able to adapt to whatever might be coming.
Matt Griffin: Before COVID, Ultimaker had been pushing a- a software platform to try to serve new approaches to things like distributed manufacturing and we're seeing adoption. But now in the wake of COVID, it seems that proving that this is of value is less the case to make and now implementation. What are some things that you're excited about as far as the new capabilities of this technology to resolve some of these local fulfillment questions?
Jürgen von Hollen: I think the question is, are we framing the problem or the challenge correctly? You could take a decentralized manufacturing or production question and turn that into, what are the different stakeholder positions on that subject? Because if we looked at it from CO2 emissions, and we look at the logistics costs and not just from a monetary perspective, but also from an environmental perspective. We know that logistics represents something to the effect of 30% of the CO2 emissions out there in the world. Can we actually reduce that?
And again, it's about the framing and I, I believe the more we can pick these things up and make them digestible for the end user, put ourselves in their position and thinking about the different aspects and the challenges that every company has. If we understand that decentralized manufacturing is of critical importance or rapid prototyping is of critical importance, how do we make sure that it addresses not just that aspect that we think is important, but the overall aspect of how do I take a small company, sitting in the middle of Texas who needs to be doing rapid prototyping and he doesn't have a highly educated workforce or resource base around him. Make sure the technology is easily addressable and can be deployed in the current environment. So, again, it's always about addressing it from a customer perspective.
Matt Griffin: In your previous role at Universal Robots, having cobots as an opportunity to bring some of the sophistication of leading automation solutions to some of these local places that might not have had access to this before. That seems like a really great analog for some of the opportunities for additive manufacturing. Are there details that you've been picking up on from your participation in manufacturing 4.0 in- in the kind of transformation of industry that are specific ones to highlight even beyond decentralizing?
Jürgen von Hollen: One of the, the biggest challenges that we will have, in general, for businesses is the fact that we're gonna basically not have enough resources available. So, people and automation engineers as an example, are gonna be a challenge. They're a challenge today and they're a challenge for all companies. But if you again come back to the small company that is sitting typically regionally and not in a center somewhere, it's exponentially larger for them. And so that's why I always think about it because, if I were to look at that holistic situation about how does a small or medium size company really operate and what are their challenges over the next two years, three years? Things like resource base is a huge challenge.
They're not competing with a company down the road, it's sitting in a different country in the world and can they operate effectively, efficiently like a company in China or Vietnam or in the US or in Canada. The large company, on the other hand, has the benefit. It can move from left to right, whatever happens and leverage those things. But the small company does not have that opportunity. So, again, I look at it from a, how does 3D printing in itself support that type of challenge? And I think if we look at it from that perspective, I think we will realize that we- we haven't started opening up that market yet.
It takes an ecosystem of partners and customers to evangelize the promises of innovative technology
Matt Griffin: That's fantastic. Talking to some past, guests such as Matt Torosian from Jabil beginning of the last season. Also Haleyanne Freedman talking about M. Holland and the kind of evolution of the injection molding ecosystem. One of the details that kept coming up was that there are a lot of standard ways to solve problems that companies are used to using... like how to make parts and know that they're validated and that sort of thing. But they are essentially over-engineering to make sure that they solve things and they could be doing this other route.
There's a, a gap between the solution there and if they fully defined the, a solution with, for example, a performance polymers. But it's a little bit of making a case and introducing that wide group of- of people that you're talking about to new ways to work. What are some opportunities that you see for helping to spread the message of how this industry can conserve and transform those teams. Particularly the ones you're talking about, where they might not have the ability to select a lot of resources and they might have processes they follow in a- in a pretty lean way to keep the turnover what they need.
Jürgen von Hollen: Yeah, it's a good point. When you have a relatively innovative new product or technology coming to market, one of your biggest challenges that you have is that you're having to work with relatively old machine standards. And that includes certificates, s- standard levels, processes that have to be adhered to. And I, in all my businesses where we were first to market or early to market, we probably spent 60% of our resources trying to adapt or change those standards to adapt them to the new technology. I- I do think that's happening already because there are a lot of people out there already down that path. But it comes back to that application and the customer specificity. Because I don't believe that one company alone will be able to master the full breadth of applications, the company that has the best knowledge of the process and the application is the one that lives it every day and that's the customer.
When we start creating a team or an ecosystem of partners that are all bringing something to the table, whether it's the tech or it's the actual go-to-market, not just technology, it's more than that. You know, the training, the academy, the services, the support, if we're able to put all that together and create that ultimate solution, then we are getting closer to where we wanna go, that's fundamentally my belief. You know, I, I don't see the customers being on the outside. I think the customer should be on the inside. Together with them we're creating that package that hits their sweet spot.
Systemic changes in the manufacturing ecosystem
Matt Griffin: I wanna dive into the systemic changes in the manufacturing ecosystem. You've been watching this space for some time, even if your interest in additive manufacturing has been well recent or, you've used it as a customer before but now you're looking at it really as a focus. What do you see as the fundamental forces that are powering the transformation of industry and manufacturing right now?
Jürgen von Hollen: The real challenge for manufacturing in general is to evolve to a situation where resource effectivity is being optimized. And it's in the context of the lack of resources available. You know, it's in that environment of volatility. It's trying to evolve your business to become more robust and flexible, to become more effective and efficient and yet deal with a volatile environment, right? And that's almost like this conundrum that people are trying to figure out. And then if you take that in a combination of a product life cycle, that may have been five years or four years, and now saying it ha- is actually being reduced down to two or three years, it really is complex.
That environment is very much open for looking for emerging technologies to help. That's what I think is exciting. You have the world changing rapidly where there's very few principles that are unchanged, almost everything is changing in the dynamics. And so from that perspective you... what we see is that many companies are trying to find the optimum. And I think that's what- what creates the opportunity for companies like ourselves or in an industry like AM. But I also think it needs to be followed through again from a customer perspective, right?
Because, the challenges that they're dealing with are huge. And it's not just technically or, you know, it- it could be financially, CapEx versus OpEx. I mentioned resource base, so many different things are out there that are- are challenges and it's changing so fast. So the same thing as, if you look at our technologies that are being bought in China, many parts of it cannot be used in China, due to the restrictions. And- and so these are changing all the time in different parts of the world.
Matt Griffin: Do you- do you imagine that even within the additive manufacturing push that the ways the tools will be developed to solve these problems will change a lot in this time period?
Jürgen von Hollen: I- I do think that where we were five years ago in pushing a hardware product that was, you buy it now and- and you'll use it for the next three to five years is also not gonna be the future. I think, moving towards much more of a robust platform where consistent updates and applications are driven on top of that from a software perspective is probably the way it goes. Again, trying to optimize the return for that customer is necessary and giving them and empowering them with that flexibility is gonna be important.
Matt Griffin: So speaking of flexibility, let's talk a little bit about the distribution of goods, about supply chain and- and things like this. Because some of these challenges have really come to the forefront during COVID and- and actually the year or two before. One of the things that we've heard back from some customers is that, in their attempts to apply things like LEAN manufacturing, they sometimes got into unexpected challenges because the supply chain just completely failed in some areas, in ways that didn't feel like the modern world. What is your thought about how supply chain is changing and how additive manufacturing can help address it?
Jürgen von Hollen: Every business had some level of business continuity process in place, and we all thought we had it pretty well under control until the last couple of years. That's one thing, again, that COVID just showed us. That, there weren't that many scenarios that I had in my businesses that would be able to deal with that situation. I can remember exactly when we realized that COVID was gonna have huge restrictions, we didn't know which ones. On a Friday evening at midnight, I actually was deploying staff with their personal cars, driving products across borders to make sure we had products in the right places and flying things out across the world. 'Cause we- we weren't ready for it. So, the definition of business continuity in the context of those things, I think has changed massively from two years ago. If you look at your supply chains and the dependencies on the supply chains, plus the volatility of trade regulations.
If you look at the Brexit discussions, you look at China, the US there's so much going on that defining business continuity in this context has become very challenging. Having the right technologies, identifying the scenarios but then bringing in the right technologies that allow you at least for some period of time to continue your business, to meet specific short-term requirements is so essential. And that's where I think, again, AM has a huge role to play. But I do believe what we need to do is demonstrate that in that context as well. So define the applications and the packages and the solution for- for- for a customer that says, "Look, this is an area which we saw as a- as a high risk area and it's worthwhile to having that flexibility in your own organization to deal with that kinda challenge."
Matt Griffin: In- in the preparation for the- the interview you had- you brought up the idea of controlling things that, that you can control. There is so much volatility, but there still are things that they can do. Do you wanna share more about that concept?
Jürgen von Hollen: What's really im- important is understanding your own core capabilities and competency. Coming back to that word, focus is understanding what your true drivers are and where you are strongest, that is so essential. To think that you can control everything or to effect everything is impossible. To think we will ever understand truly what a customer's production processes look like and every customer in the world is not gonna happen. So it's fundamentally not something in my control. I simply cannot control the trade regulations. I cannot control the macroeconomic situation.
So, the only thing I can control is how flexible I am and who do I partner with to work together on specific focused solutions. E- even in Ultimaker, it's easy to get distracted by these macroenvironmental things that are happening. And it's easy to say, it wasn't my fault or, it's not up to us. But there are things that are up to us and if we do those really well, we could either mitigate or even accelerate in those environmental conditions. And I think that DNA, that mind shift change of focus and understanding what the core capabilities of the company are essential.
"If you take complexity away, that's when you truly see innovation"
Matt Griffin: To take a- a shift in a slightly different direction, CAD and design for FFF have been described as steep barriers for growing the population of users who can really make effective use of this technology. What do you imagine that Ultimaker can do to address these challenges?
Jürgen von Hollen: That user experience, if we can make it as easy to use as possible from concept in the person's mind to the actual print being done, the finished product, and we can guide that and make it simple, then I think we've truly gotten to where we wanna go to. And this probably defines the vision that I have in my head around innovation of our roadmap over the next year. My experience is, when you take complexity away, that's when you truly see innovation using the technology. Because people start thinking, wow, I can actually do this. And then it really accelerates the, the potential applications out there.
I think ease of use is so important, especially with emerging technologies. Taking away that perceived risk, today it is that way. Today it is true that those interfaces that we're talking about, whether it's CAD to the actual printer, to the slicing, all that different parts or aspects are barriers. [laughs] That's what they are, right? To deploying the technology, to buying the technology. We... Our customers don't understand all those aspects. And- and so we have to make sure that user experience is from idea to print very cohesive and integrated and not complex.
Matt Griffin: You have such experience in working in segment innovation, what are some ways that you'll bring past experiences and strategies like the ones you mentioned to help customers really understand some of these new opportunities and new ways to work?
Jürgen von Hollen: When you're trying to introduce new technology, or a new concept or application, one of the key parts is that there is a huge amount of awareness and education that's required. Because people will always fall back on their past and traditional definitions. I think that's something that wo... we have as a task, as an industry but also as a company to address. To make sure people understand exactly the discussion we were just having about this is not part of your traditional world.
This is the difference, this is what we're doing. When entering a new customer or a large account... designing a new blueprint, fundamentally of how do you roll this out? The return of investment, the business case itself is driven by so many different aspects that typically would not be done properly if you're just doing it the traditional way. That kind of approach in educating the market and saying, this is the total cost or the total return value you can get from this new technology, is something we have to do. Our a- ability to get that across is our challenge. We have to be able to do that. As the market matures, the market's expectations and the customers' expectations mature as well.
So what was good, from our perspective, two years ago or the customer's perspective has changed two years later. Whether it's a quality or a feature or whatever it might be, they're expecting something different now. I'll make the example, five years ago they were kicking the tires and if the product fell down they would still buy another one. They were happy 'cause they were testing it. They were playing with it. But if you're putting it into a production environment today, it can't do that. So you have to mature the product and it matures equally with the customer's expectations. It's- it's always a challenge to consistently and continuously improve the product, the service, the support, always at the same time. I think that's something that- that has to be inherent in the design of the whole business itself.
Matt Griffin: How do you think that the tightening of processes, bringing together hardware, the platform, materials could really transform the use of this kinda technology into the future?
Jürgen von Hollen: As we look at this maturity happening, customers have seen it as a stopgap in many ways or a specific sort of solution for one part of it. But they're not seeing it as a continuous long-term solution where they can have multiple products being printed in- in any way. So I think my expectation is that, that customers will demand more and more from that platform investment and that they wanna see it continually drive value for them as they adapt to their markets and, and customers.
I think we will see more and more software specific solutions. We will see more packages and- and I don't think we'll be any different than any other industry has matured in time. Where we look at automotive, I- I wouldn't even be able to calculate the number of different product lines they actually have. As you mature, you get more specificity about th- the different segments and applications for the customer. And I think that will happen also in the 3D world.
The elements shaping Jürgen's vision for Ultimaker's second decade
Matt Griffin: You've mentioned several times that you're seeing such opportunities for thinking of the market for Ultimaker being addressed as a platform and as an ecosystem. Could you just find a couple of the details of where your thinking is now as you're starting to shape a vision for this?
Jürgen von Hollen: As again, I'm still eight weeks in. My vision is about taking what I believe are our strengths which is for the people, the competencies around our people, the- the printing platform, the software, our materials, knowledge and developing that user experience that is needed. And I think right now we're still a bit fragmented in- in all the different pieces.
So my vision would really go towards that area where I look at, how do we leverage all those competencies and understand what do we actually need to offer the best user experience at the end of the day? If we don't have it internally, then we have it in our ecosystem somewhere. Whether it's in the software or in the hardware add-ons or in the materials. So it's really trying to combine those things into a model that a customer could actually leverage, ultimately from their perspective.
Matt Griffin: Speaking of ways to make this experience customer driven, using a customer driven perspective in order to- to find some opportunities, where to go and, and where to really address industry needs. What are some areas of customers that you feel that Ultimaker has not yet reached that you think would be a really great opportunity for its second decade?
Jürgen von Hollen: Yeah, I- I do believe that certain industries have dictated the pace. If I look at, for example, automotive, they're typically the most automated industries and they do dictate the pace and they do pull a lot of the attention. But I also believe that there are other industries that haven't seen the necessity for change yet. And I think we'll see more of that. COVID has shown that for example medical, we have seen an uptick, right? Where people are starting to apply the technology more than ever before. But I, if you- if you move away from the verticals and you go more to, again, the small size customer and you look at machine shops or any small companies that are having to make a design and want to improve upon that, or from a speed perspective or accuracy or whatever it might be. Those are where I f... I still fundamentally believe.
I don't think they truly understand how 3D printing or AM can help them in that process. And- and so I think there's this- this barrier still about awareness that I think the mass market has not figured out that I have this 25 year old machine shop or I've inherited from my great grandfather a machine shop with 25 or 30 year old machines. They are not thinking, I need a 3D printer to help me in my process today. And I think that's where the opportunity lies. But, the complication we have is getting that message across. Because they're not thinking like we are, and we're not thinking like they are. And we've gotta find that messaging that- that connects the dots, basically.
There's this inherent expectation of the customer that whatever they're using on top of an Ultimaker is gonna work. Coming back to that fragmentation of production, there's so many requirements that we are not gonna be able to do everything ourselves. The ability to build upon those partners that have from a materials perspective, a software perspective or a hardware perspective, something to add value to the application, for the customer. Those are the ones we should embrace and leverage to develop that solution for that customer.
I think if you combine that, then you wanna have on one side, the ability to address all customer's requirements, you wanna have the ability to offer the flexibility to the customer to use multiple deployments of the technology. And you wanna leverage the innovation capability of multiple organizations that have more focused capabilities in specific areas that are complimentary. And if you combine all that, then that's what I look at looking at the longer term, what we have to get to. Is to find those type of partners that will add value for the end user.
Matt Griffin: Responding to all those opportunities and all those partners and new customer needs. But how will Ultimaker address the new pressures for innovation across software, hardware, materials, service, training, to really be that leader as well as providing that platform that makes all that activity possible.
Jürgen von Hollen: And the only way we're gonna be able to continue to innovate at pace and accelerate, is to stay focused. And that's really about knowing where we wanna play. So what are the swim lanes that we wanna play in from a technological perspective that we think are important in the midterm? The important part is this, open innovation model requires us to work together with the right parties. From a research perspective, all the way through to a customer perspective. I- I- I think one of the things we have to do is invite the end user much, much earlier into the process of innovation because they truly understand their own requirement.
And the sooner we do that, the more we reduce the risk of the projects, we understand better what we're trying to impact. And I think that context of ecosystem define much, much more broadly than most times, by bringing in the customer into that ecosystem will be helpful. It will be something that will drive that.
Matt Griffin: I think that's a perfect message to go out on. Jürgen, thank you very much for joining Talking Additive today and sharing your- your vision. Not only that you're shaping now in Ultimaker, but drawing on your past experiences in the industry and seeing all this change and being comfortable [laughs] with, as you described the volatility that you seem to thrive in.
Jürgen von Hollen: Thank you very much for having me.
Thanks for attending our show
Matt Griffin: We hope that you have enjoyed our 21st episode for the Talking Additive podcast. Meet Ultimaker's new CEO, Jürgen von Hollen. Stick around after the theme music for our Ultimaker Innovators spotlight featuring Cody Cochran of Azoth in Michigan, USA. And as a reminder, make sure to register now to attend the Ultimaker Transformation Summit on April 20th to 23rd, where you will have the opportunity to see CEO, Jürgen von Hollen announce to the world, his vision for the new era for Ultimaker.
You will also have the opportunity to attend the conference, taking place at this event produced by the Talking Additive team. Unlock the magic of transformative innovation at the Ultimaker Transformation Summit and be inspired by the industry leaders making it happen. If you have questions about any topics covered during this episode of Talking Additive, we invite you to post on Twitter or LinkedIn, the #talkingadditive, all one word. In two weeks, we will return with episode 22, featuring Doug Kenik, Vice President of Product for Teton Simulation. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and join the conversation by signing up for news and announcements at talkingadditive.com.
Thank you again to Jürgen von Hollen for joining us for episode 21. Our series producer is Rana Gabriel Taquini, studio manager, Dave Roberson, executive producer, Nuno Campos. Music and episode sound mix by Bryan Scary and Giulio Carmassi of Hummingbirds custom music and sound. I am host and producer Matt Griffin. And thank you for listening.
Ultimaker Innovator Spotlight - Cody Cochran, AZOTH LLC
Psst … Wait, don't leave now.
In Talking Additive episode 18, we introduced a recent project that is near and dear to our hearts, the Ultimaker Innovator list. If you haven't yet had a chance to explore this online project, head over to ultimaker.com/innovators to see the list that we unveiled on December 15th, 2020. This project will be an ongoing Ultimaker wide effort to put the spotlight on individuals or groups across the world, who we believe are using 3D printing to transform the way people work, think and live. Throughout the year we will return to this list to highlight more of these Ultimaker Innovators interviews as we advance our way towards the launch of our 2021 Innovators list at the end of the year. Today, our innovator spotlight falls upon Cody Cochran from Azoth. My colleague, Greg Elfering who nominated Cody for this honor provides the introduction.
Greg Elfering: This is Greg Elfering. I am President, of, Ultimaker here in the Americas. Innovation is the creation of something new or incremental in regards to an ability. And it's usually through some kinda intellectual horsepower. We created this Ultimakers Innovators list. And what we are doing with this is seeking to recognize individuals or groups, companies who are innovating around 3D printing. I nominated Cody Cochran of Azoth, Cody and Azoth are innovators in creating digital libraries.
These digital libraries are used in the 3D printing of critical MRO spare parts. So their core business model involves operating tool rooms within factories, large factories, and they are deploying 3D printers in these factories to produce digital copies of parts they actually need in the factory. So this is, I think, a real innovative way of using 3D printing technology to really take, uh, supply chain and what's required to run a factory to the next level.
We wanna celebrate this for a lot of reasons, the center of innovation in and of itself, or reduce a lot of, a lot of downtime associated with long lead time of parts. It also saves a lot of transportation and storage costs. But at the bottom line, it really gives a factory more control over mission critical parts. They need to stay in production. We like to celebrate innovation at all levels, and certainly when we can help our customers and their factories become more efficient. And- and in our case take advantage of 3D printing that really gets us excited.
Cody Cochran: My name is Cody Cochran, I'm the General Manager of Azoth. Here at Azoth we're focused on transforming physical inventory into digital inventory, manufactured on demand. My background is in traditional manufacturing, traditional machining. I'm a mechanical engineer that's spent time in over 20 manufacturing facilities across North America, focused primarily on cutting tools, abrasives and traditional MRO supplies. Innovation is our mission at Azoth.
We're taking the quality systems of traditional manufacturing and combining them with the on demand nature of rapid prototyping and 3D printing. Azoth offers a unique inventory management system called TOMO, Take One, Make One. Which drastically changes how customers manage their MRO and indirect materials. Instead of waiting six to eight weeks to receive a product, the customer can now get the product in days. And with Ultimaker we have worked together to optimize the distributed manufacturing approach to TOMO, which will allow on-site printing.
This allows TOMO to deliver in hours now and Azoth to enable all sorts of other efficiencies for its customers. I see 3D printing as a technology that's proven itself in manufacturing and now, manufacturers are applying it to value added ways it can be with traditional manufacturing methods. It's no longer just a prototype solution, it's no longer just used in emergency situations. Now it's being used as the primary technology to drive businesses. As such, I see machine manufacturers starting to make machines with increased quality controls and considering things like PPAP and repeatability. So it's quite an exciting time for 3D printing technology. What role does it play in my life and work? It consumes a lot of my thoughts and it's where I will really continue to develop my career.
Matt Griffin: To learn more about Azoth, Cody Cochran and their TOMO approach visit them at azoth3d.com. Thank you very much for listening. On Talking Additive we hold conversations with colleagues and customers about 3D printing's impact on business.