Andre Wegner is founder and CEO of Authentise, a leader in data-driven process automation software for additive manufacturing. He is also the Chair of Digital Manufacturing at Singularity University in Silicon Valley.
Andre is a frequent speaker on 3D Printing, the digital thread in manufacturing at events such as WIRED, Rapid, Open Innovations, CES and more. He has been quoted in publications such as BBC News, MIT Tech Review, Chicago Tribune, and Bloomberg.
Prior to Authentise Andre invested in, and supported capital raises of, companies in Nigeria and India. Andre is a graduate of St. Andrews University (M.A. – UK), ESSEC (M.Sc. – France) and Singularity University (California).
Sample Topics
3D Printing and Digital Manufacturing
How 3D printing offers new opportunities for addressing body needs, how it invites new business models, how it opens the doors for new innovation, etc. It will also touch on the scope of the 3D printing industry, the state of the art, and related technologies (scanning, generative modeling, etc) and specific applications.
Additive Manufacturing and the Future of Supply Chains
Authentise founder Andre Wegner describes the journey of Additive Manufacturing from a rapid prototyping tool to one that’s increasingly becoming a manufacturing alternative. Increasingly the technology is made to make customized end products, tooling or small run production parts that have significantly higher efficiency than traditional parts. The next step in the trajectory is clear – a disruption spare parts and eventually in the entire supply chain, which represents more than 16% of GDP.
Agile Manufacturing: Delivering Industry 4.0’s promise
Current Industry 4.0 conversations are dominated by IIoT, but that’s just the beginning: Real value will be generated as insight is acted upon and value chains are shortened. The promise of Industry 4.0 is built on innovations in design (generative design), materials (architected materials), machines (3D printers and others) and the digital thread that enable rapid reactions to changes in markets and environment. The prize of shorter lead times, lighter and higher performance products, cost reductions and new markets has driven many leading manufacturers to radically change the way they do business. Suppliers not already supporting this shift must change now.
Core Capabilities: Digital Manufacturing
3D printing and additive manufacturing technologies enable users to print a fantastic variety of designs locally and inexpensively. However, a deeper revolution in digital manufacturing is just getting started. Industrial scale molecular manufacturing, will eventually allow us to assemble inexpensive, super strong, macro-scale 3D objects with atomic precision. This will alter the playing field of what is possible, and actually has the potential to usher in an age of unprecedented material abundance.
DigiFab
Just as computing technology has fundamentally altered our relationship to bits and information, nanotechnology and advanced manufacturing are altering our relationship to molecules and matter. Traditional manufacturing methods often employ subtractive technologies to carve, bore, grind, saw, or sand away unwanted molecules from a large block of material. Additive manufacturing technologies enable users to print a fantastic variety of designs locally and inexpensively. Complex designs cost the same to produce per unit weight as simple ones, and designs can be printed in a wide variety of materials _ from plastic, to metal, to chocolate! However, a deeper revolution in digital manufacturing is just getting started. Industrial scale molecular manufacturing, will eventually allow us to assemble inexpensive, super strong, macro-scale 3D objects with atomic precision. This will alter the playing field of what is possible, and actually has the potential to usher in an age of unprecedented material abundance.
Digital Manufacturing
Manufacturing is changing to meet the increasing demands for agility. Whether it’s adapting to customer needs, market fluctuations, environmental crises, policy changes, or simply the availability of new data, companies have to react more quickly. New technologies are arising to help companies address the challenge: sensors, AI, and software-driven manufacturing systems are tied together by a continuous digital thread. However, their adoption will be hampered as long as the old style of management remains. Top-down planning and execution restricts agility by default. The only real option is to give operators, your experts, greater freedom in defining the organization’s response to events. There are precedents we can learn from in design, personal automation, and education. Meeting this challenge enables not only a more efficient, dynamic manufacturing system but also a set of completely new business models that rely on them.
Digital Thread: Additive Manufacturing as a Sandbox
The digital thread is evolving. Few people know what the term means. But to stitch the ~$720bn/pa in digital manufacturing equipment sales together into a coherent force, and to drive improvements in agility, resilience and flexibility the focus needs to change. Additive Manufacturing (AM) can be a learning ground. Not only is the technology increasingly becoming a manufacturing alternative, but it is the first time that there is a near-unbroken digital file from ideation to production. That brings about a whole new set of problems and approaches that help us realize what challenges the digital thread for Industry 4.0 still holds.
From Lab to Production Scale with Automation Technology
As Additive Manufacturing increasingly moves from Lab to Production scale, the infrastructure requirements change. GE is investing in 100’s of machines that run simultaneously, Nike does 1000’s of prints a month. To manage these operations the same way we did before – manually inspecting and editing every file, setting up, monitoring and improving every print – is untenable. Instead we can rely on increasingly sophisticated software automation to drive these processes, saving time and money as well as increasingly reliability and safety. In no other manufacturing sector is the opportunity so apparent since additive manufacturing has a more complete digital thread than any other part of the shop floor.
Manufacturing Agility
Just as computing technology has fundamentally altered our relationship to bits and information, nanotechnology and advanced manufacturing are altering our relationship to molecules and matter. Traditional manufacturing methods often employ subtractive technologies to carve, bore, grind, saw, or sand away unwanted molecules from a large block of material. Additive manufacturing technologies enable users to print a fantastic variety of designs locally and inexpensively. Complex designs cost the same to produce per unit weight as simple ones, and designs can be printed in a wide variety of materials _ from plastic, to metal, to chocolate! However, a deeper revolution in digital manufacturing is just getting started. Industrial scale molecular manufacturing, will eventually allow us to assemble inexpensive, super strong, macro-scale 3D objects with atomic precision. This will alter the playing field of what is possible, and actually has the potential to usher in an age of unprecedented material abundance.
Manufacturing Agility: Why It’s Critical and How to Achieve It – Learn How Exponential Tech Revolutionizes Manufacturing and Makes Agility Possible
In our digital world, customers expect both instant gratification and ever increasing levels of customization. The result is that nearly every industry is experiencing a troubling phenomenon: the need to manufacture a growing range of products at much lower volumes than in the past. In addition to unpredictable customer patterns, manufacturers are facing other challenges ranging from shifting markets to skyrocketing raw materials prices, political upheaval, and environmental changes.
How can companies stay competitive in such a volatile manufacturing landscape?
Andre Wegner explores the critical nature of manufacturing agility, as he details the inventive power exponential technologies offer to manufacturers and their extended supply chains. In this talk, you will:
- Understand how current trends in manufacturing are affecting industries ranging from automotive to fashion, aviation and medical devices
- Discover examples of companies who are using agile manufacturing techniques to stay ahead of the curve
- Gain familiarity with how technologies such as Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), generative design, 3D printing, collaborative robots and other digital manufacturing tools such as digital knitting machines, CNC machines, and laser cutters can increase manufacturing agility
- Discover how companies are successfully compacting their value chains by using these new tools, including why your company should aim to be more like Zara and less like Volkswagen
This session will be valuable to anyone interested in developing, manufacturing and shipping product. For those not in the manufacturing industry, this session will create context for how consumer patterns, politics, and environmental changes are impacting technology and the real economy.
