Pushing forward digitalisation in the machine tool industry with intelligent algorithms and platform technology

The VDW (German Machine Tool Builders'

Association), Frankfurt am Main, has acquired a minority stake in Munich-based Spanflug
Technologies GmbH. The contract was signed last November. The start-up has been operating
since 2018 and was spun off from the Institute for Machine Tools and Industrial Management
(iwb) at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). Its declared aim is to automate the
quotation and parts procurement processes for the manufacturing industry. It provides two
products for this: a platform on which customers can interact with suppliers and process their
orders, and software which suppliers can use to generate their offers automatically, quickly
and transparently.
"The VDW enjoys excellent links throughout our industry, and we are delighted it has come
on board. It's the ideal partner for us," said company founder Dr. Markus Westermeier. "Both
sides were interested in establishing a close, long-term cooperation beyond the purely consultative.
The idea of a financial involvement on the part of the VDW was floated and then
very quickly implemented," he continued. "We enlisted the support of some of our members
to evaluate the Spanflug solution and found that it leads the international competition when it
comes to the analysis and cost calculation of CNC parts," added Dr. Wilfried Schäfer, Executive
Director of the VDW. "The stake offers great potential, not only for our member companies
and their customers, but also for the mechanical and plant engineering sector as a
whole in Germany. The aim is to use the Spanflug technology and its resulting efficiency 

gains to secure the long-term competitiveness of the German manufacturing industry." He
went on: "The participation represents a new field of business for the VDW and thus opens a
fresh chapter for us. In times of upheaval it is especially important to be expanding our portfolio
as part of our efforts to remain attractive to new members."

The Spanflug Technologies manufacturing platform specialises in CNC turned and milled
parts. It offers customers a fully automated procurement process, including everything from
price calculation through to an online shop where orders can be placed. Customers are given
the price and delivery time during the enquiry itself. "Our software automatically calculates
the price based on CAD models and technical drawings," explained Dr Adrian Lewis, cofounder
of Spanflug. "A new price can be recalculated immediately if any changes are made
to the design. We're currently able to calculate prices automatically for over 90 per cent of
the components on the market. This is based on a pricing algorithm which we developed ourselves
and which we are constantly refining in order to be able to process even more components
automatically," he explained. More than 1,000 customers are now ordering components
on the platform and prices have been calculated for more than 100,000 production
parts.
A large network of more than 70 high-performance manufacturing companies from Germany
and Austria is already connected to the platform. "We attach great importance to this, as it
ensures high quality and fast deliveries," affirmed Lewis. The benefits for customers are that
it can shorten the entire ordering process from days to a few minutes, it saves time in the
search for suppliers, and minimises the work involved in ensuring suitable supplier quality
and the outlay for communication. This reduces the ancillary costs of procurement. For their
part, the manufacturing companies can eliminate unused capacity and make savings in sales
and marketing.
Spanflug's second pillar is also based on the platform and is a software service in the form of
automatic price calculation for manufacturing companies. They can use this software to automate
their costing process and generate customised quotations at the click of a mouse.
Spanflug's founders see great potential in automated costing processes, both for the customers
and for the manufacturing companies themselves. The participation of the VDW will allow
them to ramp up the development of their platform technology and significantly expand it by 

getting the machine tool manufacturers involved. "The VDW brings extensive industry
knowledge to the table and is thus the ideal partner for us here. Ever since talks began we
have been seeing increasing benefit from our access to the VDW's network and the close
proximity to the machine tool industry," concluded Westermeier. 

World Media Group (WMG) News Service