Supply Chain
Technology Podcast

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

3D printing, supply chain, operational excellence, sustainability, Stratasys, prototyping, manufacturing, aerospace, automotive, medical, dental, consumer goods, industrial, digitalization, resilience.

SPEAKERS

Scott Mears, Jose Baptista

Scott Mears  00:00

3d printing will revolutionize supply chain.

Jose Baptista  00:03

Yeah.

Scott Mears  00:03

All supply chain heroes should support Netherlands football team?

Jose Baptista  00:06

Yes. But I will say, also support the Brazilian team.

Scott Mears  00:10

Companies need to become more sustainable?

Jose Baptista  00:13

100%

Scott Mears  00:22

Welcome to the Supply Chain Tech Podcast with Roambee. Scott Mears here, Global Field Marketing Manager at Roambee and one of the hosts of the Supply Chain Tech Podcast. We thank you for joining us today. In this episode, we speak with Jose Baptista Cereser de Oliveira. Baptista is the Operations Director at Stratasys. In this episode, we discuss the evolution of 3d printing and how it is enabling operational and supply chain excellence in multiple industries. We also dispel the common concerns of adopting 3d printing, and we learn the endless potential of this technology. And I know from listening or watching this episode, you will learn how you can advance your supply chain today with this technology also. Hi, Batista, it’s great to have you on the episode. How are you today?

Jose Baptista  01:11

Well, I’m fine. I’m fine. Scott, How about you?

Scott Mears  01:14

I am wonderful. I am a very good thank you very much for asking. It’s brilliant to have you on the episode today, because I know we recently met at the Supply Chain Innovation Summit in Amsterdam, and I found your talk especially very interesting. And I’m really looking forward to diving into that and really understanding the value of what you’re doing, what you’re doing, and it’s going to be really interesting to see how that evolves with the episode, before we dive into that, though, I want to really, I always like to ask a bit of an icebreaker question. I always like to, you know, get a bit behind the person and to understand who we’re talking to today. So I know you know you’re an Operations Director, but I would love to know, what do you enjoy working what is it you enjoy about working in operations, and if you were not in operations, what role do you feel you would be in within supply chain?

Jose Baptista  02:14

Well, Scott, first of all, thanks a lot for this invitation. It’s a pleasure to meet to be with you here and share well ideas about supply chain, about operations and how we can improve the world. And yeah, answer your questions about operations. What I really like operations. What I really like is work with people. And normally, operations, we have great teams, big teams, small teams. And all the time I’ve been contact with the people. So this is my really passion. And yeah, I believe this is crucial for the success of the operation, the supply chain and the business. So in my operation, I split in three parts, like in procurement, manufacturing and also supply chain is a big part of that. And if I do say working specifically in supply chain, what I like? I like to go with my team to the field and see, well, the real operation with trucks, train, sports. I usually make a joke with my friends that we are like kids. When you’re a kid, you like to play with toys, okay, but now we rewope, and we still play with big toys, like trucks, trains, vessels. So this I I really, really like and, yeah, this is my passion.

Scott Mears  03:42

I love it. And you mentioned a few key things there. You know, loving to, you know, be amongst the team. You know, it seems like you very much be love to be amongst the team. And, you know, driving for that operational excellence and and in between that you get to play with some fun toys as well. So it sounds like a really fun role all around. It sounds like, definitely the one where you should be, and it sounds like there’s a lot of fun that goes on, a lot of teamwork that goes on. So that’s really interesting here, and how you really enjoy what you enjoy within that role? Exactly?

Jose Baptista  04:14

Yeah. Well, you know, it’s not easy to work in a daily basis with a lot of pressure in the world, but you really should enjoy the journey and have fun with our team. This is crucial to achieve the goals we have nowadays.

Scott Mears  04:28

Absolutely, I couldn’t agree more. And moving on, what, you know, what we really want to focus this episode on is we’re really going to dive into, you know, the value of 3d printing, because this, this technology is, is really interesting to me. And it’s, and with 3d printing, you know, it’s really, you know, coming in, and it’s, it’s taking over job roles. It’s creating new job roles that we’ve not seen before. And. I really want to find out with 3d printing, what role is it playing today. But before we get into that, I was quite surprised to learn with 3d printing that it’s actually been around since the 1980s which I was surprised to find out. But I feel like it really got popularized in like, you know, the last 10 years. I feel like it really, you know, there was a big boom of 3d printing. Everyone was talking about it, and it’s, I’d be interested to know, sort of, if you could take us through the journey of 3d printing and sort of, maybe how it’s evolved since the 1980s and what are maybe some key milestones just for us to get our understanding, because it’s been around for quite some time, but I know it’s only now, from what I understand is now getting adopted a lot more within, you know, the manufacturing process. So be interesting to see what that journey has been and where we’re at today with it.

Jose Baptista  05:58

Oh sure. Well, if you search in the internet, you find many information. But actually that’s true. Around 1981 Japanese guy, he starts to with this technique to print, layer by layer one, liquid plastic. And this technology was almost similar what we have nowadays. The name is SLA, but, yeah, this was the first guy who starts in Japan. But some years later, some French guys, they start to do the same, but was only in states between 80 and 90 that one American guy, well, got the first patent for 3d printing, and they established the SLA technology. His name is Charles, and some years later, he founded system. Three systems, a big company, by the way, is my main competitor nowadays. We found the system in 1989 and during the same time, another guy in states the same names, your name, Scott. Scott and his wife started to try, uh, well, print one toy frog for his daughter, he used like a glucon, a glue gun with some plastics, liquid plastics, polytrene, and also some candle walks. And with this mix, printing layer by layer, they started to print one toy frog for his daughter. After some years, he found the strategies, and nowadays, strategies and three decisions are the biggest, the biggest company in the world. And could they say nowadays, strategies is bigger? And yeah, we’re leading all of this, this world of 3d printing together during in the end of the 80s, beginning of 90s, we saw different technologies, like filaments. Is the most common nowadays. You have one plastic filament, and you can hit a nose and you print apart. This is another technology, and another one could I say, to summarize three technologies, liquids, filaments and powders, powders, we say, SLS. We have a machine that you fill with powders, and with a laser, we can print layer by layer and get your piece. So these three technologies was the most common for plastics. And also we saw more technologies for iron, for ceramics. And year by year, this word is consolidating. We’re having different kind of technologies. And also the companies start to buy, not only printers company, but also materials company. Was my case that Stratasys bought the ASCEND COVID store material and they got also software companies. And with these three pillars, printers, materials and software, now we as a strategist cannot offer the solution for the customer, not only machine or a material. We can understand what customer needs, and you provide the solution for the customer. This is the journey since in 98 until today, and we can see now this movement before this, this business was more for prototyping, and you will have many examples now that the industry is changing from prototyping to manufacturing, and that’s a strongly believe will be the future, and this will, well, will be a big impact in supply chain. So.

Scott Mears  09:58

And it’s, it’s interesting, what you mentioned there, you know, the separate ingredient first, is coming from that small frog, for, you know, his child, and then it’s moving to figuring out the different ingredients. And now where Stratasys is at, where they’ve combined the three pillars, and I didn’t know, I didn’t look at it like that, and that’s quite interesting. How you break it down. It’s the printing, the material and the software, and you very much need those three things to go from creating those ceramics to moving all the way to, you know, something even much bigger and complicated and maybe a manufacturing process. So it’s interesting how that journey has progressed, and how Stratasys has also progressed in that journey as well to where it is today. And it’s interesting how, you know, it bounced so quickly and and what I want to understand now is with this technology. And you know, as technology comes in, you know, we know that it’s going to both take over jobs as well as create jobs. And I find that very interesting with technology, as much as it brings lots of efficiency, and I’m always interested in learning what efficiencies is it bringing today, and what efficiencies Do we believe it will play in the future? And we’re going to specify this into supply chain. So I’d like to look into is, what are some of the key roles 3d printing is playing in supply chain today, and please do specify the industries, because maybe there’s some industries that will come out of this answer that you would say that you know are adopting this much more than others.

Jose Baptista  11:41

Yeah. Well, how can you split, first of all, the industries into the printing, basically we we split this in six parts, aerospace, automotive, medical, dental, consumer goods and electronics and also industrial so we have, nowadays different like a commercial team to approach each kind of industry to understand what they need and offer the solution. Okay, but talking about supply chain, what I can see basically, basically, we can, we can print the most of the parts nowadays. And the big advantage for supply chain, I can see 3d printing can reduce the long supply chain, okay, and improve the independence of the production. For example, we saw two years ago a big issue in the Suez Canal, when the big vessel blocked the candle. And in Europe, we are waiting in many parts, from China and you saw many companies start to print parts here in Europe. Well, you just design in the software, I told you, send to the machine and with a specific material, we print here the part, and you don’t need to wait the material arrive in Europe. That was the solution for for that that issue for many companies, we could see this. So I think a good improvement for supply chain. You can reduce in this world of supply chain that you talk about resilience. Well, we can. We can transform your your business. You can give more resilience for your your business, if you can print and you can cut some tears in the chain. So this is one, one of the venture could I say, but also in some, in some business, you can, you can reduce your inventory, because you don’t need inventory only when the customer put order. You can print the part, and you have the part, you can reduce your costs, and you can also be faster than before. You don’t need to spend money with inventory, also to storage in the warehouse and things like that. Talk about digitalization, yeah, everything should be, must be digital, because you need to print. And this became faster the process. Because when you just send a mail with the project, we can receive another account, print, this, this material, and with this digitalization, digitalization will well, transform, and your logistics will be faster than the normal way. So this is, I believe, the key, the key points for supply chain related to 3d printing.

Scott Mears  14:56

And I find that really interesting, that that inventory. Tree when you mentioned that, because that that that created a question in my mind, when you were saying, I guess that’s so interesting because, you know, there’s so many countries that we rely on for, you know, imports and exporting to, but it becomes very interesting when you all of a sudden have a printer that can print that part that you were trying to import, that becomes quite interesting at how do you feel that’s going to evolve, that, you know, and how it could affect, you know, the exports and imports. Of course, materials will always be key, and the key for materials you mentioned. But do you feel that’s going to start to affect, you know, importing of goods?

Jose Baptista  15:43

Yeah, well, I think you change. Now I’m facing this, this issue because I need to export the material, but this will be my part to export the correct part. But the customer, they only receive as a total faio, they Well, they have a printer. They have also the material that you print, and that’s it. We mentioned this during the event the supply chain of innovation, some challenges and collaboration between the logistics and supply chain we solve these issues for our customer strategies is helping in this supply chain collaboration to provide the materials where the customer needs and with this will solve also this, this issue for the customer.

Scott Mears  16:31

That’s brilliant to hear. And where do you see this advancing, then in the future? So currently, there’s already efficiencies. It’s bringing to quite a few industries you mentioned there. But where do you feel this advancing to? What do you could? Could you see it really advancing to for supply chain in the future?

Jose Baptista  16:53

I can give one example, one recently example, we’re heading states, one customer, automotive customer. He’s like a partner of Ford. They produce some some parts for for cars, especially for f1 50 and Mustang. They they produce parts of the car to improve the performance. And they were facing some issues to produce one camera mount, like the support of camera that go in front of the car, and they had, like, hundreds, or maybe 1000s of trucks to to finish and improve. And yeah, they face it like a project issue in this camera mount they the customer is a partner of strategies, and together, we find a solution. And in end, we were start to prototype the solution. And in some weeks, we find a solution. And normally, this project in this customer took four months, and in seven weeks you could find a solution. And you said, look, but now we have bigger machines, and you use it the powders technology, one big machine that put powder, and you can print a lot of parts together. And the solution was not only to prototype and find a solution with the customer said, Okay, why not manufacturing the part? And you start to manufacturing this part for this customer, and you solve the solution for 1000s of trucks in between four and eight weeks since the beginning, until we Assembly did the currents. So that’s how I see the future. Nowadays we talk about prototyping, but you can see many examples how 3d printing is moving from prototyping to manufacturing with the machine. Nowadays we have, like the material, the material solution for customers, but also the printers is getting more faster and faster, and you can also customize the solution for the customer. So this is so interesting, how we can be faster and specific. In this project, we could solve all the issue well, in 50% of the normal time and 35% cheaper than normal solution. This is one example. There is a strong belief we will see in the future for more and more customers.

Scott Mears  19:39

That’s, I like the example you just gave there about, you know, I mean, you’ve just half the time, you’ve, you’ve literally cut 50% and and how that’s then evolved in something even bigger, wow. Well, if you know, if you can do this, well, then let’s get, you know, manufacturing these in quick time. That’s really interesting. I, you know, I only looked at it a. First the manufacturing process, but obviously the testing and prototyping piece of being able to quickly prototype and test different designs just through, you know, just printing them very quickly that I think that’s a really interesting also for companies. So the advancement of 3d printing that can bring to our supply chains, especially the manufacturing testing process. Really seems to me that it can have a, you know, already is, and can have a continued impact that is going to massively improve the efficiency of time and the efficient just the the quality of of what we’re producing, which is just, you know, it’s really something to look out for. And I think companies really feel they need to.

Jose Baptista  20:44

Think that’s that point is very interesting. If you go deeply for many industries, you should be certificate to produce this part, and the strategies is going to get this certification and you can produce the final part, and again, you could tears in the supply chain and provide the final part to the customer with all the certification the customer needs. This is, yeah, how unbelievable is this kind of solution. We can reduce the chain and provide the solution for the customer with the quality they need.

Scott Mears  21:23

That’s brilliant. That is so good to hear. And I know definitely information that the watchers and listeners of this podcast and this episode is going to gain value from, because they may be dipping their toes into printing, may have heard it from the event we just attended, and just thinking it will that fit, because as we know we’re like as technology providers, when we take technology to a customer, they go, Okay, well, the technology, I know you have all these use cases, but our supply chain is unique. Our supply chain is unique. I go, of course, every supply chain has its unique qualities, but it’s tried. It’s tested, and it really feels like this is something that companies need to, you know, really think about taking on board it, and at the very least testing it on one of their lines. I want to move on to the industries. And I know we touched on, you know, touch. I think we touched on about six or seven industries you mentioned there, and which industries have been the early adopters of 3d printing. And which industries do you feel will be more like late majority? And why do you feel that?

Jose Baptista  22:31

Yeah, well, talking about the industries, I believe the first that you start to use this was the aerospace because when you talk about airplanes, it’s not easy to design the part and withdraw printing. We can design like very complex geometry and print that. I can give you one example for you I have here in my table. Okay, this is, this is one part to print it. Okay, it’s very complex. This is with powders. And in aerospace, we need many parts in the airplane that is very difficult to print. Also, you need to produce one material with a good resistance, and also shouldn’t be so heavy, you should make the material more soft for the airplane. And with the printing, we can design this and print with a good material. Also with the printing. You don’t need to assemble the parts. You can print the parts together in with only one part. Maybe I can show you another example. Look at this one, this process one. This is only one part that you print, but you can see, we print only one part with different materials, different colors, and yeah, in aerospace, they need to print together. So in this market with complex design, specific material, and it’s not like a lot of parts you can use to be printing, and they started this early 90s, and they are using until today, a lot this, I believe it was, was the first, the first industry that was using, but also you can see All the other ones. I told us, medical is developing a lot. Dental is unbelievable. We have a big market, very huge market for medical and dental automotive. I believe automotive could be a big market. Uh, is more difficult because, uh. But we need to produce a lot of parts that’s different. Difference between airspace, airspace, use, well, some parts, not too much, automotive, several parts. And this, we are going to decrease and decrease the cost. And soon, as I told you, the example of our customer, the automotive customer, yeah, we are achieving this. Now, this is some examples, but also, yeah, another example about consumer goods. We have a use case with Nike that they produce the the football shoes for for the American football and they design one shoes with all the things under the shoes and the players to play football, they get better performance to start to run in the field. So we have several examples in different kind of industries that they are using more and more but as I told you, I believe at the beginning e nines, you start with, well more airplanes and defense.

Scott Mears  26:12

Interesting. So again, there’s been a there’s been an evolution with with the 3d printing. And I love that you brought some props on. I appreciate that that was really good to see. And especially that second one, you know, that had a lot of moving parts and quite an intricate design. And, and it’s interesting you say, Yeah, because the way I’ve always seen 3d printing is it does individual parts, and then you would lock them together. And whereas you’re saying aerospace that that’s not always the case. They need it as one whole part, and it needs to be built. So that’s interesting how aerospace, you know, took this initially as an early adopter, and really have run with that. And it seems to be bringing bring great value to them. But then it goes as wide as what you just said. There to more, you know, athletic sports shoes for the football team, so they can be better and more refined. So, yeah, I can just see this becoming endless and endless, you know? And it’s really interesting to see how it’s going to get adopted. And that must be exciting for you, right? In Stratasys is seeing how this just tomorrow go, Oh, wow. We were doing this now. Oh, wow, we’re doing this now. That must be quite exciting for you to see that change over time.

Jose Baptista  27:26

Yeah, another example that came in my mind, Siemens, well, has many things, but they have one specific part for for real, and they need the spare parts. Oh, I have spare parts for machine also, this is not easy to control the inventory, many, many, many parts. So I saw one use case that they they had like, well, machines to print the spare parts, and with this, they could reduce in the inventory. Also reduce the cost of the storage, because they can print almost when they need. So if you have the printer and the material, this is one example of the industrial part, they can print this and send to the customer when the customer needs. So this is another example that how we’re changing this word for supply chain.

Scott Mears  28:22

Yeah, you really are, and it’s great to see. And I, and I know everyone listening to this and watching this is also learning that along with us, and I would love to learn on, you know, we’ve spoken about some individual benefits for different industries and how it’s evolving. I would just be interesting as a mark to myself, you know, how is, how are you Batista? How is strata says, communicating the key benefits, like, what key benefits are you communicating? And how are you communicating these to the many industries you operate in, or as a general, to to all industries in order to promote the adoption of 3d printer, printing and supply chain.

Jose Baptista  29:02

Yeah. Well, as I told you before, the key message here, I think we can reduce the dependence of long supply chains. We can cut the all the layers, all the tears. Some industries, you don’t have a long chain, but well, some you have very long chain. You can reduce this. You can leave, well, leave your supply chain with more resilience in this world, with many, many challenges we saw the last year’s challenges like pandemic, the Swiss Swiss canal, also the conflict in Ukraine, Brexit, yeah, many, many challenges, and you can avoid many, many problems with the printing. So this, for me, is key, and also we can reduce the inventory. We can be faster. And more flexible nowadays, you can see more and more customers would like to customize the product in a normal manufacturing world is not easy you saw in the example I give you, well, four months to change one simple component, imagine to change with you printing. You just change your project and you start to printing another, another part so it’s very flexible and faster. This process, this could I say, is the most important points.

Scott Mears  30:33

Thank you for sharing that, and definitely points that we need to be aware of. Now I want to move on to. Because as much as I love to dive into, you know, what? What are we currently doing? What can we? Can we achieve further in supply chain? I always like to also look at the side of maybe some challenges customers may come at technology in order to come be ahead of this. And you know, we deal with it. We’ve also been in supply chain. Visibility is always challenges to to the solution, then we have to, you know, be ahead of that to make sure that we’re communicating the information correctly so they know how you overcome them. So I know, I just want to dive into some key sort of responses that I’ve heard, you know, when it comes to adopting 3d printing on a mass scale, and just sort of, let’s discuss them and go through them, so then we can, you know, put them to bed and put them away, so then our consumers of our D printing feel more comfortable. So, of course, environmental impact, I mean, everyone’s, you know, sustainability. There’s, everyone’s got a sustainability goal. I mean, the event we went to, there was a few commitments to sustainability and being net neutral and really with the environmental impact. I know, of course, manufacturing as a whole is a high energy consumption. Would you say? You know, 3d printing, how are you overcoming that at Stratasys when it comes to environmental impact through energy consumption, even harm producing harmful emissions from 3d printing?

Jose Baptista  32:09

Well, first of all, in Stratasys, ESG, all the talks about sustainability is a big pillar for us. We are really committed to improve the world. And said that some examples I could, I say, when you print the parts, not only in strategies, okay, but all, all the three print markets you avoid to to, well, rules, material, when I use my printers, I feel my my vets, with the material, and they start to print. I print and I use that part and the rest of the material. Are you used to print again and print again. So we can use all the material, and almost you have no no tools in the process. So this is very sustainable. Another example, very similar. Maybe is easier for the people understand, but with the complex design, okay that you can do in 3d printing could be for plus could be for other thing you can, you can design a part with the good resist resistance, but you don’t need to use all the material that you use in a normal way to exemplify this that you can see, I live in Netherlands, in northern and I saw another project here. I’m a very curious guy. They are printing homes here. And you know, cement is a polemic top for for this environment and what they are doing with you printing. They designed the home, and they don’t need to feel all all the pillars or the parts the walls with cement. They did some structure with a good design that you have a good resistance, and you don’t need to use all the material using less and less material. And also you avoid waste. We avoid to to well, to put in the rubbish, a lot of material, this is totally sustainable. Could be for strategies in the project I have nowadays. But this example with cement, make more clear for all the people that is not so common on how we can design a product with less material, and in the end, you have the same result for the customer, and you can also improve the environment for our kids in the future.

Scott Mears  34:36

Of course. And that’s thank you for explaining that and breaking that down in that house example is very interesting, you know. And there is leftover material, being able to reuse that for alternative or other houses, other products that that’s really good see. And on the move to maybe another let’s do maybe another two points here. What about on the expense side? So I appreciate, you know, there’s different expenses within different industries. So it’s, you know, there’ll be different comparisons of pricing to the manufacturing process and supply chain within different industries. But have you found 3d printing when you’ve come and you’ve, you know, generated a new customer that the expense versus printing you’ve identified, actually, it’s a much more cost efficient way.

Jose Baptista  35:25

Yeah, that’s is a challenge. Was a big challenge many years ago, but what we are doing with innovation, we are improving the process, and we’re making our products cheaper that the customer can buy. And it’s interesting, when you approach the customer, normally, they don’t know exactly what they need. Talk about three printing they know the process. And you have our our team, or commercial team, that go and understand what the customer needs. As I told you now we don’t sell more machines or material, we sell the final solution. And when you take taking account all the supply chain and you do a use case, you can see you can also reduce costs for some industries. Is no brainer. Like aerospace, as I told you, we can do cheaper but also for some cases. Now in automotive, we can see this example. Of course, if you have a very mass production is more difficult for us, but year by year, we are improving the process and achieving the results and get machines faster that you can produce as faster they are produced nowadays, and also with a better cost. But for sure, this is a challenge, but I can see for some case, for the medical and dental is like unlimited. We can find one solution that you don’t have nowadays. We can improve the the life for us, talking about medical and NATO, you can scan parts of your body and you can print a specific part, could be for your spine, could be your teeth, or could be like a guide that go, connect to a spine, to do a surgery. So I see in different industries, because this, I split the industries is easier to understand. We are improving. For some industry will be faster. Other industries, maybe you take more time. But I strongly believe, I don’t know exactly when, but it will change all the industries.

Scott Mears  37:50

I absolutely agree. You know, there’s so much value 3d printing can come bring and it’s amazing. Again, you just showing more examples of the vast impacts it can have, and is, I think, happening. I mean, the fact you can create peace for your spine for an operation is unbelievable. And it seems like, you know, even though at times it may have a bit more of an expense, the the complexities it can deal with, and the speed in which it’s dealing with it, it seems like there’s outweighs that. And of course, with aerospace, the it’s just a no brainer already. So it seems like that. It looks like that. You know that concern is definitely evolving, and especially already within the medical and aerospace space. Already. I’ll do one more. Is technology. Again, every technology faces this. This is not individual to printing, but job losses. It’s an interesting one. It’s a one that always comes up in in conversation about with technology is with the advancement of efficiencies. It will create a portion of jobs, but it will also take a portion of jobs. What’s your thoughts on? On that as Lyd printing advances in what it’s doing.

Jose Baptista  39:06

Yeah, as you mentioned, will change. Will change what we are doing nowadays. And you saw in the past with different technologies, when you move from industrial area, we saw the internet. You saw many revolutions here. We can see also drones. That’s another tool for us that you change a lot. Our life is changing our life. I believe 3d printing will be the same. But believe me, we need a lot of people, and here, I could say for all the supply chain guys. So we need good people in our team. So we we will offer many new roles in the future, with three printing I mean, we’ll change how we are doing our day to improve the solution for our customers, for the world. But you need good people to help us to develop the solution and also execute what we need.

Scott Mears  40:08

Absolutely. And I totally agree that there’s going to create those new jobs and those new exciting efficiencies within our businesses as well. And before we do our little fun segment, what excites you most about 3d printing? What you individually, what? What excites you most? About 3d printing?

Jose Baptista  40:27

Yeah, I, I believe the struggle is like you can create unlimited this is, this is what you usually talk internally in the company, because we, we don’t know exactly where we can go. We can find unbelievable solutions with 3d printing. So I believe strongly this, yeah, we can create unlimited with 3D printing, with strategies.

Scott Mears  40:55

That’s fantastic. And it really does seem that, you know, there’s no ceiling on this. Stratasys can go to the stratosphere. They can just carry on going beyond. You can have that tagline, if you want. I’ll give you that. I always like to finish up with a bit of a fun segment. We do. We do a thumbs up, thumbs down. So if you could, I’m going to give you six questions, and it’s just a yes or no answer, and all you need to do is just go thumbs up or thumbs down. And if you could also say verbally, thumbs up, thumbs down, just allows the audio listeners to see what your answer as well. So you know, some questions will be 3d printing. There might be some funny ones in there. We’ll see. And yeah, it’ll be. It’s always interesting to see people’s answers. So okay, ready for the thumbs up, thumbs down. Okay, let’s go brilliant. So number one, 3d, printing will revolutionize supply chain?

Jose Baptista  41:52

Yeah, strongly believe.

Scott Mears  41:55

Supply chain heroes need more real time business intelligence?

Jose Baptista  42:00

Yes, more and more.

Scott Mears  42:02

All supply chain heroes should support Netherlands football team?

Jose Baptista  42:08

Yes, but I will say also support the Brazilian team.

Scott Mears  42:12

And the Brazilian team, yes. 3d printing will become an integral piece of operational excellence?

Jose Baptista  42:24

Yes, as I told you, I don’t know exactly when for each part of the industry, but yeah, one day you will be there.

Scott Mears  42:34

Absolutely. Companies need to become more sustainable?

Jose Baptista  42:37

100% this is not only for a supply chain, not for our company, but the future of well, all of us and our kids.

Scott Mears  42:50

Absolutely and finally, we need more collaboration and partnerships in supply chain?

Jose Baptista  42:56

We can see a lot nowadays. So yes. With this we improve the chain, improve all the supply chain, all the parts can get benefits of that, and it’s special for our customer.

Scott Mears  43:10

Absolutely, I think that’s the first time we’ve done that. It’s been six thumbs up. You didn’t do one thumbs down. That’s great to see. That’s good. And you’re even supporting Netherlands, even though you’re a passionate Brazil fan, so that’s much I’m sure that’s much appreciated by your colleagues. Well, no, it’s been great to speak to you, Baptista, and it was really interesting to hear what you’re saying. And I think it’s something that people and the industries really need to take notice. Aerospace and their medical seem like they’re very much on with it, but it seems like you know that there really is an endless there is an endless value to what you’re producing at Stratasys. And I think this is something that industries really need to, at least is test this out and see how it can play a part within the within the supply chain process. So thanks so much for coming on to the episode.

Jose Baptista  44:01

Thanks again, Scott for the opportunity. And if you need anything else, let me know.

Scott Mears  44:06

Thanks so much. We’ll just give the them a little wave together. We’ll do a little wave say bye, bye. Thank you very much everyone and listen to the next episode coming in a month.Hi, my name is Scott Mears, and I’m one of the hosts of the Supply Chain Tech Podcast with Roambee. On this podcast we talk to supply chain heroes from around the world about everything, ranging from the disruptions related to supply chains, their personal experiences with tracking technologies, strategies to build resilience, and much, much more. We already have some recommended videos for you to the side of me, and if any of this sounds interesting to you, do subscribe to our Youtube channel and hit the bell icon so you don’t miss another Roambee video. I’ll see you next time.