"We'll be adding additional verification and validation capabilities within the factory," Young said. "That also, through the network, gives us the ability to really customize to customers' needs for things like larger parts, for example, and more complex components and volumes that we traditionally haven't been able to take within our factory capabilities."
The company is building capabilities with markets requiring lofty regulations like aerospace and medical in mind so it "can also apply those to other adjacent [markets] that might need similar types of requirements," he said.
Protolabs' 2021 acquisition of Amsterdam-based 3D Hubs Inc., an e-commerce software company, now known as Proto Labs Network, "has given us the ability, to, through a highly vetted network of external suppliers, handle a much greater subset of components for our customers,… and to quickly vet and onboard suppliers that might have capability sets that are complementary to our own," Young said.
Quick development cycles are a "good fit" for Protolabs' factories in Minnesota, where its injection molding takes place, he said, adding that, "if it's more ongoing, long-term or high-volume production, we can also find those solutions through the network for those customers. That's given us a very scalable platform to meet the customer where they are."
Protolabs plans to ramp up its network capabilities at its facilities in Chicago and Amsterdam, he added.
"This is going to be an ongoing evolution for us," Young said. "The goal is really to scale those processes up and have those available [online] as we move forward.
"Digital manufacturing, previously, I think, was really focused around creating the geometry," he said. "And it was primarily in early iterative development. Now we're … creating a subset of complementary services and secondary operations for us to be able to deliver the fully complete component to a customer. From a secondary operations perspective, we do have a number of outsourced and new, in-sourced operations like UV printing, etching, mold tech finishes and part washing."
"Rapid prototyping driven by automation and technology-enabled processes will always be at the core of who Protolabs is as a company," Luca Mazzei, Protolabs' strategic growth officer, said in the release. "But as the market has changed, Protolabs is also changing to better meet the evolving needs of our customers. That is what our expansion into full-service production represents: a much more comprehensive way to serve our customers.
"The marriage of speed and automation to quality control, cost efficiency and advanced manufacturing is a union unseen in the manufacturing industry until now," Mazzei said. "Our customers have asked for these combined benefits for years."
"Our regional organizations are now entirely focused on ensuring the best possible customer engagement and experience," Protolabs President and CEO Rob Bodor said in the release "And we have a global operations organization with the sole responsibility of seamlessly fulfilling customer part orders as a single unified offering."