Fluid Data Exchange in the Digital Thread: How the Autodesk Manufacturing Community Benefits from MDES as a Common Language

BEN WEBER: Hi, everyone, and welcome to today's industry talk on Fluid Data Exchange in the Digital Thread. My name is Ben Weber. I'm the Head of Strategic Partnerships and ModuleWorks, and I drive the strategic cooperation between Autodesk and ModuleWorks in the area of CAM technology, and also ensure about the strategic collaborations to bring manufacturing forward.

MIGUEL JOHANN: Hi, everyone. And I'm Miguel Johann, product director at ModuleWorks. Together with Ben today, we're going to be talking about the partnership I lead, the Product Management Division at ModuleWorks. And my team is engaged into driving modern, cutting-edge technology in terms of toolpath calculation and simulation for the manufacturing industry.

BEN WEBER: So we've decided to split up the presentation. So I'll be doing the first half focusing on ModuleWorks and also manufacturing as a whole, and then I'll be passing over to Miguel roughly halfway through.

So if you don't know ModuleWorks, ModuleWorks is a software development company. And we have more than 1,700 person-years of software development, technology used by more than half-a-million CAM users worldwide. We're growing at a 20% annual growth every year. And we're supplying 90% of the CAM companies with our technology. And of the 250-plus staff, the majority are software developers.

Now the different markets we're in, well, I mentioned CAD/CAM, which is basically our origins, supplying toolpaths and simulation to CAM companies. But also, machine tool builders. We're reaching 60% of the machine tool builders supplying three of the four largest CNC control makers. And also, we are strategic partnerships with cutting tool manufacturers.

But also, we've invested in additive manufacturing development. And as well as that, not just for CNC machining, we have the full range of technologies also for robotics. But when we think about manufacturing as far as machining and metal cutting, there are four specific types of vendors we work with, and these are the categories, the machines, and also the cutting tools. Those are the things you need to machine.

And as we started to grow, even though we're a 20-year-old company, we managed to grow further and also have minority stake investments from large industry players representing these four areas. And not just one from each area, but multiple ones from each area. And that's also part of the focus of today's presentation, how we make the technology and also the collaborations bring manufacturing forward?

Let's talk about manufacturing. We're all surrounded by manufactured results everywhere. If you look around, from consumer electronics to cars to planes. And we spend money on manufactured products. All the money in the world is $100 trillion, right? Well, global manufacturing costs are $16 trillion. That's a big chunk of it.

But as we know, in manufacturing, we have a lot of severe challenges. And these are the ones that you will know. Challenges such as the growth of demand. Because the whole world revolves around manufacturing and we have money to spend, there is more demand for manufactured products. Parts are getting more complex. The manufacturing process are getting more complex as well. And obviously, this pressure of-- and the duty to help the environment and reduce CO2.

Geopolitical risks have caused significant changes in the supply chain in the last years. And lastly, one of the main ones which people are talking about is a shortage of labor, what we call the productivity gap. So a lot of challenges, and at the same time, a lot of pressure to reduce costs because businesses have to survive and businesses have to be making profit to survive.

And one thing which everyone in manufacturing is considering is how do you optimize the manufacturing business? Well, we are a software company coming from the core foundation of machining. So let me try to simplify this into a manufacturing cost equation.

If you look at a machine part, calculate the total cost of it, you can simplify it quite easily. You can say, OK, there's a cost of the machining, the cost of the tooling, the cost of the material, the cost to program the part, and also, the cost of software you need. So that's a simplified way which should be universal whenever you're considering machining parts.

Let's look at how you'd optimize that, machining costs. Well, if you reduce machining time. For instance, roughing takes a majority of the machine time. If you optimize that, then that would save your machining costs. If you reduced your tool wear, that would increase the tool life, that would mean your tooling costs to lower.

And if you got your parts machined first time right, that would save you on scrap. And of course, if you reduce the programming time, which your people who are programming would need, then you're also reducing the programming costs.

I didn't mention software because software is not something I add as a cost to this equation. I'm adding a multiplier because the power of the software is that it can reduce the costs of the elements in the equation.

So, of course, spent on better tools. And of course, upgrade your machines to state-of-the-art ones because they've advanced significantly. But also, be aware that software can also optimize the cost of parts.

Now, software ultimately is used by people, by human beings. And I'll talk about the protagonist of this story, which is a CAM programmer. CAM programmer is using software and programming. That's how a lot of parts are being machined. The CAM programmers the orchestrators. They are defining the rules of process planning the part machine.

They machinhe a part, and they're basically determining the tooling, the workholding, and also the machine. They're using software, but they're using their machining process know-how. They're using their know how of the CAM strategies of the software. And what these people are dealing with every day is a lot of different aspects of machining a part.

And a lot of complexity because there's a lot of different possibilities, a lot of different options. And the arrows also aren't pointing one way, they're pointing two ways because sometimes you have to go back a few steps and start again and change something. I mean, this is the complexity of machining parts.

Because process planning, it's a multi-objective and a complex problem. And believe it or not, it's not just about the toolpaths. Obviously, we come from the toolpath area as ModuleWorks.

But it's not just about that, if you think about it. It's also about material science because you're machining an alloy, right down to the molecular construction. You're machining with the cutting tool two, three, four flutes, which is rotating. We're talking about cutting mechanics. And also, you're machining on this heavy CNC machine moving rapidly. We're talking about structural vibrations.

So it's not just the options that have to be considered and the equipment at hand. It is all of these things. That is machining. And that is what people are doing.

And actually, much of this is solved in the brains of highly-skilled human beings. They're not solved necessarily in one software or hardware solution. It's these human beings bringing all of that together and solving these problems. Because CAM systems, they're purely driven by humans. And CNC machines? Purely driven by humans.

We're talking about human beings with experience. We're talking about human beings who use their intuition. They use their senses. When a machine operator is standing in front of machine, they can hear, they can feel vibrations. And their hand is hovering over the manual overdrive just listening to that little corner. How does it sound? How does it feel?

Do you know what? It's also about trust. Sometimes machine operators, they're questioning the trust they have for the CAM programmer who came up with that code. Ah, I don't trust that guy. Or, I don't even know who that is. Or, I do know who he is, but it's Monday morning, and he's got a hangover. Now I'm going to I'm going to sweep through this properly to make sure. We're talking about human beings who are skilled, and this is a type of complexity we're talking.

At least human beings, they need the best manufacturing solutions. They need machine tools with more software functionality. Machine tools have been around for more than 60 years now, but we are talking about machines with very sophisticated functionality and CNC controls with the capability to have a lot more software on them.

Cutting tools. They need cutting tools which use the best toolpaths, optimal toolpaths for that specific tool. No guessing. And also, these human beings, they need CAM solutions with the best seamless workflow. And all of this has to be in the digital thread. It gives these people in manufacturing, they need the data flowing between all of these solutions.

Now I'd like to pass over to Miguel, who is going to be talking about the manufacturing ecosystem and these parties who are serving the human beings in manufacturing.

MIGUEL JOHANN: Thank you, Ben, for this excellent introduction of the situation that our CAM programmers are faced on, and basically understanding these interface with the ecosystem. So that's the word you used, and it properly defines what we are facing.

We have software developers, we have simulation systems, we have CNC machines, we have controllers, and we have tooling suppliers, we have fixturing suppliers, stock material. Those are all concerns in the brain of the CAM programmer.

So some of the key challenges we face when we are making those edges dialogue is that some of them have very much protected and proprietary data formats with very limited adoption. There is a very high cost for us to maintain and develop software that make the dialogue between those systems work. There is always additional time and costs involved into building those bridges as we are orchestrating those solutions and those workflows.

And there is a lack of flexibility in the upgrades caused by that because-- I can't upgrade my system because then I miss the bridge I built two, three years ago. So there is these are types of problems and challenges that we face.

And the question here is, wouldn't it be great if all of them would be talking the same lingua? If we all would have a same language, we all have the same lingua franca. Solutions we build are not, currently speaking, the same language. We have CAM speaking English. Then we have a OEM supplying equipment on a different language.

Personally, I come from Brazil, and to be able to be here presenting to all of you, I had to learn English. So we went for the lingua franca, we went for a language we could all speak and talk together. Simulation systems. Maybe there is a different dialect. Maybe they can understand each other, but there is some accents or some things that make the conversation go a little bit different, a little bit awkward.

Then the CNC machine may be talking a completely different language, and those dialogues are not properly happening. And then finally, all of these manufacturing ecosystem is trying to connect with company and enterprise solutions, and yet again, data has to be translated. So we are all speaking different languages.

What, in the end, happens is that the CAM operator or the production manager has to orchestrate those data flowing through siloed digital solutions. You're working on the computer all the time. Your CNC machine has a computer on it, which is now connected to MES systems and to monitoring systems. So you believe you are already living in a true digital thread, a true digital environment. Is that true, though?

If you are still manually doing those conversions and downloading tools in step format and exporting them in STL, we are not really fully digital threaded yet, we're not fully connected.

So if you are the CAM programmer, you are thinking in several different aspects. You're thinking, for example, how much can I force this spindle? Is this a fast-rotation spindle, 15,000 RPMs, or is it a stronger, bigger torque, 8,000-RPM spindle? I might have exactly the same tool assembly with the same tool, same cutter, same coating, but if my extension, if the holder length is different, I might have different considerations in the way I'm doing my machining process.

If my tool is assembled in a different interface, I will have different resonance and different vibrations. If my tool has four flutes or five flutes, if the helix angle is 36 or 38, all those aspects built into that know-how that Ben was talking about before, and they are sometimes difficult to find out there.

Sometimes you have one or two people that really know what they're doing or that have built shop floor know-how from experience, from positive and negative sometimes. And if you have somebody new to train, that person is simply never been exposed to the right answer. That person will have to build the right answer themselves with the information at their fingerprints.

You're cutting a different stock material. Again, there's going to be a different technology, there's going to be a different aspect to be taken into account. And all of those are orbiting in the environment of the CAM programmer.

So this is where we introduce MDES, our Manufacturing Data Exchange Specification. It's basically that lingua franca we were discussing before, and making sure that everybody is transmitting information on the same language, and making sure that those data don't get lost in translation.

So MDES is basically a specification. It's an open format, which has been brought to market to facilitate information flow in the manufacturing software landscape. We at ModuleWorks, we like to promote this format because we believe it's going to streamline a lot. The digital thread is going to really catalyze the automation that we expect from the systems-- from the ecosystem of manufacturing. We want people to be talking and people to be making use of the data we have in those specific solutions. And ModuleWorks supplies ready-to-go libraries that can help with that.

You don't need to use our libraries, the format is open. Anybody can develop their own bridges to that format to MDES, but we are also here to accelerate. So we have accelerated development of advanced manufacturing systems. And we want to make sure that everybody is being benefited from this simplification. And that is fully compliant with ISO and DIN-- ISO 13399, DIN 4000/4003 for machine mountings, fixture devices, and cutting tools.

So it's important that we are building on top of market standards already. That if you have data already in those formats, they can be very easily leveraged towards MDES.

So the benefits of it to the market is that this is going to bring a seamless faster and obviously more cost-effective exchange of data. It reduces development costs for everyone involved, including the end user, but not only, also the system developers. It brings additional saving in costs for building of customized data breaches.

So because you don't need to build bridges to every format and every solution out there, every CAM system, every controller manufacturer, every machine manufacturer, you have one bridge to MDES and then you are done. So it leverages your value-added by integrating into this ecosystem, is that you don't need to scale your development costs as you try to create more connections. Your connections are going to be automated and automatic as you participate-- integrate into this ecosystem.

It brings much more flexibility for software upgrades because everybody, again, speaking the same language, you stay on that language, your software will be more easily upgradable for your customers. And it gives you access to a more open and growing ecosystem.

So let's talk a little bit about some practical applications and the very clear concrete benefits that the MDES implementation can bring to you on your digital thread. So the first example we have is from DN Solutions. So DN Solutions, the Korean manufacturer of CNC machines, is working very strongly, very aggressively towards digitalization and the digital transformation of manufacturing.

We're very proud to be part of their journey and their strategy. DN Solutions focus on very intuitive digital systems, PC-based on the controller-- they have their own controlling system. Touch-based, big screen, very intuitive, easy programming of vertical solution, niche solutions such as gear hobbing, polygon turning, et cetera.

And they promise to supply very easy machine maintenance, monitoring the status of the machine, alarm guiding, and direct connection to MES systems and monitoring systems. And very easy setup and operation of the machine itself. Tool management, a manual viewer, file management, PDF viewer. So everything very digital and very much at the fingertips of the machine operator.

Last but not least, a Collision Protection System integrated into the machine. And we're going to be talking about the CPS more as we go here. So the CPS system, Collision Protection System, also known as Collision Avoidance System, is a real-time collision-- protection and collision avoidance that allows the machine to detect or foresee if a collision is going to happen.

So it is basically a digital twinning of the machine through the process planning digital data. And it allows the machine to look ahead in terms of milliseconds enough to avoid the actual physical collision from happening. It includes the handle and the jogging mode. So even if the user tries to force the collision, it's not going to happen because CPS is going to stop the machine from responding when that is happening. So it's a super effective way to ensure that collision is not going to happen.

And it is going to be obviously configurable. You can configure the machine-- the tooling list, you can configure the part data, the stock data, and the fixtures. But what if you can feed these collision protection system automatically from the CAM system?

So basically, if you have everything done on CAM and you're doing collision avoidance on CAM, and this is your plan-- you have planned your process and you haven't detected any collision, now you go to the machine and you want to make sure that that is the case. So how do you make sure those link? How do you make sure those talk to each other?

So we introduce the MDES the conveyor belt of data here. We go from step 1 on CAM; step 2, the MDES translation; and step 3, the importing of that data into the machine; and finally, the simulation.

So you're going to see here on this video that on step 1 in CAM system here-- we are inside Fusion. And we're going to show what the user is doing here at step 1, basically defining his part to the machine. He's defining a bounding stock around that part. And he's selecting all of the fixture elements that will be used in that manufacturing process.

The user is also defining a new tool here. Parametrically in this case, he's defining what is the coating of the tool, what is the geometric definition of that tool. And he's going to be using that tool to program some paths on the machine. You see, the user is here selecting the cone for the holder. And user is defining tool orientation-- I want to machine this part from the left side in this case.

And the user are also going to select some important information, such as the radius necessary for that tool. Toolpath is being calculated on that part, simulated on Fusion, and now we are exporting that offline program manufacturing process into MDES format, and we are now ready to go to the CNC machine.

So on the CNC machine, as we do step number 3, we are going to allow the user to import that CAM process, which is happening right now. And through the loading process, you see the user here is now defining-- or checking the setup with the tools, the stock, and the fixture. And we can see on the right-hand side that we have imported all the data on the machine for that setup.

And now we are ready to simulate, and we are ready to make sure this machine, as it is physically operating, that you have a look-ahead of milliseconds on the simulation system, on the digital twin of this machine, and if there is any risk of a collision, the machine is going to stop automatically before that collision happens.

So this is what MDES is enabling here. This is what MDS is bringing to us into the value chain of the manufacturing process. I hope you feel as excited as I do about this because it's quite a lifesaver that you can actually have this extra layer of protection, this final airbag on the machine before a collision happens.

So that was the one-case study. So we're talking about practical applications. Let's talk about the second one. And on the second one, I want to ask all of you to reflect, how do we normally get the best machining results?

So this is not new. This is how we have been doing this for the last 60 years. So this is older than me and you, probably, that we're doing machining and CNC machining. And we normally try to optimize on several variables. So one of them-- so those in technology are better tools. So tooling suppliers keep evolving and keep supplying better tools.

We keep going for better machines. We are more multi-process multi-- a single setup and more capable machines, and improving quality there, and machining times, less setups and less errors. We also try to obviously evolve on the software side, which is our area. We update our CAM systems. We do better CAM systems, we do better versions, and we keep improving the technology on that side.

But also on the human side, we keep becoming better professionals through training, qualification, and experience. So our companies, we try to find good professionals, we try to keep good professionals, and that's how you make sure your manufacturing process is always improving. I think Ben mentioned before, it's all about people, it's all about the human that is driving here. Those things on the floor, they're going to just stay there. They don't actually machine anything. You need the human there to act, and this is where the focus on the human side is very important.

But also, as you have those good professionals, you try to do knowledge-sharing. You hope for them to be teaching the interns and to be them for the teaching the newbies and for them to be passing forward that knowledge. And that knowledge is on every aspect of the manufacturing process, but specifically on this example we're trying to talk about today, let's focus on feeds and speeds and cutting increments.

And we also have better interface with our suppliers. They have advanced know-how. They have recommendations to do. And we want them to be helping us. They want to see our success, hopefully, and they can recommend the best information.

Now the question is, can all of this be automated? Can we simply-- everybody knows about the knowledge gap and the skill gap, and sometimes it's not easy to find those professionals. It's not easy to have that know-how inside the company. So can it be automated, can it be augmented somehow?

So basically, MDES hoping to become the standard in qualified rich data exchange for technology. So tooling suppliers are looking towards MDES as a means for them to offer us that rich information of the specific nuances of the manufacturing process.

On a tool catalog, normally you have some recommendation for that tool, but that recommendation can vary depending, again, for the factors we mentioned before. The coating, the family of the tool, the code you're using, the tool stickout that you have, the stock material that you are cutting, and the actual physical limitations of the machine, spindle load and robustness.

So all of those factors combine, they affect the recommended optimal cutting conditions. And MDES is the conveyor belt for that extra information, for that richness that we want to bring to the CAM user. So the CAM user continues to supply the information about the part and the model to be done, but as long as he has this machine awareness and machining setup awareness, we can then help automate for better toolpath and for more qualified toolpath even if that know-how is not inside the company.

So this is a major enabler for programming automation that everybody has been asking for. Without the conveyor belt of a unified language, this is going to continue to be borderline impossible, very difficult to do, and very much niche and specific to certain suppliers. MDES is the enabler we all need in our manufacturing ecosystem to empower us to do automation on optimal toolpath calculation.

Good. I would like to share a third, again, last but not least practical application of MDES. So if you go specifically about that in-depth case, where do you get that information? How do you get the best tooling information? So in terms of technology, you look for better modern tools, you look for better machines, supporting modern strategies, and you look for tooling websites. Either the supplier-specific website or website distributors. Marketplaces, online marketplaces.

In terms of people, potentially most importantly, we try to strengthen that relationship with our tooling suppliers. We try to get more involved with them. We try to get them more involved with us in our specific applications. We try to reinforce and empower internal tool management. So there is normally a tool manager or somebody that is responsible for cutting acquisition, cutting tools acquisition.

And obviously, we can also get some help from CAM communities, internet communities where we can exchange some information. Yet again, can this be automated? Can this be augmented?

So we at ModuleWorks, and especially we through the MDES Initiative, we are very proud to have a strategic, committed partner in CIMSOURCE. So CIMSOURCE is this online marketplace. CIMSOURCE is the creators of toolsunited.com, and ToolPal Tool Management Systems.

And they are a committed partner to supplying through MDES as a data backbone information to the CAM systems that contain all of that richness and contain all of that technology information necessary for smarter toolpath calculation, and richer toolpath calculation, and more fine-tuned CAM process programming. So CIMSOURCE provides this backbone and provides this infrastructure for tool data distribution that we can all benefit from.

OK. in terms of a future outlook, where are we going with? So we are very excited with the progress on the last 12 months. 2024 has been a fantastic year for the MDES Initiative. And where are we hoping to get to?

So we already have a extremely strong set of committed partners, partners that are already implementing solutions around MDES. I have mentioned three here, Autodesk, DN Solutions, CIMSOURCE. But you can see, we have more. And we have also a very good myriad of interested partners who are tuned in and they want to participate, and they are starting their plans towards getting on board the MDES ecosystem. It's a win-win situation, or you can even say a win-win-win situation. It's a situation where everybody involved can only benefit from.

We want to get from a situation where we have many native languages, we have emerging workflows, data workflows, but where everybody is speaking the same single lingua franca. That we all speak the same language and we all facilitate the exchange of data speaking through the same code.

Those are our current, committed, and interested partners. Those are our committed partners. We are hoping that the whole global manufacturing community are going to jump in and continue to participate on this and leverage the power of the digital thread.

If you have any questions, please join us at mdes.info. We would be super excited to hear your suggestions, opinions, or interest in participating. With that, I would like to bring this presentation to an end. Thank you for watching it, and see you soon. Bye-bye.

BEN WEBER: Thanks very much for tuning in. See you soon.