Behind the innovations: Intrustial Cloud Manufacturing

In traditional production chains, the subcontracting model is vertical, or chain-based. This means that one company subcontracts the project to another, which does what it knows best and subcontracts the rest, and these companies, in turn, do what they know best and subcontract the rest. This creates production chains with multiple levels that end up overlapping duplicate profit margins, making the final product more expensive, hindering traceability and, like a broken telephone, ultimately causing quality gaps and deadlines.

In this context, why not contract all participants in the chain directly at a single level?

Because you would go from managing one or two suppliers per project to managing dozens, and you also have to coordinate the logistics between them. Which, at first, may sound impossible.

Instead, we came up with a solution: a horizontal purchasing platform that would automate the administrative tasks of purchasing, quality management, and project monitoring derived from the new model.

And so we began to create the network of industrial manufacturing suppliers that, coordinated by a Cloud Manufacturing platform, works as a single entity, saving costs and reducing risks.

AMM – Can you tell us about the product development process? Any anecdotes or obstacles that stood in the way?

Gonzalo Ruiz – One of the biggest challenges we faced at Intrustial was standardizing all the different types of production processes (machining, welding, bending, laser cutting, 3D printing) so that the tool could automate their management much more easily, instead of programming each type of project individually.

This standardization posed a major challenge for us for quite some time, and after much trial and error, we finally came up with the idea of ​​looking at it like LEGO. We found that small piece with which all the processes can be built, and the platform now manages them based on this common basic piece.

Each project is made up of assemblies, subassemblies, and parts, and each of these elements is formed by production processes that, in turn, are made up of these minimal parts.

AMM – What is the technology behind this innovation?

Gonzalo Ruiz – We are currently applying R&D with disruptive technologies such as Blockchain to provide the platform with traceability. However, the platform itself is not based on groundbreaking technology; the innovation lies in how we have used existing technology and proven its effectiveness to give it a use that had not been previously implemented.

Today, we already have a technological roadmap to equip this platform with increasingly more technology. We are currently in the Electric Vehicle PERTE (Perte for Electric Vehicles) led by the Volkswagen Group, where our tool, powered by proprietary blockchain technology, will allow for full traceability monitoring of the production chain.

We also have on our roadmap to apply AI to all the data we generate, for example, to identify high-risk areas for quality leaks or deadline deviations so our Quality team can anticipate them. Early failure detection is key, and that’s a differentiator for us right now. Being able to anticipate them will be disruptive.

AMM – What are the main advantages of this innovative product? What needs does it address, and how can it improve businesses’ lives?

Gonzalo Ruiz – As a manufacturing company with digitalized management, Intrustial uses this platform internally to provide manufacturing services. This allows us to eliminate the markup in the supply chain, eliminating expenses that increase the project’s cost by between 20% and 40%. It also allows us to avoid quality and delivery deviations, which are very common in today’s supply chains.

In this sense, our model can be a differentiator for companies that need to manufacture elements that require multiple processes, for example, cutting and machining, or more complex processes, such as cutting, machining, welding, and painting; and they suffer this reality every day.

The fact that we use the platform makes it much easier for companies to adopt this innovation, since we cushion the change in work model. Our customers purchase as usual, but benefit from the advantages of the horizontal manufacturing model.

Regarding the commercialization of the platform itself, it’s true that some companies have already expressed great interest in using it themselves with their own production lines and marketing the platform as a SaaS (Software as a Service). And the truth is, this has always been part of our plans. We hope to launch a couple of pilot projects in 2023 to learn and understand how we should adapt the platform to this model.

AMM – Which industries is the innovation primarily aimed at?

Gonzalo Ruiz – Almost all industries with manufacturing production lines work with the vertical outsourcing model, so all of them can greatly benefit from the shift to a horizontal model.

As a manufacturing service, we serve any company that needs to produce any item, from prototypes to medium or long series. The platform adapts to everything.

Our own suppliers are also clients. We provide Central Purchasing services for machining, lasers, raw materials, and more.

As soon as a company needs a manufacturing element that requires two or more processes, we are cheaper than the competition.

AMM – What are the main obstacles faced by a company that wants to develop an innovative product?

Gonzalo Ruiz – The biggest challenge is having a deep and accurate understanding of what potential users need. We often make the mistake of thinking that my problem is very common, and we create a product that is highly tailored to our needs.

Our product was created to address our internal problem, with no intention of selling it to third parties, as it was the platform that would allow us to work with the horizontal subcontracting model. And thanks to that model and this internal way of working, we could provide a better manufacturing service.

However, when we saw the potential to sell the platform externally, we began talking to our customers and suppliers and realized that it wasn’t a “copy and paste” solution. We’re now at the stage where we’re adapting the product to release a reduced, simpler version that solves common problems.

We’ve started with the RFQ management module.

AMM – You’re one of the partners of the PERTE VEC, FUTURE: Fast Forward, led by the Volkswagen Group and SEAT. What do you contribute to this project?

Gonzalo Ruiz –

The partners of Future: Fast Forward, led by the Volkswagen Group and SEAT S.A., registered the project with the PERTE for the Electric and Connected Vehicle (EV) with the ambition of making Spain an electric vehicle hub in Europe. Made up of a total of 62 national and international companies and leaders from different sectors, it constitutes the largest business group in the history of the automotive industry in Spain.

At Intrustial, we provide the Cloud Manufacturing platform that will connect, manage, and coordinate the entire supply chain involved in the electric and connected vehicle manufacturing project, ensuring comprehensive control of suppliers and processes through the use of blockchain technology.

The supply chain encompasses hundreds of production stages, multiple geographic locations, and countless invoices, payments, administrative tasks, and certifications. All of this requires the intervention of multiple individuals and legal entities, which in some cases takes months.

To achieve this, we will evolve our Cloud Manufacturing platform to connect, manage, and coordinate the entire supply chain involved in the electric and connected vehicle manufacturing project. We will thus carry out an experimental development to achieve comprehensive control of suppliers and processes through the use of blockchain technology.