AddParts becomes one of the first Associate members of BCMPA (British Contract Manufacturing Packing Association)

Added Value by Association – Introduction of Associate Member Programme

Emma Verkaik, Director of BCMPA said “This year we have learnt much about the value of networking and the importance of widening our contacts within the industry.

The 2024 Conference was a good example of how networking can lead to closer ties and collaboration between us all. The feedback from members was that they enjoyed the additional layer of contribution from the sponsor companies who are associated with the contract manufacturing, packing, fulfillment and logistics industry.

With that in mind and to continue the direction of travel, I am delighted to announce that we will be introducing a curated Associate Membership programme from 1st January 2025, as a way to broaden the wider network for BCMPA members.”

Associate Members will provide a useful and important dialogue with up-to-date information. I hope that this launch will help forge meaningful connections within the industry and provide a platform where companies can exchange best practices and stay informed, which will ultimately contribute to the continuing progress and development of the contract manufacturing, packing, fulfilment and ecommerce sector.

As part of their membership package the Associate Members will be able to attend industry events and provide news to BCMPA members via eshots, as well as hold valuable webinars.

I hope you will join me in extending a warm welcome to the 2025 Associate Members.

Read more about some of the Associate Member services on the following pages. A full list of Associate Members will appear on the BCMPA website from 1st January 2025.

https://bcmpa.org.uk/search-members/associate-members

On Thursday 14th November 2024 AddParts sponsored one of Industrial Plant & Equipment magazine’s series of webinars hosted by their Editor, Ed Lowton. AddParts Director, Tom Fripp was joined by clients Clifford Mann, Head of Technical Operations and Engineering at Ethypharm and Simon Preston, Operations Director at Chester Medical to discuss downtime, the cost of downtime, strategies to reduce those costs and their experience using the AddParts Pro service and additional benefits it has brought their businesses.

Tom also demonstrated the AddParts Pro virtual storeroom showing the features and information available to users.

Speaker biogs

Tom Fripp – Director, AddParts

Tom is an internationally recognised, award-winning design expert with over 20 years of commercial design experience and has overseen the delivery of over 1,000 design projects. He has a 1st Class BA (Hons) in Industrial Design and a Masters with distinction in design for 3D printing both from Sheffield Hallam University. Tom has been named on 7 granted patents including 4 novel 3D print processes, developed and patented 3D printed facial and ocular prosthetics technology in the early 2000’s and developed and patented the world’s first silicone elastomer 3D printing technology. He has delivered 3D print related projects in multiple markets including medical, packaging, consumer, FMCG, promotional, health and safety equipment, industrial and pharma. Tom has been responsible for delivering projects for customers that include the likes of G4S, Comic Relief, Boots, Smith & Nephew, Nestle, Galpharm, B&Q, Balfour Beatty, Sharp Lifesciences, Fellowes, P&G, Mondelez, M&S and Ethypharm not to mention hundreds of SMEs and inventors. Based in Sheffield, Tom now runs AddParts (addparts.co.uk), a highly innovative digital spare parts business specialising in supply for pharma and food manufacturers through reverse engineering, digital stockholding and industrial 3D printing.

Clifford Mann – Head of Technical Operations and Engineering, Ethypharm

Responsible for all engineering activities and facilities across our three locations. Responsible for setting and maintain the UK manufacturing Capex budget. Also, within my team we conduct all equipment validation and requalification, project management, process development and requalification, new product introduction, site calibrations, and technical support including serialisation. I have worked in the pharma and medical device industry for over 26 years covering technical, engineering, and operational roles at a senior level.

Simon Preston – Operations Director, Chester Medical

Simon has been at Chester Medical Solutions for 18 Years having previously worked for Unilever, United Biscuits, PepsiCo and Shell Petrochemicals. Simon’s career has always been with supply chain where he has worked across, Manufacturing, Engineering and Logistics. Simon is an Engineer by profession and has trained in 6 Sigma, Lean & TPM.

Click on the image below to register and watch the webinar…

AddParts will be exhibiting at Making Pharma at Coventry Building Society Arena on 23^rd and 24^th April 2024 on stand 625, alongside Chester Medical.

Director, Tom Fripp will be presenting on ‘Industrial 3D printing in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing’ at 9.15am on Wednesday 24th April in Room 3 as part of the Making Pharmaceuticals Conference programme.

Tom said “Homegrown 3D printing was thrust into the global mainstream as a temporary healthcare solution to support efforts to fight COVID-19, but with global supply chains still reeling from the pandemic, there continues to be a focus on building resilient, long-term, production capabilities across the pharmaceutical industry. This presentation takes a unique approach to detailing how the role of the three pillars of industrial 3D printing goes far beyond a stopgap and describes how innovative pharma manufacturers can take advantage of this technology to drastically reduce downtime, improve supply chain security and make significant efficiency gains.”

The AddParts team will have the 3D Scanner on the stand and you will be able to see a demonstration of the virtual storeroom customer portal.

Making Pharmaceuticals is a free-to-attend exhibition and multi-stream conference that will bring together the key decision makers and innovators from across the pharmaceuticals sector to discuss key topics including pharmaceutical research, testing, production and distribution. Key areas on the exhibition floor include, cleanrooms and hygiene, laboratory, processing and machinery, ingredients and raw materials and pharmaceutical manufacturing. The exhibition and conference is co-located with Distributing Pharmaceuticals.

To find out more and book your free place to attend visit the website https://www.makingpharma.com/

AddParts, part of Addition Design Ltd, has been shortlisted in the Digital Engineering/Technology and Manufacturing Innovation categories at the Insider Made in Yorkshire Awards to be held in March at The Royal Armouries in Leeds.

The Digital Technology Award is for the company that has best used or developed software, technology or technical processes to solve problems or add value for customers.

The Manufacturing Innovation Award is for the manufacturing company that has generated a substantial financial return and impact on a regional/national/international level from an innovative product or process designed and manufactured in their region.

AddParts supplies on-demand digital spare parts for production and packing lines, supporting maintenance and operations teams by using cutting-edge technology to reduce downtime by up to 90% and spare part costs by up to 50%.

The company 3D scans critical components on-site for storage on a secure, tailored digital inventory. The parts are supplied in like-for-like, traceable materials in 48 hours, and are manufactured at a dedicated, UK-based facility using industrial 3D printers.

Tom Fripp, Director said “AddParts has created an entirely new arm for Addition and has established itself as a highly scalable, in-demand and innovative business. Since the release of AddParts as a dedicated service in mid-2023, upwards of 50% of the company’s revenue has been generated by AddParts alone and this is expected to grow significantly. Sales for AddParts have already eclipsed those of the rest of the company’s offerings and continue to drive significant change and cost savings for customers too.”

The annual awards event celebrates world-class companies based in Yorkshire and the Humber and the products they are making here and selling across the world.

The black-tie dinner will take place at New Dock Hall, Royal Armouries, Leeds, on Thursday 7 March. It is sponsored by Made Smarter, BDO, Castle Employment, Rathbones incorporating Investec Wealth & Management (UK), and Mills & Reeve.

A Bridlington-based manufacturer of nutritional supplements has solved a complex production problem thanks to the help of an innovative on-demand digital spares service.

INW Bee Health Ltd turned to Addition Design’s AddParts service for a solution when marks were being left on their white magnesium capsules during the manufacturing process.

The problem was quickly solved through AddParts expertise in 3D scanning, digital data management and industrial 3D printing allowing for a complex set of components to be designed and delivered in under 15 days, saving Bee Heath significant downtime costs when the magnesium production run was due to start.

AddParts, an exclusive service of Addition Design based at the Advanced Manufacturing Park Technology Centre in Rotherham, supplies digital spares for automated production lines giving manufacturing customers across a number of sectors a competitive advantage by reducing downtime on automated production and packing lines.

Tom Fripp, director at Addition Design, said: “INW Bee Health utilises stainless steel components within their vertical polishing machines to remove excess powder substrate from the outer surface of filled capsules. However, this set-up was causing marks on their white magnesium capsules. Bee Health had decided to look at alternatives and had sought to order a replacement from the OEM.

“However, the lead time from the OEM was up to three months and despite the lengthy wait and significant cost ran the risk of simply replicating the same issue.

“Our AddParts team visited the Bee Health team and after a quick look at the machine, the available spare parts were 3D scanned on-site. We were able to assign Bee Health a virtual storeroom and secure login details were provided to key team members. Once the data was uploaded to the storeroom, with pricing and material specifications, the parts were basically ready to go in a matter of hours.”

The final set of components were manufactured in a range of materials depending on their proximity to the capsules, including AddParts’ food contact nylon material (which is FDA compliant), as well as weight-bearing components manufactured in carbon fibre reinforced nylon. Some components were hybrid, utilising the material properties of each material where they are most effective.

Added Tom: “The replacement parts required a small number of design changes to accommodate the chosen production materials and processes but once these were completed and signed off via the part page on the AddParts storeroom, the components were produced and supplied, with all the necessary material regulatory information and certificates of conformity that Bee Health require for their high standards of production hygiene.

“The complex set of components was designed and delivered in under 15 days, saving Bee Heath significant downtime costs when the magnesium production run was due to start.

“Since the installation of the new components, Bee Health has not seen any further marking on the outside of the magnesium capsules through their vertical polishing machine and has added more components to their AddParts virtual store.”

Established in 1992, Bee Health is one of the UK’s leading vitamin, mineral and supplement manufacturers. The company produces 400 million capsules and tablets a week at its 80,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art facility for customers in over 40 countries.

Kristian Chaperlin, Encap assistant manager at Bee Health Ltd, said: “AddParts is an innovative service which is a great fit for us. The team responded quickly and really understood that downtime costs us business. The fact that we can build our own store of parts we know we can get at short notice, without actually taking up space here is a game-changer for us and the more we use AddParts, the more value we see in what it brings for us.”

AddParts supplies digital spare parts for production and packing machines and typically reduces downtime by up to 90% and part costs by up to 50%. Critical components and change parts are 3D scanned on-site and uploaded to a secure, tailored digital inventory. The parts are supplied in like-for-like, traceable materials in 48 hours, and are manufactured at a dedicated, UK-based facility using industrial 3D printers.

A new online portal created by a South Yorkshire company that provides digital spares to the manufacturing industry has revolutionised its customer service experience for clients.

AddParts, an exclusive service of Addition Design based at the Advanced Manufacturing Park Technology Centre in Rotherham, supplies digital spares for automated production lines through the use of 3D scanning, digital data management and industrial 3D printing.

It gives manufacturing customers across a number of sectors a competitive advantage by reducing downtime on automated production lines.

Alongside major investment in a high-res 3D scanner and key staff, the firm has also established a portal system that provides a virtual stock room of components and in-production technology to ensure the back-end process run as smoothly as possible. This has drastically improved the communication between AddParts and its customers and streamlined the customer service experience considerably providing an all-encompassing ‘one-stop-shop’ offering.

Tom Fripp, director of Addition Design, said: “Our AddParts service is based on three core modules – the scanning, the portal and the printing but, for us, it is actually the portal that brings it all together.

“As we were developing AddParts it became apparent that a lot of two-way communication was needed between us and the engineers and this was done using screen grabs, emails and WhatsApp messages.

“We were surprised by how much technical information was required and also by how much repetition there was, largely because we were dealing with different departments, and different people in the same company, often wanting information. We were also building up a lot of data and our customer had to ask us what information we had and didn’t have.

“It became evident that we needed a central hub that could provide a way for customers to manage the information we hold for them in an easy and accessible way, and once we started building this we quickly realised that what we were doing was building a store room for data. A virtual inventory of spare data which, on demand, could be converted into production data – the beauty of it is that it takes up no room, can be viewed by anyone with secure access, is absolutely bespoke to each customer and facilitates two-way communication in a way that is akin to a storeroom.

“The portal is organised by machine/plant list and shows each component that we store information for by part number/unique reference. The whole portal is searchable meaning if you know what you’re after it is super quick. Once you click on the part, you can view the 3D data we have, basic dimensions, production cost, materials, any specifics for that part and geometric validation. You can also view previous orders for that part and download their certificates of conformity as well as order more replacements. The portal also allows you to upload information like photos and descriptions about parts that are not on the portal, kickstarting the process to get that part on the system.”

AddParts now has grand plans for the portal system as it is a great way to facilitate two-way interaction directly at the point where customers need it the most.

Added Tom: “We plan on extending it to allow bookings for planned shutdowns, downloadable regulatory statements for our materials, chat with engineers to talk through design changes as well as greater emphasis on tracking design changes to meet the requirements of our customer’s regulatory systems change control procedures. It’s just the start of things to come!”

AddParts offers a unique methodology of unlocking the benefits of industrial 3D print technology to provide new opportunities and deliver even higher performance components with reduced lead time offering a really focussed solution that manufacturers can truly benefit from.