Prefab
How Neolithic Streamlined Configure-to-Production with Packhunt for Factories
In a construction and infrastructure industry where tradition often overshadows innovation, Neolithic is making strides by focusing on large-scale 3D printing. Their work in producing parametric 3D printed components demonstrates a fresh approach to construction, emphasizing efficiency and sustainability.
Neolithic
In a construction and infrastructure industry where tradition often overshadows innovation, Neolithic is making strides by focusing on large-scale 3D printing. Their work producing parametric 3D printed components demonstrates a fresh approach to construction, emphasizing efficiency and sustainability and has been recently awarded the RIONED Innovation Award 2024.
One of the products of Neolithic is concrete 3D printed stairs and slopes. Its ingenuity lays in the simplified design and ordering of the stairs. Neolithic enables their customers to configure and order their stairs online - a fast, flexible solution that also complies with building regulations. This allowed Neolithic to speed up the delivery of tailor-made structures, cut down on material use, enhance durability, and reduce costs.
Challenge:
From the outset, Neolithic started with a clear objective: a digital-first strategy for their products. Their vision was to sell their innovative staircases and other products online, scaling their operations beyond traditional methods.
This meant a total shift from reliance on manual processes, like orders via phone calls, long designing and engineering processes, based on customer needs, and an endless back-and-forth; to a streamlined, efficient, and customer-friendly online platform.
This ambition required a robust solution that could seamlessly capture customer needs, enabling mass customization, and translate these directly into production-ready models—essentially, an end-to-end configure-to-production process that could scale with their ambitions.
Hear Chris Aerts and Tico Beekman explain how Neolithic ensures mass customisation of their products with Packhunt (for factories):
Solution:
How It Works: Customers visiting Neolithic's website are greeted by an intuitive 3D configurator, allowing them to customize products within predefined rules and parameters. This direct interaction not only showcases the product possibilities to the customer, it bridges the gap between what they desire and what is feasible, without any back-and-forth communication. All powered by Packhunt.
The implementation of this configurator was a testament to efficiency, taking less than two days to go live, thanks to Neolithic's expertise in parametric modelling and Packhunt's robust platform. Packhunt and Neolithic worked closely to sculpt the perfect customer journey.
Enable mass customisation of your products
Chris Aerts, Founder of Neolithic, succinctly describes the process, "The user can configure products, which are then sent directly to the 3D printer. In this way, we can deliver components within a week or two to the production site."
Watch this video to see how the Neolithic 3D configurator works:
Result: Efficiency Redefined
Tico Beekman, Parametric Design Specialist for Robotic 3D Printing at Neolithic highlights the transformative effect of this strategy, “Somebody can order something on Packhunt and we can print it within a week.” This approach didn’t just enhance operational efficiency; it significantly improved the customer experience, making engagement more interactive and direct.
Neolithic’s initiative with Packhunt serves as a beacon for the industry, demonstrating the vast benefits of a digital-first, configure-to-production model. It encourages other businesses to reevaluate their processes, aiming for enhanced efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Outcome:
Neolithic's pivot to a digital-first approach streamlined operations, reducing the reliance on manual processes, minimizing errors, and cutting down on unnecessary exchanges. The direct configuration to production capability notably shortened the distance from customer desire to delivery.
Digitise your processes, like Neolithic.
Neolithic experience serves as a model for businesses looking to modernize. Their journey demonstrates the value of adopting a digital-first approach, not just for operational efficiency but for the tangible benefits of reducing dependency on manual processes, minimizing errors, and cutting down unnecessary communication.
What is Packhunt for Factories?
Packhunt for Factories is the backbone of a digital factory, with a parametric 3D configurator at the core of it. It is a system that helps manufacturers of building components streamline the entire configure-to-production process.
Packhunt for Factories is implemented by automating product logic and customer journey to sell, design, engineer, produce, assemble and organise the logistics of (assembled) products. It has proven to digitally transform the sales processes (generating the "perfect quote"), automate the workload and shorten sales, design and engineering tasks for our customers from weeks to minutes.
