Global printer manufacturer RICOH has opted for AMFG to simplify its sales and customer communication processes, and manage volume production for their critical industry clients.

Award-winning global printer manufacturer and service provider RICOH has today announced the reinforcement of its partnership with AMFG, a leading provider of MES and workflow automation software for manufacturing. The connection, established in 2020, has seen RICOH’s 3D printing services brand Ricoh 3D benefit from AMFG’s automated quotation functionality, enabling the company’s customers to easily order 3D-printed parts instantly. Following over two years of successful partnership, Ricoh 3D has expanded its investment in AMFG’s solution, adopting a number of additional features to further leverage the software’s wider capabilities.

For the past few years, Ricoh 3D has equipped AMFG specifically to streamline its client-facing processes, providing customers with a more efficient way to order parts from the company’s website. Using AMFG’s instant quotation tool, customers are able to directly upload their files and subsequently receive an accurate quotation in a matter of seconds. Once an order has been confirmed, Ricoh 3D’s projects team are then able to prepare the file for production, making use of the software’s extensive auto-analysis and repair tools.

Having earned the company a higher number of returning customers and impactful simplification of their production processes, RICOH has decided to further enhance their customer journey by upgrading to AMFG’s ULTIMATE license, reflecting their own company journey towards critical end-part manufacturing. Including features such as machine monitoring, build-preparation software preparation, automated production scheduling and integration with shipping providers, AMFG’s implementation will grant critical insights into Ricoh 3D’s medical part production, monitoring operational progress and ensuring that parts maintain consistently exceptional quality levels where needed the most. This provision of full traceability enables RICOH to conform with exacting ISO:13485 standards, vital for their medical industry customers.

“When we started the business, we were using manual methods of communicating with customers and transferring parts to people for production,” reflects Richard Minifie, a Design Engineer at Ricoh 3D, “AMFG […] has totally streamlined that. For example, quoting used to take us over 30 minutes – now, it can take us less than two minutes. For us, it’s been a game changer. It’s streamlined our manufacturing process right from start to finish”.

AMFG’s software has been integrated into Ricoh 3D’s business intelligence platform and build preparation software, as well as with its logistics provider. This level of integration provides RICOH with a seamless digital thread to manage the full complexity of their AM operations.

Matt Martin, VP EMEA at AMFG commented: “Our journey with RICOH started a couple of years ago and their transition towards end-parts

manufacturing and the complexities of scaling production, are challenges representative of much of the enterprise 3D printing market. RICOH constantly challenge us with new obstacles in their evolving workflow, and our partnership is driving rapid product development to benefit both them, and the industry as a whole.”

Ricoh 3D is accessible via rapidfab.ricoh-europe.com