Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to our Solutionology podcast. Today, we’ve got a great guest, Bud Runquist, who’s the VP of sales and marketing with Stratasys Direct, one of the nation’s, if not the world’s largest additive manufacturing service providers, and it’s a division of Stratasys, the 3D printing and additive manufacturing equipment manufacturer. That’s a lot.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Wow, that was a mouthful.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Great conversation. Bud shares some great insights with us from his role at Stratasys Direct as a global supplier.
(00:32):
I really appreciated the first conversation, where you shared some of your perspective about growing adoption of additive and essentially the seas raise all boats aspect and that you were pushing for responsible adoption of additive manufacturing and there’s enough space for all of us out there to participate and support that.
Bud Runquist (00:59):
Yeah, yeah. Definitely stepping into that space, I’ve seen there’s just a ton of opportunity. And over the years, I think, you think about when 3D printing was introduced, right away the leaders, thought leaders were thinking distributed manufacturing. At that time, I think there was a lot of challenges around, “Well, how would you actually do that? And how do you ensure quality? How do you ensure security? How do you get the breath of what a distributed manufacturing network will be demanding?” And I think additive has seen its highs and its lows, and I think we’re really coming to a point now where the large OEMs are recognizing because of things going on around the world that it needs to be a topic front and center. We look at wars, we look at supply chain challenges that were recognized during COVID pandemic. It’s really forcing, I think, executives at large OEMs from a global management perspective to take a look at these issues and consider alternatives.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
I really appreciate you sharing that perspective, and you’re in an interesting spot. I often think about Stratasys as a think tank and additive manufacturing because of all the different technologies your company manufactures in terms of equipment, and then also you have the Stratasys Direct arm that provides additive manufacturing services with not only your own equipment, but also other different types of equipment that are out there in the space. So you get to experience this from a very global perspective, and I’m sure that you’ve got other insights through your career there that are pretty powerful.
Bud Runquist (02:37):
Yeah, we are seeing more and more customers that are thinking about low to mid-volume for additive manufacturing production because they’re recognizing the quality’s there, the repeatability is there, and they’re gaining confidence in what additive can do when players in the industry are thinking about certified, validated processes and qualifying those projects before they’re saying, “Yep, we can do this.”
Speaker 2 (03:10):
And I think your reaction plays right into what we need to do for the industry to ensure that we’re providing successful results to clients as an additive industry, because we need to build that confidence up so that each of these trials, it’s a test, and if we’re successful, we build that confidence up and we allow it to happen. That’s how the industry becomes more adopted in these sorts of scenarios.
Bud Runquist (03:37):
Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. More and more of these use cases that can be successful outcomes of production work, we need to highlight those. We need to get the word out that it is possible. I think there is still a lot of challenges out there around quality and controlling quality and having the knowledge to be able to move into production. And so when we do have these opportunities, we have to partner to highlight that. And that’s one of the things I was excited about today in joining this. We get to share what we’re capable of and that these are real results, this is real life, and it’s definitely possible.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Going to your trusted partners, in the case of you’re using additive and you’re wondering if they’re not or they are, it’s a lot like a lot of the other systems out there. “Hey, we have these requirements. Are you following them too? Are you up to snuff?” And having that sort of conversation within additive, talking about additive with vendors and suppliers, that’s really powerful.
Bud Runquist (04:44):
Yeah, it is. Absolutely. You think about the impact for both of them, the manufacturer now is considering uptime in everything they’re doing. They’re also looking at cost. You think about a global manufacturing enterprise. A replacement part that’s produced, let’s say, in Florida today, CNC machines, and the cost for them to produce that in the US and then deliver that to, say, Tennessee, they’ve got manufacturing costs, they’ve got a shipping cost, and now they’ve got their labor to put that part on that machine. If it’s a critical part, they might be storing that, putting it on a shelf, so now they have storage costs that are involved. The answer today with a disaster like this isn’t to buy more parts and put them in storage. That’s very costly. But when you think about having a digital storage, now they could print that part.
(05:40):
Now you think about having to ship that part, that same part because that same machine is producing in India, the cost to get that replacement part into India is going to be 5, 10x of what it was from Florida to Tennessee. Now, if you have a parts manufacturer, additive manufacturer sitting in India that can confidently produce that part, the costs significantly drop. You don’t have the freight, you don’t have the tariffs, you don’t have the shelf space. And so I think that’s where we need that mind shift with some of these larger OEMs to then push that down to their suppliers. And the money savings just because of that is so tremendous, they can’t afford not to.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
And the example you shared is it’s a static example, and it gets to be so much more complex in the real world as you’re thinking about revision changes and storing that part in the shelf. There’s so many other things that can impact a traditional manufacturing and storage method like you talked through, and it’s having additive be more just in time, real time. You have the valuable good today produced at whatever the version it is it needs to be for the product.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
So it’s like there’s immediate obvious value and then there’s this value that continues to grow as you discover the impact of taking a digital approach versus a traditional approach.
(07:17):
So where do you think we are in this chasm in your mind?
Bud Runquist (07:25):
We’re not at the bottom, thankfully, because of guys like you.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
And guys like you.
Bud Runquist (07:32):
Yeah, guys trying to push the limit of this and make sure that we can do this and do it with some confidence and authority. This industry is changing so fast. You look at what we’re going through now. Again, we talked about the highs and lows of the industry. I think there’s some consolidation that’s going on, some great consolidation that needs to happen. We saw it in the 2D market. I think we’re just kind of getting at the tip of that consolidation. Consolidation, I think, can be a little scary too because that can slow down progress. But I think there needs to be some consolidation to nip in the bud some of these doubts around what additives can actually do, and the more that we can talk about these success stories, the quicker we’ll climb our way out of that chasm and see the results of what additive is possible.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Well, I think from our standpoint, we continue to see positive momentum, and the rate of change is the question, and hopefully we can see an increased rate of change as we continue on, but I’m very optimistic about what the short-term future holds for AM.
Bud Runquist (08:42):
Yeah, so are we, absolutely. I think we are at the tipping point for additives, and it’s going to be exciting to see what happens over the next five years. I think it’s really going to accelerate.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
I couldn’t agree with you more. One of the things that we’ve appreciated with interacting with you, and Tom, and some of the others that we know well at Stratasys is that culture of collaboration and dynamic mindset and those sorts of the passion shows through, and that’s gold.
Bud Runquist (09:19):
Yeah. Well, I think that’s one of the reasons we’re so excited about working with you guys too, because you can see it and your dedication, and you guys, when you talk about it, the passion just kind of spews out of you guys, and it’s contagious, it’s absolutely contagious, so I’m sure that your company and the members of your team feel that because of your leadership. And man, there’s nothing better than having passion for what you’re doing, right? You got to be inspired for it. This is not just like any other job. We get so excited about the medical applications that we see, and I know we talked about automotive, but nothing pulls on your heart more than some of these medical opportunities that we have and working with cardiology departments and hearing the success that they have because of additives. Boy, that just makes you just want to work that much harder and see it come to life.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
For us, that’s probably the most exciting. And seeing this next wave, as I think about it, the next wave of adoption for medical device applications being accessed and adopted more broadly, we’ve seen it, both of our companies have seen it have significant impacts on a small scale, and as we start to see this broader adoption, it changes everything. It will change everything.
Bud Runquist (10:44):
We need to get the insurance companies supporting this and recognizing the value that additive is going to bring, and I think it will even lower the insurance costs in the long run. It really should have an impact. But yeah, I agree that medical is a whole new horizon that we have been in a little bit. I know you guys are heavily in that area, but I think the potential for the medical industry is massive over the next couple years. I think that the more and more we share success stories and life-changing success stories, we’re going to see further adoption, and what I’m excited about is that inspires guys like you and like I to push the limits of what the technology can do, right?
(11:35):
So we got to look at how do we continue advancing this technology, what is the next step for us, and how do we push the limits of when a customer says, “Is this possible?” we could say, “Let’s try it. Let’s do it. We’ll push the limit and find out what we can do.” So I’m excited about that component of it, too, is the continued R&D and where it’s going.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
We have a lot of respect for Stratasys, the organization. There’s a lot of folks that we interact with there. We’re grateful for the partnership as a customer and also as a partner and projects like this. Got some brilliant people at Stratasys. You’re leaders in the space, both on the service side, producing parts, as well as on the equipment side. And greatly appreciate the time that you’ve taken with us today to share your story, your insights, and your perspective.
Bud Runquist (12:27):
Thank you. I’m humbled by the opportunity to be here with you guys today.
