Standard machine or customization? Four criteria to judge your business case by

A standard machine or customization? What machine do your production process and product need to perform faster, more flexible and safer than your competitors? Our director Joris Ceyssens gives you four criteria to judge your business case on.

1. Lead time

Customization requires more time. The lead time is therefore longer.

“Our experts must first understand your process and product. Only then can iterations, in which we fine-tune mechanics, electronics and software, subsequently follow each other,” Joris begins.

“Still, we try to keep the lead time as short as possible. On the one hand through our experience in production. On the other hand by securing a lot of knowledge in-house. We have a fixed plan of action that has already proven its worth in hundreds and hundreds of projects.”

2. Price

A standard machine or customization, that is of course also comparing investments.

A longer lead time, means more working hours. So in terms of price, a custom machine is always more expensive.

“That’s why we always advise customers to do a thorough market research first. If it can be done with a standard machine, that will always be the cheaper choice. Building an initial prototype simply costs a lot of hours. The engineering will be the biggest cost.”

“It gets more interesting if you can also use the custom machine at other sites. In addition, the higher investment will pay off through higher quality products and a reduced need for revisions and updates. So if you want to compare the price between a standard and custom machine correctly, it is best to look at the full TCO.”

3. Risk

With a standard machine, the design is already 100% done and the technology has already proven its usefulness. They have been validated, the outcome is known. “In other words: you can perfectly estimate the outcome of your investment in advance.”

This is not the case for a custom machine. “Every machine we build is unique and therefore, by definition, not yet validated. The goal is precisely to give users more functionalities that standard machines do not have. But this implies a higher risk.”

“If we sense that there are too many uncertainties, we first perform a limited proof of concept to test the feasibility. That can be done virtually, but then you have to have a model to start from. But we can actually remove most uncertainties with a simple test setup. And we have the machines, people and capacity for that in our workshop.”

4. Competitive advantage

The argument that speaks most in favor of customization is the competitive advantage it gives you.

“With an off-the-shelf machine, your competitors have access to the exact same solutions. So you are not creating a competitive advantage or a unique market position. And if you ask the manufacturer for minor modifications, you will never be able to claim that IP.”

“Customization, on the other hand, gives you a unique production device that is completely designed and built according to your requirements. As the developer, we offer the complete technical construction file of the machine. This way you are 100% sure that your machine, and all the advantages it provides over competitors, really belongs to you.”

Best of both worlds

“This doesn’t have to be a black-and-white story, by the way. Customization can also start from an existing machine or can involve partial automation,” Joris concludes.

“Take the machine we developed to assemble auto-injectors, pre-filled syringes, for example. Assembly here is usually focused on one product. With customization, we were able to build in the flexibility to assemble these syringes differently each time. And as for labeling, we integrated a standard solution. This way, we combine the best of both worlds.”