Scaling Additive Manufacturing with Cloud-Enabled Automation Platforms

Application Area: Additive Manufacturing / Industrial Automation
Industry Sector: Manufacturing / Furniture, Marine, and Defense

Haddy, a United States-based additive manufacturing firm, operates in the industrial production sector with a focus on manufacturing large-format components across sectors such as furniture, marine, and defense. The company's business model addresses several operational and environmental challenges, notably reducing supply-chain complexity, minimizing transportation-related emissions, and curbing material waste destined for landfills.

To overcome these challenges, Haddy's goals center on scaling local production capabilities, enabling rapid design iterations, and maintaining product consistency across multiple manufacturing locations. Additionally, the company seeks to manage circular material lifecycles, ensuring that large-scale products made from recyclable or biodegradable materials can be reprocessed into production feedstock at the end of their operational life.

To connect design, automation, and manufacturing data, Haddy selected the Siemens Xcelerator open digital business platform. The software suite was chosen to provide a consistent digital thread that scales a distributed production model while optimizing factory operations through artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing. Siemens is supporting this expansion by delivering integrated design, simulation, and hardware-control tools, allowing Haddy to grow its decentralized assembly footprint with minimal information technology (IT) overhead.




Decentralized Infrastructure and the Digital Thread
Haddy executes its regional manufacturing strategy through a distributed network of digitally standardized, AI-enabled microfactories. By keeping physical factories close to end-use markets and utilizing domestic material supply chains, the company eliminates logistics bottlenecks.

The technical architecture underpinning these microfactories relies on the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio to bridge product design, manufacturing planning, and shop-floor automation. Initial part geometry and design preparation for robotic fabrication are managed via Siemens’ Designcenter™ software. To maintain identical manufacturing standards and engineering changes across various sites, Teamcenter^® software is deployed to centralize product data management and system configuration.

Robotic Control and Extrusion Integration
On the factory floor, high-precision motion control and execution are driven by Siemens' SINUMERIK computer numerical control (CNC) platform. Rather than treating robotics and machining as separate control tasks, the CNC system orchestrates the entire robotic additive manufacturing assembly. Jay Rogers, chief executive officer of Haddy, explains the operational impact of the integrated suite:

"Adopting Siemens Xcelerator helps us connect design, automation and manufacturing in a way that supports circularity, local sourcing and rapid iteration while using data and AI to continuously improve how our microfactories operate."

The control platform combines traditional CNC-based path control with advanced industrial robot kinematics. This centralized control loop directly governs heavy hardware execution, including large-format robotic extrusion systems engineered by CEAD.




Cloud-Enabled Scaling and Process Optimization
As part of its multi-site expansion, Haddy has integrated Simcenter™ Optistruct^® software to assist with structural product optimization and engineering validation of large-scale components. For production-level execution, the company leverages NX™ X Manufacturing, a cloud-enabled manufacturing platform. This solution allows engineering teams to define build strategies, generate NC programming, and run simulations of complex large-format robotic deposition pathways before any physical material is extruded.

The same NX X toolset handles secondary subtractive CNC machining operations, providing computerized manufacturing (CAM) part programming, verification, and simulation within a single environment. Cloud deployment gives the microfactories the computational agility needed to produce parts ranging in scale from a shoe box up to a complete boat hull with low operational IT costs. Furthermore, a value-based software licensing model enables the company to dynamically assign software capabilities on demand as production requirements shift.

Edited by Romila DSilva, Induportals Editor, with AI assistance.