Find out more

Inflation. Supply chain problems. Unpredictable customer demand. Disruption that was once called ‘unprecedented’ is now a fact of life.

For building product and equipment manufacturers, it’s essential to respond proactively to these challenges—and uncover the opportunities hiding within them. The time to act is now, rethinking your digital capabilities for the long term today to be ready for whatever tomorrow brings.

You know that to deliver the highest possible customer satisfaction, you’ve got to focus on building relationships. But this can be tough when information isn’t shared: accurate data is essential for effective collaboration.

The solution? Make your customers’ lives easier by adopting the same methodologies they already use to design, test, and sell their work. With building information modeling (BIM), for instance, you’ll be able to collaborate on projects using the same standards that many of your customers are already accustomed to.

That makes it easy for customers to specify your catalog products by dropping them directly into their digital building models. For more bespoke projects, you’ll also be able to design directly within your customer’s building model, making the process more efficient and the end result a much better fit. Whether your customer wants to see your solution in the context of their construction project, or is looking to deliver a more sustainable building, you’ll have all the information needed to make the right decisions—together.

of respondents in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry from Harvard Business Review’s report, The Future of Building Design, said that a highly collaborative relationship with building product manufacturers will be very

or extremely important to project success over the next three years.

One of the best ways to win more business is to mark yourself out from the crowd. For manufacturers serving the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry, that means offering more choice than the competition: 77% of AEC respondents from a recent Harvard Business Review report stated that increased attention to the building occupant experience has boosted their need for customized designs.

Design automation can help you cater to this shift. If you manufacture configurable products, you’ll be able to automate repetitive tasks and create custom configurations in minutes—freeing up your design team to focus on innovation and enabling sales to respond accurately to many more bids. That will lead to increased customer satisfaction, allowing you to win more business.

Meanwhile, if you specialize in fully bespoke projects, your design team can refine solutions directly within your customer’s building models, enabling them to make custom projects faster and easier. This won’t just help you win and retain more customers. It also means designs will always meet the exact requirements of the project at hand—from the first iteration onwards.

Lack of visibility is a constant issue in construction projects. Being able to trace products and materials effectively along a supply chain is crucial, especially for manufacturers that supply solutions that will be installed in buildings. From the raw materials that went into a product, to instructions for use and safety guidance—all this data needs to be passed on to contractors, and then ultimately the building owner for maintenance.

Digitalizing your processes across all disciplines gives you the data you need to gain transparency, share information, and increase accountability from your supply chain and warehouse to the construction site.

Not only is this digital thread the bedrock of responsible, trustworthy construction, it also adds real value for building owners, and a competitive advantage for you. With the digital representation of the as-built products and equipment you provide, owners can even create accurate digital twins—or dynamic, up-to-date replicas of physical assets—to more easily operate and maintain their buildings for years to come.

“It’s all part of our goal of customer intimacy – making sure we have the right solutions on the spot, whether that customer is a fabricator or an architect. It’s very crucial for us because we’re thinking cradle to grave for the product life cycle, and our products can last thirty, forty, fifty years or more. No matter what happens, all that detail will be available.”

Viewrail, a leading manufacturer of stair parts and custom staircase systems, is rapidly adapting its engineering processes to fulfill custom orders and meet an increase in demand.

Rather than spending weeks on a job site, Viewrail now engineers its made-to-order solutions remotely. A particular challenge with this method is ensuring the data it receives from clients is accurate. Even if a model is drawn perfectly the first time, there is still the possibility that a customer will provide updated measurements, requiring manufacturing teams to start from the beginning again.

By incorporating digital design automation into its engineering process, Viewrail was able to automate this process, resulting in a stair generator that meant elements like customer measurements could be updated without jeopardizing the entire design. The stair generator has since enabled Viewrail’s team to go from completing an average of three engineer-to-order stair systems a week to 150 projects a month, cutting the design time of each staircase from four hours to two minutes.

“We’re such a fast-growing company, we have to be quick in response; agility and response to our market’s desires are very important.”

BIM and cloud collaboration have become common practices in the AEC industry, as it makes the move to digital. That also makes it essential for manufacturers supplying the industry to embrace new digital competencies.

Strong digital capabilities will help you drive efficiency, agility, and collaboration within your own organization, as well as help differentiate your business as it goes from commodity supplier to ecosystem partner.

As you prepare for how your business might look in the future, Autodesk can support your digital strategies around BIM, product customization, workflow automation, and more. So you can always be ready for the challenges to come.

Autodesk is ready to be your partner on this journey

Forge your future

1. Speak the same language as your customer

74%

2. Win customers with customization

3. Enable smarter construction and operations

– Dimitri Van Nuland, Reynaers Aluminium

See the full customer story here.

Case study: Viewrail

See the full customer story here.

- JJ Johnson, Viewrail

Develop your digital competencies

https://www.autodesk.com/blogs/construction/owners-common-data-environment/ https://www.autodesk.com/customer-stories/reynaers-aluminium https://www.autodesk.com/customer-stories/viewrail-design-automation https://boards.autodesk.com/emea-fy23-1few-convergence