Overview: ASD’s Product Discovery Support helps manufacturers explore alternative metal products that may be better suited to their application. Using our material knowledge and relationships with producing mills, we identify existing alternatives that could improve corrosion resistance, durability, finish, processing, availability, weight or cost.
Not every manufacturing challenge requires a completely new product or a change in design. Sometimes, the answer could be a material you simply haven’t considered before.
There is a huge range of metal products available to manufacturers, and that range is constantly developing. Mills around the world are introducing new grades, coatings, finishes and material technologies with different performance benefits. The difficult part for manufacturers is knowing what’s out there and whether something could do the job better than the material they currently use.
This is where ASD’s product discovery support comes in.
Our role isn’t to develop a new product, but to use our material knowledge and relationships with producing mills to help customers discover existing alternatives that could be better suited to what they’re trying to achieve. It’s about opening up those options, identifying alternative products and giving customers a wider range of solutions to consider.
Looking beyond the material you use today
Once a material has been specified and used successfully, it’s understandable that manufacturers continue using it. But that can mean newer or less familiar alternatives are easily overlooked.
Pre-painted steel is a good example. For the right product, starting with material that already has the required finish could reduce the need for additional finishing processes later.
Magnelis® is another. If corrosion resistance is a problem, the traditional step up from galvanised steel might be stainless steel, which can mean a significant increase in cost. In the right application, Magnelis® can offer much greater corrosion resistance than standard galvanised steel while providing a more cost effective alternative to stainless.
If you don’t know a product like this exists, you’re unlikely to consider it when specifying material. And that’s really the point. There may already be a solution available that you haven’t come across.
Knowing what’s available
No manufacturer can realistically keep track of every product available from every mill.
We work with a wide range of producing mills, all with different product ranges, capabilities and areas of expertise. That gives our teams exposure to materials and solutions that customers may not encounter through their usual buying process.
The conversation doesn’t have to start with a specification either. It could simply start with something you’d like to improve.
Perhaps you need better corrosion resistance, a different surface finish, improved durability or a way to reduce processing. Availability, weight or cost could be the issue. Once we understand the problem, we can look across the products and mill capabilities available to see if there is another option worth considering.
Sometimes the material you’re already using will still be the best choice. But sometimes there may be an alternative that is better suited to the application.
Bringing material into the conversation earlier
Of course, this approach won’t work for every manufacturer.
If you’re fabricating strictly to somebody else’s specification, there may be very little freedom to change the material. But if your business designs its own products and controls the material specification, there is much more opportunity to look at alternatives.
We think that’s also a good reason to involve material suppliers earlier.
If the material has already been specified by the time the supplier becomes involved, the conversation is largely about sourcing it. Speak to us earlier and there will be an opportunity to look at what you’re trying to achieve and whether something else in the market could help.
Any alternative still has to work technically, commercially and within your manufacturing process. It’s not about changing material simply because something new is available. It’s about making sure you’ve considered the options before making the decision.
Bringing more options to the table
There are thousands of metal products available from mills around the world. We don’t expect our customers to know about all of them.
That’s what our Product Discovery Support is designed to do: bring more options to the table.
We listen to the material challenges you are experiencing, look at the options available through our mill network and identify a range of alternative products for you to consider. Sometimes that will confirm that the material you’re already using is the right choice. Other times, it could introduce an option that might otherwise have been missed.
You don’t need to come to us knowing what alternative is. Sometimes, the best place to start is simply with something you’d like your current material to do better.
Tell us the challenge, and we’ll see what else is out there.
Get in touch today