March 2022

Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and the monumental suffering there have made me think about how differently people can perceive a situation. In the case of Ukraine, the aggressors view is obviously deeply flawed. However, it’s not always so clean cut. There are often many different legitimate ways of looking at the same data set, for instance.

We’ve held this view for a long time – as displayed with integration with Power Automate. It gives every Authentise user the opportunity to output data in the way they want to see it: personalized dashboard, report or alerts for managers, shopfloor associates, sales and others. 

We’re now taking this dual view approach beyond simple reporting: This month, we’re releasing our Order based GANTT. Previously the GANTT in Authentise only reflected Machines on the Y axis. That of course benefits shopfloor associates who need to plan runs, but it makes it difficult to see what the progress of orders or parts are. 

Enter the Order/Part based GANTT. In this view, Orders appear on the Y axis, and can be expanded to reveal the constituent parts. The X axis is naturally still time, but you can now see order completion in Order rows, and the individual part step completion elsewhere. 

The order based progress bar is helpful elsewhere: It will be included in the Order too, to give a faster insight into current status. We may do the same with the part-based view too. 

I’m glad I get this once-a-month chance to explain our thinking and resulting actions. But I’m often surprised how much telling there is to do. This month we’ve done a couple of online webinars and sessions that go a long way into explaining what we are doing: One with McCad Café, which talks about the origins and product at a high level, and another with SME in preparation for their Smart Manufacturing Experience event in Detroit in June. That one was particularly exciting as it included Nick Weeks from Carpenter Additive, producer of metal powders and customers of our newly acquired Elements software suite. We had a really great discussion about the reasons for, and the struggles with, deployment of digital tools. If you have a moment, listen in and let us know what you think: What parts of our story are still unclear?

If you’d rather meet IRL (In Real Life, for those without younger siblings or children to keep you hip), there’s a couple opportunities for that too. For the first time ever, we’ll be at 2 events, on 2 continents, at the same time.

The first, naturally, is AMUG in Chicago starting this Sunday. I’ll be there, along with Derek and Celina. If you want to meet there, come to Booth 34, Salon D, or find a time to meet me here.

The second is MACH in Birmingham. We’ll be there for one day only (April 5th) to start talking with innovation friendly manufacturers about how our data driven tools can help make non-additive operations more agile too. Meet us at 6-820n or reach out to our team: Nick, our head of strategic projects, will be there, along with (🥁drumroll please) Keith.

The announcement that Keith has joined us from Hexagon (along with an illustrious list of former companies including Autodesk, Siemens, Oracle and more) is hot off the press and possibly the most exciting news of the year. We’ve been looking for somebody to really take ownership of the non-additive portfolio. We truly believe that the lack of legacy, increased data and lot size 1 that’s shaped additive has something to bring to a supply chain strained by the need to be flexible. Keith’s proven ability to listen carefully and distill the requirements into products, along with his staggering experience, will turn that belief into results.

Keith is by far not the only person who’s joined Authentise. Along with him, Andreea (marketing) and Ash, Marshall, Ayoub, Ameya, Tyler and Grigorii (all development) are joining Authentise within an 8-week window in a sign that we, hopefully, have broken through a glass ceiling in hiring and should be able to accelerate feature releases even further.

So, as always, there is much excitement and much to do – yet another example of 2 views of the same coin.

Hope to see or hear from you soon.

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All the best