Asset Sharing in Thermoforming – How Manufacturers and Customers Can Both Benefit from the Sharing Economy

What is Asset Sharing?

The Asset Sharing business model allows companies or individuals to share resources without owning them. This involves sharing vehicles, apartments, tools, office spaces, or skills and expertise for a specified period. This approach is based on collaborative use, where participants share the costs, utilization, and responsibility for the shared asset.

The implementation of the Asset Sharing model often requires the use of digital platforms or technologies to connect participants, facilitate transactions, and grant access to shared resources. These platforms act as intermediaries between providers and users, ensuring that transactions run smoothly.

Which Trends Enable Asset Sharing?

The prerequisites for sharing models lie technologically in the networking of manufacturing, as well as in market-side developments in recent years.

The key technological prerequisites include:

• Sensors: Sensors play a central role in data collection and are critical in the context of Asset Sharing. Using sensors allows for monitoring the condition and availability of shared resources. This information is essential for optimizing communication between suppliers and customers, thus enhancing efficiency.
• Machine Learning: Platforms aggregate market data and have broader access to cross-sector information than individual companies. Algorithms that recognize patterns in datasets can provide increasingly better customer solutions.
• Internet of Things (IoT) and Cloud: IoT and cloud solutions enable both data collection and decentralized analysis. They empower the Asset Sharing model by offering real-time connectivity, automated booking and billing systems, scalability, and flexibility, contributing to more efficient use of shared resources.

Additionally, increasing market demands create opportunities to leverage Asset Sharing models:

• Global Demand: Asset Sharing allows for the flexible and effective use of resources to meet the global demand for fast production of small quantities. By sharing resources, providers can adapt production and offer customized demand fulfillment.
• Material and Labor Costs: High material and labor costs make growth expensive for companies. Through Asset Sharing, machine parks from individual manufacturers can be made available to a wide range of customers on the platform. This enables growth for manufacturers without additional investments in new machinery or sales activities.
• Regulations: Due to rules, regulations, and standards in plastic processing, investments in new machines are riskier. Here too, Asset Sharing via a platform can reduce the sales concentration risk of dealing with only a few key accounts in regulated end-markets.

Asset Sharing – Current Situation of the German Industry

COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine have altered the economic framework in Germany. The booming years are over, as evidenced by several factors:

• Low consumer climate
• Flattening growth in GDP
• High inflation rates leading to interest rate hikes

Moreover, capacity utilization in the chemical industry and manufacturing has decreased, while insolvencies have increased. The Ukraine war, COVID-19, and the recessive market environment have generally had a negative impact on production utilization and order intake.

Asset Sharing Reduces Risks: Digital Transformation Leads to Investment Pressure

The digital transformation requires investments in the digital transformation of manufacturing, primarily in networking and digital control. Many German and European companies are still relatively at the beginning of this process. The shift toward Industry 4.0, which was enthusiastically initiated in 2012, is far from being achieved.

Therefore, suppliers need support in their ongoing manufacturing utilization, especially in marketing and sales, so they can better buffer current risks and focus on the challenges of digitizing their shop floors.

Shared Assets: Are the Conditions Right in the Thermoforming Market?

As part of the manufacturing industry, the thermoforming market is affected by the above-mentioned general developments. Additionally, there are further conditions that make the thermoforming industry an optimal starting point for profitable Asset Sharing models. An Asset Sharing model in the thermoforming market addresses the following, market-specific issues in thermoforming:

Fragmentation

The thermoforming market is highly fragmented due to a variety of manufacturing options, tool techniques, and machine types. Most manufacturers specialize in one or a few processes to produce economically. This complicates the customer’s overview in sourcing thermoformed parts.

Lack of Transparency 

The fragmentation mentioned above leads to high levels of opacity on the customer side. The thermoforming industry encompasses a wide range of products, such as packaging, containers, housings, and components. Each product type may have different material requirements, trimming and post-processing techniques, and quality demands. This results in a large variety of product variants that must be individually calculated and offered.

Thermoformed parts are also used in various end-markets, including food and beverage packaging, medical technology, automotive, electronics, and more. Each end-market has its own requirements, regulations, and quality standards. Therefore, demands may vary depending on the target market and customer segment.

Due to these factors, there can be some opacity in the thermoforming market, as the variety of products and end-markets requires individualized offers. This can make it difficult to compare offers and assess market prices.

Structural Overcapacity 

Due to the lack of transparency, the thermoforming market is unable to fully utilize its available assets. This leads to structural overcapacity. The available production capacities exceed the actual demand for thermoformed products. Therefore, there is more capacity for manufacturing or supplying thermoformed parts than is actually needed.

What Benefits Does Asset Sharing Offer in Thermoforming?

• Access to a large machine park through partner networks
• No time-consuming, project-specific supplier search
• One-stop shop
• Reduced transaction costs
• Faster delivery times

These advantages primarily arise from more efficient digital processes, such as our configurator, as well as the matching of the optimal supplier to the request. For the supplier side, this can lead to better production planning, whether facing fluctuating or underutilized order situations. Asset Sharing thus offers many benefits.

The Role of formary as an Asset Sharing Platform

formary, through the digital implementation of a B2B platform for thermoformed parts, simplifies the handling of inquiries and orders. Manufacturing processes, industries, post-processing procedures – all this information is readily available at a glance, which is also beneficial for thermoforming newcomers. In our blog "5 Good Reasons to Order Thermoformed Parts from formary," you will find all the important details about the platform and the inquiry process.

Additionally, content formats such as our newsletter and design guide provide opportunities to learn more about thermoforming, so customers can gain insight into the possibilities of the thermoforming process. Thus, at formary, Asset Sharing not only refers to connecting thermoforming manufacturers and customers but also to providing knowledge.

Conclusion: Asset Sharing Creates Win-Win Situations for Customers and Suppliers

Platforms like formary leverage Asset Sharing mechanisms to address the challenges of the thermoforming industry, such as digital transformation in manufacturing, recessive market trends, and structural overcapacity. Both customers and suppliers benefit from the advantages brought by sharing mechanisms, allowing both sides to collaborate more efficiently.

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