Insights and Trends Blog
Stay updated with the latest insights, trends, and tips across various topics to keep ahead of the curve.
How do you respond smartly to developments within the metalworking industry?
The metalworking industry has undergone a number of innovations in recent decades. Many companies knew how to take advantage of this but a few missed the boat and had to close their doors.
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Business & StrategyFreedom as a Founder: What 20 Years Abroad Taught Me About Staying in the Game
By Wim Dijkgraaf – CEO, Quotation Factory Over the past months, many people have sent me messages after my livestreams. Most are encouraging—telling me to keep speaking openly and honestly. Others ...
Manufacturing & OperationsYour factory isn’t “just” a factory anymore. It’s a multiplayer world.
In my previous live session, I shared how we're building a supply chain integration platform for metalworking that behaves more like a gaming engine than a traditional IT system – with factories in...
Manufacturing & OperationsThe Supply Chain as a Game Engine: Not a Metaphor, a Roadmap
Your metal supply chain still moves at the speed of email. Your customers now expect the speed of online gaming. That contrast has been on my mind for years.
Technology & InnovationPretty PMI Won’t Digitalise Your Factory – Why Semantic PMI Matters
If you look at most demos around Model Based Definition (MBD), they tend to focus on the same thing: A 3D model covered in symbols, arrows, GD&T callouts and colorful labels.
Technology & InnovationTurning Dumb Geometry into Smart Manufacturing Decisions
Most CAD models in your factory look smart. But to your computer, they're just… folded paper. A cube, a bracket, a complex ASML part – in the old STEP formats your systems exchange every day – are ...
Business & StrategyDots, Lines and Your Factory: How Graphs Become the Backbone of Unified PMI
Most metalworking businesses are already "thinking in graphs" – they just don't call it that. When a new RFQ comes in, your brain instantly connects:
Technology & InnovationUnified PMI: A Pragmatic Path from Drawing Chaos to Model-Based Working
Most conversations about factory digitalisation today end up in the same place: "We need to move to Model Based Definition (MBD) and Model Based Engineering (MBE)."
Technology & InnovationUnified PMI: The Missing Link in Today's Factory Digitalization
Most factories are trying to digitalize their machines. Very few are truly digitalizing their information. That gap is exactly where Unified PMI lives.
Technology & InnovationFrom Metal Company Using Software → To Software Company Doing Metal
Most metalworking companies I speak do describe themselves the same way: "We're a metal company. We use some software here and there."
Technology & InnovationEvents, Expectations, and Why Your ERP Is Not the Truth
Manufacturing companies love the idea of a "single source of truth". Most of the time, that means: "Our ERP is the truth." But if you really look at how a factory behaves in the real world, that id...
Industry InsightsThere Is No Future for Quotation Solutions (As It Exists Today)
Why quoting, as we know it, will slowly disappear When you're the CEO of a company, one of your jobs is uncomfortable but essential:
AI & AutomationEverything Becomes Self-Service – But Not How You Think
Why portals and apps are only a temporary stop on the way to AI-driven manufacturing For years, "self-service" has meant one thing:
AI & AutomationMetalworking Companies Are Becoming Software Companies (Whether You Like It or Not)
A strange sentence to start with, I know. But if you look closely at what's happening with AI and "vibe coding", it's exactly where we're heading. And if you're running a metalworking company, this...
Manufacturing & OperationsWhen drawing guidelines lock up your supply chain
Every metalworking shop has its own drawing rules. But your customer has zero time to learn them all. A few days ago, our customer success team sent me what looked like a simple bug report.
Industry InsightsProposal for the Standardization of Event-Driven Architectures in the Manufacturing Industry
Submitted to: TNO Institute, The Netherlands Submitted by: Wim Dijkgraaf, Quotation Factory B.V. Date: 01/08/2025 The digital transformation of the manufacturing industry is fundamentally dependent...
Technology & InnovationTransformative Breakthroughs in the Metalworking Industry: The Promise of Quotation Factory
The metalworking industry is undergoing a digital revolution, one that promises to reshape its very foundation. At the forefront of this transformation is Quotation Factory, a platform that has set...
Business & StrategyManufacturing Evolution: Lessons from Our Primate Cousins
How a metalworking business owner applied Frans de Waal's primate behavior theories to understand the complex social dynamics of the European manufacturing industry and digitalization agenda.
Industry InsightsMetals and Milestones: Navigating the Industrial Evolution
How to navigate the journey of adapting to technological and societal changes while maintaining a legacy of craftsmanship and innovation. In a quiet town in the Netherlands, nestled among age-old c...
Manufacturing & OperationsMetalwork Miracles: The Artful Science of Estimation
How a metalworking company was transformed from near bankruptcy to success by overhauling the labor cost estimation process. Once upon a time, in the bustling heart of an industrial city, there sto...
Technology & InnovationMetal and Metamorphosis: Navigating the New Industrial Ecosystem
How a skeptical metalworking business owner embraces and successfully integrates his business, by adapting to a digitally interconnected industrial ecosystem. As the owner of a small but proud meta...
Technology & InnovationThe Metalworker's Guide to the Digital Age: A Tale of Three Transformations
About the differences between digitization, digitalization, and digital transformation, using three metalworking shops as examples. In a large, modern conference hall filled with the buzz of conver...
Business & StrategyThe Modern Metallurgist: A Story of Strategic Reinvention
How a long-standing metalworking business, successfully adapted to the digital age by embracing the Strategic Pillars Model and Porter's Generic Strategies. In the heart of a bustling industrial to...
Business & StrategyCutting-Edge Choices: The Strategic Journeys of Metalworking Leaders
How three metalworking companies each adopted different strategies and underwent unique digital transformations. In the heart of an industrious city, three metalworking Manufacturing as a Service (...
Technology & InnovationTwin Visions: A Journey of Discovery in Digital Transformation
How state transition models have a critical role in achieving event-driven and agile manufacturing processes. Once upon a time, in the bustling heart of an industrial city, there stood a metalworki...