The AM digital warehouse is already here

In today’s rapidly evolving manufacturing landscape, digital warehousing is emerging as a key transformative solution to address multiple challenges in the face of increasingly complex geopolitical dynamics. With its potential for localized, tool-less manufacturing, AM is the primary manufacturing technology enabling the transition to digital storage. Driven by market leaders like Xometry and Madeinadd, spare parts are quickly emerging as the next killer application for 3D printing adoption.

Digital warehousing involves storing digital files for parts, enabling on-demand production through additive manufacturing. This approach eliminates the need to maintain extensive physical inventories, reduces storage costs, and minimizes the risk of part obsolescence. Companies can produce components as needed, leading to more agile and responsive manufacturing processes.

By transitioning from traditional physical inventories to digital repositories, companies can achieve unprecedented efficiency, flexibility, and sustainability in their supply chains. Imagine needing only virtual space on the cloud to store models, combined with a small storage area for powder or filaments. Or even better, you can resort to external providers, eliminating the need for any storage.

This is one of AM’s key value propositions, and multiple companies that can deliver it have emerged. Due to its digital nature, digital warehousing can be implemented internally via specific software capabilities, external AM production services, or a combination of both. Let’s see some of the most successful examples**.

Digital warehouses at your service

Digital inventory management relies on all aspects of the additive manufacturing workflow: hardware, materials, services and software. The leading companies in this area have emerged as networks that combine multiple service providers and their hardware fleets through powerful software tools that maximize interaction between parts suppliers and customers. As the most versatile and resilient technology, AM is ideally suited to meet various demands.

1. Xometry

Xometry, an on-demand manufacturer, is the company that first made digital warehousing a reality by offering a flexible and scalable alternative to traditional inventory management, helping businesses streamline operations, lower costs, and achieve greater agility in a competitive industrial landscape.

Its digital warehouse services are transforming modern manufacturing logistics by offering a secure, cloud-based solution that replaces the need for physical inventory. Solidifying its role as a global leader in on-demand manufacturing, with a strong direct presence in the UK as well as in other international markets, Xometry’s platform enables engineers and businesses to store their design/CAD files securely online and reorder parts instantly, from 1-1million parts, eliminating the costs and delays associated with traditional manufacturing where you would have to order volumes, manage supplier logitics and the complexities of traditional inventory.

By integrating this digital warehouse with its AI-powered quoting engine, Xometry provides real-time pricing, instant manufacturability feedback, and seamless reordering—all from a centralised dashboard. This service is particularly valuable for aerospace, medical devices, and consumer electronics industries, where engineers’ innovations can move from prototype to series production quickly and efficiently.

Once customers upload their 2D/3D models, they can set custom material and finish specifications, and reorder on demand with just a few clicks. The platform supports multiple file formats and offers enterprise-grade encryption and IP protection to ensure data security. Moreover, its compatibility with ERP and PLM systems allows seamless workflow integration.

Xometry’s digital warehouse is especially effective in agile development environments, enabling rapid prototyping and easy reordering of spare parts. Its strategic value extends further into sustainability by supporting localised, on-demand production, which reduces carbon footprints and excess inventory. Security features such as end-to-end encryption, access controls, and ITAR compliance make it a reliable solution for sensitive industries.

Through partnerships with thousands of vetted manufacturers worldwide, Xometry ensures quality, scalability, and geographic flexibility.

2. MadeinAdd

Founded in 2022, Madeinadd has been growing rapidly to offer a solid European alternative to Xometry. Its digital inventory service leverages advanced technology to revolutionize how companies manage their component supply chain. By converting 2D designs, sketches, images—or even physical parts—into manufacturable 3D files using AI and reverse engineering, this service ensures on‑demand availability without the burden of traditional warehousing.

Madeinadd has created a comprehensive digital ecosystem for additive manufacturing aimed at helping companies of all sizes accelerate Italy’s industrial transition to Industry 4.0. This includes Digital Advisory services, offering advanced technologies and expert professionals to support clients; Design for Additive, where components are either redesigned or created from scratch to suit additive printing needs; and 3D Printing, which covers the full production process including post-processing, mechanical finishing, quality control, validation testing, and shipping of the final product, using all additive technologies across various materials such as metals, polymers, and resins.

Customers benefit from drastically reduced storage expenses, streamlined production workflows, and enhanced flexibility to adapt to real-time market or design changes. With a single click, validated parts are ready for production—with expert guidance on material, technology, and cost—backed by secure uploads and a vetted network of manufacturing partners, designed to minimize delays, cut development time, and empower faster, data‑secure supply chains.

3. MakerVerse

Founded by Markus Seibold, former VP of Additive Manufacturing at Siemens, MakerVerse was also created to implement AI systems and deliver parts on demand. Its inventory management concept includes leveraging modern digital tools—such as cloud systems, RFID and barcode scanning, mobile apps, and AI-powered analytics—to streamline how businesses track, monitor, and replenish stock across multiple locations.

These systems enable real-time visibility by replacing manual counting and spreadsheets, greatly reducing errors, stock-outs, and overstock situations. They integrate seamlessly with other sales and warehouse platforms, synchronize inventory across channels, and employ predictive analytics to forecast demand, helping optimize reorder points and carrying costs while ensuring the right products are available when needed. Ultimately, digital inventory management enhances operational efficiency, cuts costs, supports scalability, and offers the agility required to respond swiftly to market changes, making it a critical capability for today’s businesses.

4. Pelagus 3D

Founded as a joint venture between Thiyssenkrupp and Wilhelmsen, Pelagus 3D is the leading Asia-based digital inventory and spare parts on demand service provider. Pelagus 3D’s digital inventory management, powered by its secure cloud-based Pelagus Platform, focuses on spare parts supply chains in the maritime and offshore sectors. OEMs and vessel operators can upload and maintain a fully traceable “digital warehouse” of part designs—complete with certification, quality control criteria, and on-demand manufacturing specifications—that can be accessed and ordered anywhere via a web browser.

Once a part is requested, the platform intelligently matches demand with an appropriate manufacturing partner from its global network, triggering optimized additive manufacturing, fabrication, testing, and fulfillment workflows—all while preserving IP confidentiality and ensuring compliance with ISO 9001, 14001, and 45001 standards. This shift from physical stockpiles to virtual inventories slashes lead times and logistics costs, mitigates obsolescence risks, and enables scalable, sustainable parts production on-demand—bolstered by strategic partnerships in regions like MENA for wider distribution reach.

5. ANY3DP (by 3FE)

Combining hardware, software and service capabilities, ANY3DP (by 3FE, 3D Future Experience) is unique among the companies active in the digital warehouse segment. The company was born in 2020 in Emilia-Romagna and developed under the JUNO.AM umbrella, blending artificial intelligence, additive manufacturing (AM), sensor hardware, and intuitive software for industrial applications.

The system is built on two core pillars: ANY3DP.APP and ANY3DP.SMART. ANY3DP.APP is a modular, cloud- and browser-based (but available On-Premise also) suite comprising several integrated components, including MACHINE STATUS for real-time printer monitoring and centralized analytics of job performance and uptime/downtime; a QUOTATION ENGINE that provides guided, standardized quoting integrated with CRM systems and powered by the Neuromancer AI module for automatic cost calculation; NEUROMANCER itself, a headless AI-powered cost-estimation engine that analyzes 3D files across technologies, materials, labor, post-processing, and finishing; and a FILE MANAGER and PARSER offering unified API access to diverse storage systems and legacy infrastructures like NAS, S3, or SharePoint, enabling batch processing and AI-ready data extraction. ANY3DP.SMART hardware products complement this with pre-configured, sensor-equipped hardware modules that connect to the APP via the cloud, enabling real-time production tracking and direct machine data capture, focusing on human resources behaviors in production.

Backed by a multidisciplinary team of engineers, AI experts, and developers, ANY3DP bridges the divide between virtual design and the physical print environment. It transforms fragmented AM workflows into cohesive, intelligent value chains—empowering manufacturers to predict bottlenecks, optimize machine usage, accelerate quoting, and close the feedback loop from real‑world operations to strategic decision‑making. In short, ANY3DP by 3FESTO offers a seamlessly integrated, data-driven AM ecosystem designed to elevate industrial 3D printing to the next level. This suite has no list prices or tiers but only offers price-on-agreement solutions with tailor-made microservices.

The software side of storage

While service provider networks generally cater to multiple external customers, digital inventory management can also be an internal solution, especially for large companies with huge spare parts inventories, such as those active in the freight transportation industry. Several software platforms have emerged that cater to these companies’ requirements. Here are some of the most successful to date.

6. 3YOURMIND

3YOURMIND is an on-demand manufacturing software that empowers companies to identify and produce needed parts. OEMs, operating companies, and contract manufacturers can create digital inventories of qualified parts to reduce costs, shorten production lead times, and secure more efficient and agile operations. In its latest update, the company has expanded its additive manufacturing material database to 1,200 qualified materials, supporting a wide range of AM technologies and enabling more efficient part configuration. Other improvements include enhanced user management, new part filtering options, workflow-based functionality control, and expanded dashboard filters.

7. AMFG

Born as a specialist in additive manufacturing workflow and MES software, AMFG introduced its Digital Inventory solution to revolutionize on-demand and distributed production. This product centralized tooling, spare, and end-use part inventories into a seamless digital catalog, enabling real-time tracking, dynamic inventory management, and efficient order processing. By bridging lean manufacturing principles with strategic stockholding, AMFG helps users balance just-in-time delivery and production resilience. Integrated with broader MES workflows, Digital Inventory ensures traceability, quality control, and synchronization across AM operations, from material usage to part dispatch. Ideal for manufacturers scaling distributed additive production, this solution empowers teams to reduce lead times, optimize stock levels, and improve transparency across their supply chain.

8. Replique

Replique’s Digital Inventory addresses how spare parts are managed by enabling secure, on-demand production through additive manufacturing. By digitizing and storing 3D models of parts, businesses can significantly reduce warehousing and logistics costs while improving sustainability and operational agility.

Replique’s platform streamlines the entire value chain—from onboarding designs and integrating ERP systems to automatically selecting the optimal manufacturing partner and analyzing part performance. The system ensures data security with end-to-end encryption, supports seamless order processing, and enhances efficiency with its global network of vetted print farms. As an example of a real-life application, Alstom has implemented Replique for additive manufacturing for serial production parts, demonstrating the scalability and practicality of digital warehousing solutions in large-scale industrial applications.

9. Oqton

Oqton’s digital warehouse solution addresses spare parts management by enabling on-demand, decentralized manufacturing through its advanced Manufacturing OS. Designed to support industries with complex supply chains like energy and transportation. Oqton allows companies to securely store 3D models and manufacturing data, produce components just in time, and drastically reduce inventory and logistics costs. The solution ensures consistent part quality while minimizing waste and downtime by integrating additive manufacturing, real-time monitoring, and robust data security. This innovation enhances supply chain resiliency and helps businesses move away from costly, space-intensive physical warehouses. Demonstrating its real-world impact, Oqton is collaborating with Baker Hughes to showcase this solution’s transformative potential for the energy sector

10. 3D Spark

3D Spark is one of the latest entries to join the digital inventory management segment, offering a platform that streamlines manufacturing processes by providing instant costing, manufacturability assurance, and CO₂ footprint analysis. Their tools assist companies in making informed decisions about part production, optimizing for cost, time, and environmental impact. A notable example of digital warehousing is the partnership between ÖBB-Technische Services and 3D Spark. This collaboration aims to enhance ÖBB’s digital warehouse system, streamlining spare parts.

In conclusion, digital warehousing for additive manufacturing represents a significant advancement in modern manufacturing practices. By embracing this approach, companies can enhance their operational efficiency, respond swiftly to market demands, and contribute to more sustainable industrial processes. As technology evolves, integrating digital warehousing into manufacturing workflows is poised to become an industry standard, driving innovation and competitiveness across sectors.

*This article was created in collaboration with Xometry and 3FE (ANY3DP).
**The companies mentioned in this article represent a selection of the companies we consider most innovative, active and relevant in the segment of digital inventory management via AM. For a full list of all companies involved in this segment, please consult the dedicated Digital Inventory section in the VoxelMatters Directory.