ABOUT SCALENC

ScaleNC has set itself the goal of digitally transforming classic work preparation processes. The team offers its customers an innovative service for preparing 2D and 3D models and programming machine tools in sheet metal production. The roots of the start-up go back to one of the world's largest suppliers of machine tools. As a member of the TRUMPF Group, ScaleNC draws on valuable Manufacturing expertise while allowing its customers to benefit from the agility of a start-up.

OFFERING ON-DEMAND DRAWING PREPARATION AND MACHINE PROGRAMMING BY SPECIALISTS

The start-up's self-imposed maxim is to rethink CAD/CAM (Computer-Aided Design/Computer-Aided Manufacturing). This includes significant aspects such as increased flexibility and specialization as well as global scalability of services for sheet metal customers. This aspiration is very compatible with a DevOps mindset.

At the beginning of the company's foundation, the focus was on the idea of a new, digital, and easy-to-use tool that would allow producers to simplify the process of so-called NC machine programming. NC programming is the process of creating code to control a machine from a digital CAD model. This offer did not exist on the market until now. It was designed to close the gap and help Manufacturing customers worldwide significantly simplify their machine programming.

Machine systems can only be used safely if they are set up in advance by specialized programmers. Specialized personnel in this field are in high demand and costly to employ. Also, software products already available on the market often do not provide satisfactory solutions to the challenges faced by producers. The costs for software use can easily run in the five-digit range. Additionally, there is always a risk of incorrect programming when using the software which often results in machine damage and production scrap.

As a CAD/CAM-as-a-service, the ScaleNC platform is designed to offer on-demand drawing preparation and machine programming by specialists via a digital platform. As a result, central steps in work preparation become significantly faster, more flexible, and more cost-effective for producers.

The DNA of ScaleNC is digital through and through. Therefore, it is a matter of course that the IT and software used should demonstrate a high level of technology. For these reasons, ScaleNC turned to Zoi for expert support in designing and implementing the platform. The challenge Zoi faced was that the platform’s architecture had to meet the high demands of a low-maintenance, high-availability environment for the software developed by Zoi and ScaleNC. This could only be achieved if it was operated in the cloud so that customers around the world could access it from any device via an easy-to-use user interface.

A CLOUD NATIVE, DIGITAL PLATFORM BASED ON AWS MANAGED SERVICES

The perfect fit of AWS (Serverless) technologies such as Lambda, API Gateway, and S3 enabled the creation of a cloud architecture with unbeatable advantages in efficiency and cost for the customer. For these reasons, AWS was the favored cloud service provider right from the start of the project. In addition, AWS provides integrated logging and monitoring tools on demand, which could be seamlessly integrated into the architecture target image developed by Zoi. With the help of the toolset available at AWS, the project goal in the form of an easily-scalable, high-availability, and low-maintenance cloud platform could be optimally achieved.

The ScaleNC platform makes it possible to order machine programs at the push of a button: The producer uploads his CAD files online to the ScaleNC platform and receives his individual service from ScaleNC's NC specialists in a short time. The offer covers, among other things, the creation and optimization of NC programs for common machines and sheet metal production technologies along with the preparation of 2D and 3D drawings and assemblies suitable for production. The complete order processing and communication between users and NC specialists takes place transparently and comprehensively on the ScaleNC platform.

From the beginning, the infrastructure of the digital ScaleNC platform was designed to be cloud native using AWS Managed Services. Among other things, this came with the great advantage of making the application available 24/7/365 worldwide. With the help of Zoi's expertise, ScaleNC recognized at the beginning of the project the relevance a cloud architecture has on an operation by means of minimal maintenance effort. This means that the platform can be operated securely and stably around the clock, allowing all parties to use their working time to improve the software and develop new features. This represents a fundamental advantage for a young company that needs to put its full effort into developing new customers and markets in order to establish itself in the long term.

By using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) with Terraform, the infrastructure was built to be in a defined state. CI/CD pipelines automatically provision the required resources within the project.

INDIVIDUAL, QUICK & COST-EFFECTIVE PROGRAMMING

The digital platform offers producers a simple, flexible, and globally accessible solution for programming their machine tools. From an initial base of around 50 machine models, the range of services has now grown to support over 600 models, with further models and production technologies planned. Customers in sheet metal production can have their individual production systems programmed quickly via the platform at a cost-effective price and without fear of delivery delays due to bottlenecks in their own staff or a lack of skills.

EVERYTHING AS CODE: DEVOPS CULTURE AT ITS PUREST



By using AWS Lambda, resources are managed fully automatically via code only in situations where they are actually needed – no servers are used. Among other things, this eliminates the need for employees to supervise servers. They can now concentrate on developing new features and optimizing the platform.

Development and production environments can be reproduced at any time through the sophisticated use of IaC. In case of failures, infrastructure recovery is possible within minutes.

The architecture was set up under the motto “Everything as Code”. This made it possible to achieve a very high level of automation where all processes run without manual intervention. This enables a DevOps culture that is quite close to an ideal state. Developers are empowered to help shape the infrastructure, existing boundaries disappear, and both the development department and IT operations have a better understanding of the overall ScaleNC product. Thus, the user experience can be constantly and sustainably optimized.

This has created an environment that learns from mistakes and anticipates them in the long term. Currently, the employees are constantly adapting the platform to the needs of the customers. In the long term, the use of machine learning is planned.

The use of AWS API Gateway and Lambda, as well as S3 for fast processing of user information, significantly increases performance.

The use of the latest generation cloud services not only makes the architecture and infrastructure efficient but also contributes to the issue of security, which is an important cornerstone of the application. Defined and aligned roles guarantee secure access to AWS resources through the use of AWS IAM. Furthermore, AWS CloudTrail provides transparent tracking of all accesses to the cloud architecture, and AWS CloudWatch offers a bundled overview of all relevant log data using dashboards.

The successful collaboration between Zoi and TRUMPF, a global market and technology leader in machine tools, can be traced back to numerous technology projects in the context of Industry 4.0 (Smart Factory). As a subsidiary of the TRUMPF Group with a claim to the highest level of competence in digitalization and innovative technologies, the choice of project partner for ScaleNC fell very quickly on Zoi. From the very beginning, Zoi has found its home in the cloud and knows the specific demands as well as the requirements of companies and service providers thanks to many years of customer projects in the industry. All of this offers an optimal prerequisite for successful collaboration within a technologically demanding project.

IaC is combined with Serverless technologies from AWS such as AWS Lambda. The complete backend of the ScaleNC platform is enabled by AWS Managed Services. The backend is regularly updated using a CI/CD pipeline. The result is the deployment of an event-driven, serverless platform. The code pipeline relevant to the platform is event-driven so that the required resources are always deployed in a fully automated manner.

AWS CloudFront and Route53 ensure global and smooth delivery of web content and files with low latency and high transfer speed. The advantages of AWS services are obvious: The various services work together smoothly, and static web content can be uploaded or downloaded quickly and securely by the customer with one click via S3. An additional advantage lies in the scalability, high availability, and efficient cost model of S3.

The extensive use of CI/CD pipelines underlines the agile and highly efficient interaction between development and operations: Frontend, backend, infrastructure, and monitoring can be monitored, organized, and deployed together via the tool.

With NC programming, it is possible to control a machine from a digital CAD model via code.

The infrastructure of the digital ScaleNC platform was designed to be cloud native using AWS Managed Services.

Together with Zoi, we were able to bring the ScaleNC platform to market very quickly despite high technological demands, and thus finally offer producers an affordable, fast, and reliable service to properly program their machines for use. The integration of state-of-the-art serverless technologies from AWS particularly suits our agile way of working as a start-up.