Adobe Success Story

World’s largest manufacturing marketplace chooses robust combination of Adobe Flex and Adobe LiveCycle ES solutions for powerful web application

Merging two global operations
Founded in 2000 to link buyers of manufactured-to-order components with potential manufacturers, Atlanta-based MFG.com is the world’s largest online marketplace for the manufacturing industry, with $15 billion worth of transactions made on the platform since its inception. Buyers use the MFG.com marketplace for free while suppliers pay an annual subscription fee.

For manufacturers of goods ranging from glue guns to Mars landing modules, any manufacturer that secures materials and is looking for competitive market prices and high quality levels can benefit from the rich Internet application (RIA) that is MFG.com. The application’s elegant user interface, built with Adobe Flex, allows buyers and sellers to engage with the solution in meaningful, many-to-many collaborative ways to complete complex transactions.

Benefits

• Increased global adoption
• Enhanced security of intellectual property
• Added subscription revenue
• Accelerated RFQ processing
• Improved collaboration

Project Details

Engaged in the virtual supply chain
From request for quote (RFQ) to product delivery, purchases are handled end-to-end inside the MFG.com application. On the purchasing side of the equation, buyers set custom RFQ templates to specify what they need, when they need it, and where they need it to go. Suppliers from around the world will then quote on the RFQ matching their capabilities and capacity with the buyer’s requirements. The buyer accepts a quote, and then monitors the entire production of the order—including revisions, negotiations, and even tracking shipment until the goods arrive at the doorstep.

Crowder says Flex enables smooth transitions as it slides contextually relevant content in and out of the dashboard-style user interface based on decisions users make while working in the application. “I haven’t seen any other environment that allows that to the level Adobe Flex does,” he says.

Linked to MFG.com’s intuitive Adobe Flex front end will be Adobe LiveCycle Data Services ES to enable massive amounts of data to be cached and pushed to the user interface—providing users with current, relevant information without asking for it. Numbers will change in real time based on all transactions in progress. “LiveCycle Data Services is a real enabling technology underlying the MFG.com model. In real time, it sends only data that users require and automatically synchronizes changes across multiple users,” says Crowder.

Adobe Flex presents only the information the user needs to see, and removes information that has been completed or is no longer significant to the transaction. “We are most excited about migrating the application to Adobe Flex 3 because standard Flex components will be cached into Adobe Flash Player, slashing the size of SWF files and accelerating load speed. That will mean wonders to us in terms of performance,” adds Crowder.

Powerful, secure protection and collaboration
The sharing of CAD data had long been a source of frustration for MFG.com users. While most buyers and sellers have CAD systems, differing vendor-specific CAD formats made the interchange of designs difficult without additional investment in software.

By using Adobe LiveCycle PDF Generator ES and Adobe Acrobat Professional in the background, MFG.com instantly enables buyers and sellers to convert native CAD files to platform- and application-independent 2D Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files containing manufacturing information. Manufacturers in China, India, Eastern Europe, or anywhere can easily share and view the CAD designs in Adobe PDF using only the free Adobe Reader software.

“It used to be that if suppliers and manufacturers couldn’t read CAD files, their problems became our problems,” says Crowder. “Adobe LiveCycle PDF Generator ES and Adobe Reader eliminate those problems to doing business while expediting collaboration,” says Crowder.

Adobe LiveCycle Rights Management ES software offers additional capabilities that will complete the collaboration cycle among buyers and sellers. “With LiveCycle Rights Management ES, we can often protect intellectual property better than our users do,” says Crowder.

By setting and maintaining revocable access rights, MFG.com users will operate with confidence that documents distributed cannot be abused or distributed in any other way than intended. The Adobe solution enables manufacturers to control who has access to confidential documents in Adobe PDF for how long and what can be done to the documents. The solution can also be used to manage revisions. For example, if version two of a document has come out, users can no longer open version one.

Setting new standards for collaboration
MFG.com is not resting on its accomplishments. When asked where the organization is headed, Crowder refers to the myriad new possibilities Adobe Flex 3 will bring to software development. “We spent decades training ourselves about what we can do on the web. With Adobe Flex, we can break free from traditional web constraints and be limited only by our imaginations.”

With the advent of Adobe AIR, Crowder anticipates a tremendous business boost for MFG.com. “We are making sure everything we now have in development works on Adobe AIR to ensure a smooth transition to leverage the reach of applications on AIR.” When that happens, the MFG.com AIR application will interface directly with a user’s local CAD files. Crowder foresees that an engineer, for example, will simply click to generate a 2D or 3D PDF file from inside a high-end CAD application, and either Adobe Acrobat Professional or LiveCycle PDF Generator will generate the file and drop it right into an RFQ on MFG.com.

The benefits of using the integrated Adobe solutions will further transform MFG.com’s business. With greater visibility into the transaction process, Crowder imagines that revisions of procurement applications may be able to predict with precision just how much a part will cost to produce, and how long it will take to manufacture. Says Crowder, “We’re redefining what is possible for manufacturers and suppliers, and Adobe solutions are integral to helping us get there.”

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