Hexagon | Manufacturing Intelligence announces Sixth Sense Challenge

Sixth Sense is a program offered by the Manufacturing Intelligence division of Hexagon to help innovative companies with brilliant ideas who are looking to bring their products to wider markets and scale their business with help of Hexagon.

The program invites companies to apply and potentially begin a process of working with them to identify ways that Hexagon can help participants address challenges faced by manufacturers and designers. Hexagon identifies challenges and asks companies to submit applications to describe their products and services and how they address those challenges.

Themes

• Building a sustainable manufacturing future
  • This theme encompasses decarbonisation, waste reduction, and resource preservation for sustainable product design. They might be talking about eco-design, materials innovation, circular economy, or product optimisation. Anything that accelerates manufacturing’s sustainable journey.
  • Sustainability is a critical priority for Hexagon – it is a key driver of growth and tightly linked to their success as a company, and they are proud to call ourselves an enabler of sustainability. Regardless of whether companies operate within energy, transportation, construction, manufacturing, automotive or aerospace – any change must be sustainable. Focusing solely on improving competitiveness without consideration of environmental and social impacts is no longer an option.
  • At Hexagon they are driving sustainable change with tangible impact and outcomes today. The portfolio of digital reality solutions is making entire industries and nations more efficient, with significantly reduced emissions, minimised waste and improved safety for citizens and employees, every hour and every day.
  • Hexagon know they can accelerate change if they work together with their ecosystem. That’s why Hexagon is inviting start-ups to collaborate with them – if you’re working on something that could drive sustainability across the manufacturing product cycle – they want to hear from you.
• Smart digital reality for collaborative manufacturing
  • This challenge area will explore how digital reality, Al, generative design, and NDT/NDE tools can optimise collaborative product design, virtual production simulation, analysis, and validation.
  • This is an important area for them. Smart Digital Reality is Hexagon’s strategic advantage and the greatest source of value creation for their customers, empowering them to put data to work in ways that go far beyond what was ever thought possible.
  • Unique to Hexagon is their portfolio of core technology competencies, that create intelligent sensor-software systems that integrate the right data in the right place at the right time, bringing speed, certainty and agility to any workflow.
  • From the factory floor to a city’s emergency services, from mega construction projects to safely landing an aircraft, everyone is trying to improve and perfect their workflows. When workflows don’t meet their potential, productivity, quality, safety and profit all suffer.
  • Collaborative manufacturing is a hotbed of innovation at the moment. They know that great things are happening across their ecosystem and by collaborating, they can move the dial and empower customers even further. If you’re working on something that you believe could do just that – they want to hear from you.

What kind of products/services are they looking for?

• Value proposition: Is your product useful, and is the right solution to the problem identified?
• Roadmap: Do you have a vision for future improvements and/or product offerings?
• Defensibility: How easy is it to copy the solution?

Which industry or business model can apply?

• Any smart manufacturing and sustainability (for smart manufacturing) for-profit business is welcome to apply. Hexagon also encourage startups in closely related fields that could be applied to Smart Manufacturing (design, production and quality).

What geographies can apply to Sixth Sense?

• Hexagon is interested in companies located anywhere, except countries or regions subject to embargo or for which business transaction may be restricted or prohibited by applicable law or Hexagon’s compliance program.

Who are they looking for?

• Hexagon is looking for start-ups with a propensity for scale and a proven track record. They should be working on products for advanced manufacturing and have revenues of $3m or less, post-seed, Series A or A+. They will have been in operation for 1-5 years and have proven product market fit. Validation of investment from a third party and IP & licenses are not mandatory but will be an advantage.
• This is a global challenge, so they’re open to applications from anywhere across the world. They’re also particularly interested in diverse companies and encourage founders from underrepresented communities to apply.
• Sixth Sense is an innovate on the job scaling programme where ambitious start-ups can access Hexagon’s vast resources and connect with world class companies to solve some of humanity’s biggest challenges.

For more information, visit Sixth Sense Challenge.