In a recent social media post, William Cuervo of 3YourMind wrote, “As I make my way to the airport to head to the U.S. Navy’s Advanced Manufacturing Center of Excellence in Danville, Va., I am nothing but grateful that I found an industry that allotted me to do what I’ve always wanted to do—support the needs of our nation and contribute to the national security mission.”
For those who’ve had the pleasure of meeting Cuervo, Cuervo’s statement should come as no surprise. This one-time Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) cadet and graduate of Norwich University (a private senior military college in Northfield, Vt.) has a mission: to support the United States warfighter with advanced manufacturing technology.
William Cuervo, SME Additive Manufacturing Technical Community Leadership Committee Advisor, Vice President for North America 3YOURMIND
Considering this desire, Cuervo is working at the right place. He’s the vice president for North America at manufacturing software solution provider 3YourMind, a Berlin-based firm with commercial headquarters in Novi, Mich. Don’t expect to find him sitting behind a desk in the Great Lakes state, however, at least not on a regular basis; when not traveling to one of the DoD’s (Department of Defense) many manufacturing facilities, he might be on the phone at his home in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area, talking to a customer or, more likely, hopping a plane to visit one. Cuervo’s a busy guy.
As you might have guessed by now, many of these customers are laser-focused on military readiness, and in most cases, that requires a robust ability to produce parts—spare parts, parts for new weapons systems, MRO (maintenance and repair operations) parts, and potentially parts made at or near the battlefield—lots and lots of parts, not to mention the materials and processes needed to produce them.
3YourMind supports this effort with software that the company says analyzes part data to identify the best business case for on-demand manufacturing throughout the entire product lifecycle. This includes the full spectrum of additive manufacturing (AM), well beyond 3D-printed parts.
“We provide an overarching workflow management solution for manufacturers,” Cuervo says. “The additive process is complex. There’s a great deal that occurs before the build begins and a great deal that happens after. Think of us as an end-to-end software platform that manages and enables these unique workflows, all of which interact with different people, different machines and different software. It’s our job to connect all those people, machines and software and collect the data generated by each.”
Cuervo never expected to be in the manufacturing industry. While attending Norwich University, known as The Military College of Vermont and the oldest private military institution in the U.S., his studies were about as far away from the school’s Engineering Department as a student can get: political science.
One notable experience occurred during Cuervo’s senior year at Norwich, during which he led a research study with friend and classmate Preston Huntington under the guidance of Applied Research Fellow Sarwar Kashmeri. The “U.S. Grand Strategy and Military Force Realignment” project provided him with an opportunity to interact with members of the Office of Secretary of Defense and apply his poli-sci and military knowledge, resulting in a white paper focused on emerging threats and topics and how the U.S. should address them.
“Even before college, I was always someone who’s admired service to country,” Cuervo confides. “I studied military history, was in the ROTC, and thoroughly enjoyed the customs and traditions, drills and ceremonies that are an integral part of the armed services. So I earned my Bachelor of Political Science degree and immediately began looking for ways to support the mission.”
His first opportunity to do so came from the Red Cross, where he worked as a Water Safety Instructor. This activity may have had nothing to do with political science, nor with 3D printing and manufacturing, but it did allow him to pursue his goal of supporting the warfighter. “Being born and raised in South Florida, I spent much of my time in the ocean surfing, spearfishing, free diving and so on,” says Cuervo. “Surprisingly, many people in this area don’t even know how to swim, so I spent my first two years after graduation teaching them.”
Some of the budding swimmers were young adults preparing for boot camp with the Navy and Coast Guard, where they would have to achieve their swim qualifications, although there were also many children with special needs in the program. “It was great helping people prepare to serve our country, but working with all those kids was especially rewarding,” he adds.
Cuervo’s entrance into advanced manufacturing came courtesy of a close friend and mentor, Alex Bencomo, the then vice president of Sintavia LLC, a “designer and additive manufacturer of next-generation power and thermal management systems components for aerospace and defense OEMs.”
Given that he had no experience with manufacturing technology—additive or otherwise—Cuervo’s time there would be, in his words, “immersive.” He soon found himself with the title of Lead Additive Manufacturing Technician, managing a fleet of metal 3D printers, learning the ins and outs of laser-powder-bed fusion (LPBF), and assisting in the manufacturing of parts for prime OEMs in the A&D industry.
“I learned a great deal about quality assurance requirements and what we had to do on the shop floor to ensure we conform to those requirements,” he says. “And since my employer was a vertically integrated company, we did much more than just the print process itself. But after a couple of years there managing operations, I saw that, to grow AM and scale it up into a more widespread manufacturing process, we needed better software tools—tools for scheduling, tools for personnel management, process control, and all the other operational concerns that manufacturers deal with on a daily basis. That’s what brought me to 3YourMind.”
Cuervo doesn’t consider 3YourMind a defense-focused software provider, although the company does “a great deal of work in that area.” With that is a strong presence in the commercial world, mainly in the oil and gas sector, as well as the mobility market with automotive and railway companies. “A broad customer base like this gives us the opportunity to meet a wide range of complex needs across various industries, but also puts us in a position to identify and solve for commonalities among the different problem sets. That’s beneficial for us and our customers alike.”
One of these commonalities is a need to identify which parts are suitable for 3D printing, determine how to qualify those parts, and develop the workflows and documentation needed to produce them, printed or otherwise. Shortly after Cuervo began working at 3YourMind, he kicked off a project with the Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) aimed at increasing its distributed manufacturing capabilities, a project that addresses these (and other) needs, and continues today.
That initiative soon led to work with the United States Marine Corps (USMC), followed by the U.S. Army. The USMC has developed what’s called a Digital Manufacturing Data Vault, or DMDV, a federally approved program of record that Cuervo and 3YourMind support with its part identification software. “This is helping them to understand which spare parts they can and should be 3D printing to achieve greater readiness,” he says.
As indicated on Cuervo’s early October LinkedIn post, it was this latest project that had him boarding a plane to the Advanced Manufacturing Center of Excellence in Danville, Va., a place he refers to as “ground zero for revitalizing the submarine industrial base.” Ironically, that day also marked his sixth anniversary in additive manufacturing. He wasn’t alone during the visit, however—3YourMind is working with industry partner Phillips Corp., which uses the company’s software as a central component of its digital thread when performing services for the U.S. Navy and submarine industrial base.
“Projects like these create a lot of exciting work for me and my team, and are very fulfilling, to say the least,” he says. “The military’s 3D printing everything from doorknobs to components for propulsion systems. Our goal is to expand the technology’s use even further, building more resilient maintenance and sustainment practices along the way.”
When not supporting the U.S. military or customers in the commercial sector, Cuervo also serves as an ambassador to the Additive Manufacturing Coalition, a national organization committed to supporting members before the federal government and helping them navigate funding and legislative challenges.
“It was an opportunity to bridge my background in political science and my knowledge of advanced manufacturing,” Cuervo says. “Engaging with congressional staff, spreading awareness on key topics, developing strategies and increasing member engagement—given my background, each of these activities aligned very well with my interests and capabilities, so I reached out and told them I was very interested in supporting them. It’s become somewhat of a passion project of mine.”