The barriers to entry have never been greater for fledgling American parts manufacturers. Supply-chain woes, a scarcity of qualified staff, foreign competition, tariffs, minimum order quantities, and other obstacles make it harder to compete and scale operations. One Montana-based company has addressed the problem by reimagining machining and manufacturing with the help of automation. Machinen has developed its own Automated Production Cells (APCs) to provide five-axis machining services on demand, and they are sharing their automation innovations with small-scale manufacturers seeking to machine their own parts with lights-out production.
By harnessing automation, Machinen has found a way to transform CNC machining into a reliable, flexible, and scalable process. With a staff consisting of three company founders and two engineers, Machinen provides machined parts on demand in small batches or large quantities. Automating manufacturing enables the company to scale production at a fixed cost per part and only charge a one-time setup fee.
Operating a fully automated shop enables Machinen to offer 24/7 contract manufacturing with low overhead and little waste. As a result, Machinen customers can order any quantity of custom parts for less, and when they are ready, the Machinen team will help them set up their own automated parts production in-house.
Automating Vertical Manufacturing
The Machinen founders did not start out to revolutionize parts manufacturing automation. In 2012, Wiley Davis, one of the co-founders, acquired a CNC machine for his company, Hondo Garage, which specialized in motorcycle and truck accessories. As demand for machining services grew, Davis soon found that running a successful machine shop was more than a full-time job. That is when he decided to automate CNC production using a robot arm.
Rather than hiring an integrator to create the first robot, Wiley applied a bottoms-up approach. He knew he needed reliability and the ability to onboard new products quickly. The result was the first APC system capable of making any three-axis parts.
Wiley launched Go Fast Campers, a product company making custom campers for pickup trucks to test the newfound power of automated CNC parts manufacturing. Camper production was vertically integrated with all the parts made in-house. Go Fast Campers can make custom campers for more than 200 truck models using the company’s APC platform. Since APC is customizable, the company can quickly set up for any truck model. The success with Go Fast Campers made it clear that APC could benefit other companies looking for cost-effective parts production.
“It became clear that we should make this technology accessible to the market,” explains Stephan Morris, a former Go Fast executive and one of the co-founders of Machinen. “Our go-to-market right now is building a very compact, highly automated micro factory for small, five-axis parts. It’s ideal for small, new product startups; they can conserve capital, deploy a design, get a prototype quickly, and roll that into production at whatever volume they want with incredible fluidity.”
Delivering Transparency and Reliability
Machinen focuses on making small, five-axis machine parts from any material. The APC system can make any part within a 3.25×3.25×7-inch form factor in any quantity. Customers pay for setup only once, and then the cost of production is the same per part, whether you order 10, 100, or 10,000 units. Machinen’s services are ideal for companies looking to reduce costs and lead times.
What customers love about working with Machinen is its reliability and predictable costs. Automation takes the risk out of lights-out manufacturing, so it’s easier to guarantee on-time delivery. The transparency of production and costs also makes it easier to make data-driven decisions. For some customers, the cost-savings are enough to consider setting up their own automated parts production.
Part of Machinen’s mission is to democratize automation manufacturing technology. In addition to using automation to make custom parts, Machinen offers its APC technology to companies looking to produce their own parts in-house. Machinen is essentially creating automated micro-factories for customers across various industries. They also provide the data needed to make informed decisions about outsourcing parts production with Machinen versus taking more control by making parts in-house.
“We think of ourselves as more than just a contract manufacturer,” said Morris. “Our broader objective is to de-risk the American supply chain by enabling companies to produce their products quickly and close to where their customers are. Distributed manufacturing is often talked about but rarely executed effectively. Our systematic approach to automation makes it possible.”
Reimagining Manufacturing
The founders of Machinen are working to reimagine manufacturing and increase flexibility. Their automated approach simplifies prototyping and promotes design-for-manufacture. It also simplifies scalability to meet changing production demands without overstocking.
“We have a turnkey system that validates the technology, demonstrates reliability, and keeps our overhead low so we can just scale,” said Morris. “Whether we make a part for ourselves or make it for a customer, it’s the same process. We treat everything – a new feature, new software, a new upstream or downstream system – as a product. It forces us to be disciplined and more efficient.”
While Machinen’s APC can make any type of part, some of their current customers are in photonics and optics since the company is in Montana’s Gallatin Valley. The region hosts several dozen laser companies, as well as the quantum lab at Montana State University. Morris notes there is a lot of opportunity, and the company is systematically building their business by identifying companies that are a good fit, scaling production to meet their needs, and doing it again and again.
Morris sees automation as giving American manufacturers a competitive edge. Automation improves productivity while addressing the workforce shortage. It also enables manufacturers to offer higher pay because they are more productive.
“We love manufacturing. We’re passionate about it. And we want to help where we can,” said Morris. “We want to see more manufacturing come back and, as a country, we are as productive and competitive as possible.”
