SUBCONTRACTING KEEPING CUSTOMERS SATISFIED
to get something made for their bike or a
large OEM. We realise that everyone that
comes into contact with Get it Made has to
have a good experience. It’s a consumerstyle
approach, rather than typical
business-to-business.”
In terms of suppliers, the founder says
that the company still works with pretty
much the same suppliers it started out with.
“We work with a couple of people in the UK,
one in the Czech Republic and another in
China. And we are not in China because of
price; these guys offer a capability that is
hard to match. Plus, they understand
service; they are very responsive to our
requests on behalf of our clients.”
On the ambition side, Smoothy says that
the aim is to grow organically. “If you are
backed by venture capital funding, you can
grow quickly, of course. I started the
company with under £1,000 in total. We
have grown slowly and organically, and, prior
to Covid-19, were looking at a turnover of
£2 million this year. Not bad for a
one-, and just recently twoman
band. We love what
we do and are focused
on long-term
relationships with both
our suppliers and our
clients. We are not
about disrupting the
subcontract
manufacturing market
in some major way.”
Clearly, established
companies enjoying a
superior level of service will
return, but what about rst
timers? What is the prompt to trust
this small operation, albeit backed by
credible suppliers? Explains Smoothy:
“I describe us as enablers. Generally, clients
have three areas of concern or challenge.
The rst is that designers create something
and then don’t know where to go to get it
made; they do an online search, because
that’s what people typically do now, and they
nd us. Having found us, they simply email
their CAD le and receive an immediate
response thanking them for the enquiry and
letting them know there’ll be a response in
24 hours, which is clearly stated on the
website, already in fact. Others come to us
because they have been let down by a
supplier or, three, they have something very
dif cult to make. Either way, clients, even
seasoned ones, say that our response is a
’breath of fresh air’. As designers, we can
also feed back suggestions on the designs,
too.
“Most of the time, people want the path
of least resistance, so we remove the
friction, be the oil in the process. And we’ll
always keep clients updated with project
status proactively, they won’t need to
contact us, and we manage expectations
along the way. If it’s going to be late, we’ll
explain that.
“Now, that isn’t welcome news and,
sometimes, it isn’t acceptable. We have
gone to the lengths of getting parts made by
other, higher priced rapid parts suppliers, at
our own cost, to make sure we meet any
hard deadlines. Or our suppliers themselves
go to extraordinary lengths to make sure
that parts are not late, because they
understand service, too. But we
always strive to under-promise
and over-deliver; besides,
Get It Made founder
Luke Smoothy, left
Right:
Fin Brown
has joined
the operation,
increasing head
count by 100%
for this now two-man
subcontract services provider
manufacturing is dif cult and you do
sometimes need a buffer, particularly with
new parts.”
It’s all about providing a service that
Smoothy would have wanted to use as a
designer, he says. Get It Made offers a
human skill-based service and “people like
dealing with people”, he underlines. Venture
capital backing to fund development of, for
example, sophisticated and automated frontend
quoting software is simply not required.
“None of our clients has ever come to us
and said ‘Luke, please design us an instant
quoting platform on your website’. They have
their CAD les, they email them, it’s the
path of least resistance; we send them a
quote within 24 hours; the parts turn up on
time at the appropriate quality.”
SMART MICRO-AUTOMATION
That said, he explains the company is very
smart in applying many micro-automations to
its work ow. The goal being to have more
time to be customer-facing. “We have
eliminated hundreds of hours of repetitive
tasks that added no value to clients and
only claimed precious hours in the day, so
we automated them. We get excited by lowtech
solutions that are actually very smart
solutions. High-tech isn’t a synonym for
better.”
And he explains further: “We can handle
a good level of complexity; we have no
online platform that restricts us. We are not
striving for automation in our service. Our
client’s needs are all unique and require a
bespoke service. We are able to offer that.
We are somewhat a boutique company,
not seeking world domination, we
want to nd a few great clients
and suppliers, which we have.
I think it will also be true that
great people want to work
with great people, and they
want to know their goals are
understood, on a human
level.”
He adds that the same
level of care it offers clients is
also a facet of its relationship
with its suppliers. They know that
they will not be asked to quote for
orders not having a good chance of
success and are provided with good, clear
information on which to work.
Predominantly taking on CNC machining,
the scope of work takes in both plastics and
metal parts, including aluminium extrusions,
with additive manufacturing and injection
moulding soon to be added (full list, see
box, p16). Its customers can be found in a
broad range of sectors, including aerospace
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