COMMENT
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Print – ISSN 1753-0482
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Andrew Allcock, Editor
New style subbies
What started out as an effort focused on making NC
programming completely automatic via novel software has
turned into one that has highly cost-competitive precision
prismatic machining as its end game. And the resulting
standardised model will be ‘cut and pasted’ around the globe.
Backed by venture capital (VC) funding and headed up by a
board that is tech-sector-experience-heavy, CloudNC (p10 & extended article at
https://is.gd/megaya) aims to be a new style of engineering subcontractor that
merges the best manufacturing culture, employed in companies such as Toyota,
with the high growth tech culture found in companies such as Google and
Facebook. But it is part of trend, it seems.
Machinery has covered three companies this year that demonstrate a shift in the
subcontract machining sector. First, in January we detailed Italian firm Weerg,
whose online, in-house written software-supported instant quote service fronts a
global service for both machined metal parts and additively manufactured plastic
components (https://is.gd/tavuke). It was started by a non-engineer who had already
succeeded with an online printing business (ink, not 3D) that he sold and who is
now personally funding the new venture.
Just last issue we wrote about VC-funded Fractory (https://is.gd/otukol), another
original-software-supported service, although this time a brokerage between
customers and existing subcontractors. Estonia-headquartered, it spans many
countries and has an office in Manchester. This issue, CloudNC is our third story
about a firm that is building a machining business based on original software.
There are other such similar companies: Holland’s 3D Hubs, America’s
PartsBadger and China’s Bohao Prototype, all of which offer instant online
quotations for machined parts on fast deliveries. Of course, America’s Protolabs
was an early entrant, in 1999, also backed by unique software development and
which is present in eight countries. But, as far as Machinery can gauge, CloudNC
looks to have the more complete and more expansive vision.
Now, the world of subcontracting is a big one, with surely hundreds of thousands
of companies involved globally. This large base is not going to be upturned as
quickly as has been the high street consumer retail sector since the mid-1990s,
but there is undeniably a new model of subcontracting entrepreneur amongst us.
Original, novel software is their means of unlocking a new way of business, building
on the reliable manufacturing hardware that is now the norm. And unlike traditional
subcontractors, they typically have big funding behind them that is looking for the
large pay-off, not a safe two-year return. They will make their mark. ■
www.machinery.co.uk
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www.machinery.co.uk @MachineryTweets September 2019 7
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