Modern Machine Shop

APR 2017

Modern Machine Shop is focused on all aspects of metalworking technology - Providing the new product technologies; process solutions; supplier listings; business management; networking; and event information that companies need to be competitive.

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22 MMS April 2017 mmsonline.com THE Z AXIS Commentary in many cases. The interface will suffice. Think of it as the Uberization of manufacturing. Yet as transformative as that might be, that is not the limit of what the company leader foresees. Ridesharing utility Uber might not the ultimate analogy. He says a better one might be the match- making site eHarmony. "Matchmaking is what we are doing," he says. "We aim to connect buyers with the best partners (Xometry's term for shops), using machine learn- ing and matching algorithms to make that happen." Right now, operations per formed and pricing patterns over time are the data feeding these algorithms. But in the same way that eHarmony asks hundreds of questions of users to provide a better romantic match than other dating sites, what if machining vendors could offer up much more information in the hope of finding an even better match with buyers? The CEO describes what that might look like. He says, "The list ideally includes total capacity, available capacity, number and capabilities of machines, cer tifications, standard lead times, prefe r re d mate r ia ls, production c a pa bilitie s (versus prototyping) and inspection capabili- ties"—all reported dynamically and updated in real time. If shops could routinely supply this much data to the third-par ty por tal, then they could see their capacity more efficiently used, as the expanded data would enable a system such as Xometry's to better connect each shop's capabilities with the work it is best equipped to perform in that moment. "Quite literally, more and better data is going to mean more business for manufacturers," Mr. Altschuler predicts. T h e s h o p s th e m s e l ve s w i l l th u s b e g i n to resemble the data-outputting CNC machine tools in some of their own facilities. That is, in the same way that unified data reporting brings increased efficiency within a shop, a different form of uni- fied data reporting promises to bring a similar efficiency increase across an industry of manu- facturers nationwide. n Low-to-no dust machining n Large sheet sizes n Custom step tools n Large blocks n 4 lb. to 75 lb. densities CREATIVITY HAS NO LIMITS WITH PRECISION BOARD PLUS, Polyurethane Tooling Board n Non Toxic n No Outgassing n Non Abrasive n Made in the USA (800) 845-0745 • www.precisionboard.com New Material! Low-to-no dust! See the 22-second machining video on our website

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