Tom Smith

My story - 3rd gen toolmaker. Started at 15 in gramp’s biz (still going strong ). Led GE & G90 engine manufacturing, ran CloudNC’s 1st factory, accidentally ended up leading software. Built Arrival’s micro-factory and lead software and supply chain systems, Ran Fictiv’s global platform and computational engineers. Founded an ERP. Now lead ops & software for additive & subtractive. From family run to big Fortune 500 to pre-seed startups and an IPO - I’m not leaving mfg!!

@fabworks_guy Interestingly, this depends on the country in which you are manufacturing. I didnt have to do anything in the UK due to floor standard, North carolina we had to dig it all up for the same machines

Part 1 of many on getting a machine installed. Things I wish someone told me before buying my first machine. It all starts with foundation work, a critical step many shops skimp on because it’s messy and expensive. Smaller machines can rely on their own casting to stay flat, level, and isolated. But for 30–50ft laser cutters, you need an additional layer of thermal stability and vibration isolation underneath. The manufacturer spells out the specs clearly in the pre-install manual. Of course, it’s buried 40 pages deep. Our first big laser this caught me by surprise. You can waive the foundation requirement. It will void your warranty. We are incredibly earthquake prone in SoCal so this is cheap insurance to avoid a re-level once a year. You have to plan ahead here, need about a week for everything to harden depending on the weather, longer is ideal. In a perfect world, spec a space with a foundation solid enough to avoid this, sadly we have a ~4” slab (machines call for 8” with two layers of rebar) but cutting a few holes in the ground is much cheaper than moving.

@zanehengsperger Manufacturing Saas and ERP wont be here in 2-5 years

this weekend i learned something extremely important about writing software for manufacturing the person writing the code must be deeply entrenched in the factory operations and nuances of the workflows also i really dont know why you would buy any off the shelf manufacturing software anymore when you can custom build your own with all the nuance and with your own data and train your own models

@zanehengsperger Factories 🏭

If you are an investor, what are you confident in right now thats valuable and defensible in 10 years? What’s not getting cannibalized via AI by then?

Thanks @robindchnt @generalcatalyst for a fantastic evening of founders and builders discussing resilience and manufacturing. More to come!!!

@KennethCassel How old? My second (boy) is on good track to be born shortly!!!

Baby #4 (our last) took his first steps today

@itsdannypereira Happy to help here

cnc/machine shop owners, whats the #1 thing keeping you up at night?

@robindchnt @andreasklinger @vonderleyen @euinc_petition Time to Build!!! 🏭 Factories incoming!

@andreasklinger @vonderleyen @euinc_petition 🐐

YO. WTF. This is from @vonderleyen's speech JUST NOW From impossible to inevitable!!! @euinc_petition FTW 🙌🔥🇪🇺

@jimbelosic @aphysicist 👋

@aphysicist 👋

everyone wants to work in manufacturing but no one wants to make parts

Thanks, Matt any great investors who want to be part of something special, you know where to send them!

Now is the time to build a Manufacturing Empire! 👀

@zachglabman @santiagopliego @UNION_Prime @andiwillgototx @Russell_MFG_USA I may have to fly in see few buddies

@santiagopliego @UNION_Prime @andiwillgototx @Russell_MFG_USA do it

Nov 4. 6pm. We got a mechanical bull in the @UNION_Prime factory If you're in the DFW come through! Invite in the comments 🏭🇺🇸 @andiwillgototx @Russell_MFG_USA

@CalebChamberla6 @jimbelosic Inbox is open as well - I can be more specific

@CalebChamberla6 @jimbelosic There will be enough there to ensure parts are turned around fast, budget will get it from 0 to 1. Not expecting to build the finished factory, but something that would do 80% of parts in some shape

Going to cut steel again soon in 🇬🇧 Equipment list must-haves for sheet metal, keen to get your guys' advice. @jimbelosic @CalebChamberla6

@KennethCassel My Man! See what I mean

we've made 15x more revenue this year than we did last year

@RegZeller Ye, a few of these tools are still around; the rest were made into parallels

@TomSmithMFG That is still how most small foundries do it today. The pallets are just more broken and the tooling is older (might actually be the same tooling that’s in the photo)

OG - Tools are still stored and moved with broken pallets

How do you easily spot if a Founder is raising for survival but masking it as a growth round? I have just witnessed this, but only caught it due to industry knowledge.

Made something useful - inspired by discommon

Manufacturing - Software - Startups 🧑‍🍳 tomsmithmfg.substack.com/p/sub-1-unlock…