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The potential of digital-first manufacturing

What I’ve come to realize is that in manufacturing, software’s cost is justified not just by improved quality of life, but as a way to convert variable costs into fixed costs. In our case, we’ve used software to automate office overheads. First and foremost, we automate quoting and manufacturability checks. We employ zero estimators, but we can quote more than 100,000 parts per week without straining our systems.

Metal fabricators prefer the wrong kind of customer

Shops often find themselves in a strategic cul-de-sac—extremely busy, falling behind, and yet somehow unable to grow. This circumstance is created not by their competitors, but indirectly by their approach to overhead management.

OSH Cut To Open A Second High-Tech Factory Near Cincinnati

OSH Cut CEO, Caleb Chamberlain, announced last week that their second U.S. factory is nearly operational and will be located in the Cincinnati metropolitan area.

Where to Get Sheet Metal Parts

There are tens of thousands of sheet metal shops scattered throughout the United States, each with a different combination of capabilities and services. Here is our review of a handful of shops that make the ordering experience quick and easy.

Latest Articles

Toward Perfect Metal Parts

We are on a mission to offer perfect sheet metal parts. For a high-mix sheet metal shop, that works out to be a tricky problem for many reasons, but this week we took a big step along the way.

What software automation means for custom fabrication

OSH Cut is different, but is it disruptive to the sheet metal manufacturing industry?

Why operating at scale lets metal fabricators ship faster

Queues are a fact of life, and it’s really a shame. It means as demand grows, customers have a worse experience. Nobody likes waiting in line. Yet a healthy backlog is in some ways desirable for manufacturers. It’s nice to know that you’ll keep your people busy for the next several weeks. It’s great for the shop, but less so for the customer. This uneasy tension between manufacturers and customers creates a sort of balance.

Steel Prices Increased Dramatically in 2021

Driven by high demand and persistent supply-chain issues, steel prices increased dramatically in 2021. Price increases have affected the entire supply-chain, from material rationing at mills, to long service center leads, and finally increases in product costs.

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Next-generation metal fabrication

This month’s Tech Talk gives a preview of Next-Gen Metal Fab, FMA’s newest podcast, with episodes featuring conversations between Senior Editor Tim Heston and Caleb Chamberlain, founder of Utah-based custom fabricator OSH Cut.

Moving shop in metal fabrication

Columnist Caleb Chamberlain backward casts his eye, to quote Robert Burns, and delves into the challenges of moving shop, laying bare the best-laid plans of mice and men.

Modernizing Sheet Metal Processes

Digital tech has transformed sheet metal manufacturing, and it is changing sheet metal ordering processes as well. Sheet metal parts can now be ordered quickly and easily, with fast lead-times, lower prices, and minimal overhead.

Manufacturing is capitalism at its finest

I believe that manufacturing is perfectly illustrative of how markets are supposed to work. For starters, customers have options. Lots of them. There are tens of thousands of manufacturers in the United States, spanning hundreds of industries, and serving millions of people and companies. Customers have a lot of mobility and power. If my company starts shipping poor-quality products or charging too much, my customers can just go elsewhere. That’s as it should be.

Manufacturing is a safe haven

Ignoring deficit spending and tariffs, manufacturing is still poised for dramatic macro change over the next decade. Manufacturing also will remain relatively insulated from AI-driven disruption for the foreseeable future.

Metal service centers: Friend or foe?

Service centers can’t do every kind of work, but large jobs requiring relatively simple value-added services are an easy win. They command enough scale to earn direct-to-mill buying power and can therefore drive prices down far enough to win the big jobs. We need those kinds of efficiencies to help reduce manufacturing costs in the U.S.