Aaron Lichtig of Xometry shares how custom manufacturing is more prevalent than people might realize– and how they're changing that game.
Danny:
So you can think about us as a two-sided network or marketplace like an Uber or an Airbnb where we're matching a lot of this highly-skilled capacity that's out there with the demand that is out there in the marketplace.

Aaron:
Welcome to IndustrialSage, a free video podcast series all about digital marketing for industrial manufacturers. Hear interviews with your peers, and find out how they're solving the same challenges that you might be facing in your own field. Coming to you from the Optimum Productions studio in Atlanta, Georgia, this is IndustrialSage.

Danny:
Alright, so let's go ahead and jump in today's episode. I've got Aaron Lichtig here from Xometry. Aaron, thanks so much for joining us on IndustrialSage today.

Aaron:
Thanks for having me, Danny. It's great to meet you, and we're big fans of IndustrialSage.

Danny:
Awesome, we love to hear that. So for those who aren't familiar with Xometry, can you tell us a little bit about who you guys are and what you're doing? You've got a really cool story.

Aaron:
Yeah, for sure. So Xometry, we are a custom manufacturer. We manufacture custom parts on demand for a variety of customers, mostly within the United States, within North America. Now, when a lot of people think of the manufacturing industry, they think of large factories like a Foxconn or someone producing hundreds of millions of parts or finished products for sale to consumers. But actually a big chunk of the manufacturing industry in the United States is in custom manufacturing, and these are prototypes; these are smaller and medium-sized jobs that are done not necessarily in enormous factories or enormous plant facilities, but in smaller shops. There are actually 190,000 small shops around the US who do great work but have less than 20 employees. And so our business was founded back in 2013, and it was launched into the marketplace in 2014.
And there are really two parts to what we do. One is our instant quoting engine, so customers, anyone who has a 3D CAD file of any part he or she wants to make, you can upload that into our instant quoting engine which is a machine learning-driven technology that scans that part, looks at the dimensions as well as other things like materials and finishes that the customer specifies. And then, it instantly comes back with a price for that part based on the quantity that's desired. And we do this across a range of custom manufacturing processes, 3D printing and additive manufacturing which is how we got our start when Xometry first began. We were focused on that industry. But now we do CNC machining, sheet metal fabrication, urethane casting, injection molding, basically the whole slate of custom manufacturing processes. So the customer comes in, gets that quote from our instant quoting engine. And then, we make that part for them and get that to their door. And a big part of how we do that is through our network of manufacturing partners. So we have over 2500 manufacturing partners that are qualified to manufacture on behalf of Xometry. And when the jobs come in, we post those jobs on a job board that our partners are able to see based on their capabilities along with a price, what we'll pay them to do that job. And then, they take the jobs; they make it. We guarantee the quality; we inspect it, and then it goes out to the customer who has initially quoted it.