Producers and consumers in the manufacturing industry are saving time and energy with the help of Lexington-based MakeTime Inc., an online platform that facilitates the buying and selling of machine capacity.
MakeTime provides what Todd Pritts, the vice president of product, calls “a flexible network of available capacity” where manufacturers and makers can connect on a national scale. For buyers, this partnership means that less time is spent searching for suppliers of computer numerical control (CNC) devices, including tools such as mills, lathes, routers, and water jet and laser cutters. Often, these buyers require relatively simple parts for sophisticated tools within a short timeframe.
“What we’re providing is this immediate, quick, direct access to get their projects going in an unprecedented amount of time,” says Kasey Hall, MakeTime’s director of marketing.
For machine shops, MakeTime offers a means of maximizing the use and capabilities of costly equipment. In other words, the platform allows them to capitalize on what otherwise would be idle time for machines between inhouse projects.
“We’re not replacing a traditional business,” Pritts said. “We’re supplementing downtime, when they would be making zero dollars on a machine that cost them $500,000.”
Yet MakeTime serves as more than just a middleman. Key to the tech start-up’s enterprise is the concept of the online marketplace, what Delaney Widen, account director at Make- Time, describes as “Uber for machine shops.”
With a few clicks, companies can set up a profile and begin posting available time, while someone who needs, say, 40 hours on a plasma cutter, can post their request. The platform, akin to a dating service for buyers and sellers, permits users to search by machine type, number of hours, location or hourly rates before they are matched by MakeTime. Profile set-up and consultation is free, though MakeTime charges a 15 percent transactional fee based on the hourly rate, determined individually by sellers.
Originally launched in November 2014, MakeTime’s inaugural year has been marked by extensive growth. Supported chiefly by West Coast investor Almaz Capital along with the Kentucky Science and Technology Corp., MakeTime has raised $2.65 million in Series A funding, allowing increased marketing and production efforts. In less than a year, its staff has grown from four to 27 employees, and it now boast over 800 clients.
Location has been key for MakeTime for multiple reasons. For one, founder and CEO Drura Parrish, an architect and third generation manufacturer, is originally from Henderson, while some of the current staff are graduates of the University of Kentucky. Notably, however, Lexington also is near Interstate 75, a corridor that’s packed with manufacturers. All of the automotive and aerospace work means easy access to a concentration of plants with advance machinery and varied needs.
Despite the support of investors and a prime location, MakeTime has faced an uphill battle within the industry itself.
“Our biggest challenge has been introducing technology into an industry that has been a bit technology-averse and a slow adopter of new methods,” says Pritts. “U.S. manufacturing has to start adopting new practices. … Somebody needs to be the driver — why not be us?”
One client, Kevin Potter of Potter USA, said there is an increasing need for specialty parts.
“We struggled to find a supplier locally that could produce a special component for one of our products,” he said.
After contacting MakeTime, Potter was able to manufacture the product through one of its national vendors.
“The way that their business model works is that they find shops that have excess capacity and match them up with businesses like my own that cannot make this product in-house efficiently,” he said.
MakeTime officials said they hope to expand hiring and its client list while also boosting quality assurance with an in-site customer rating system.
More information can be found at www.maketime.io.