Can complex, regulated manufacturing startups really set up a broad-based manufacturing system covering production, inventory, quality, and more in less than two weeks? Manufacturo says they have multiple customers who have done just that. This is what happens when MES veterans ‘get the band back together’ to build a supply chain-focused manufacturing management platform. A while back, Julie Fraser and Rick Franzosa sat down with Becky Kelderman to catch up on Manufacturo.
Aerospace & Defense Heritage
Two decades ago, the ERP and PLM vendor community was not particularly interested in MES for complex assembly. Several independent software companies served this market, including iBase-t, Visiprise, Aegis Software, Intercim, Cimlinc, CIMx Software, and Apriso. By 2020, most of these independents had either exited the market or been acquired by ERP or PLM vendors. The remaining ones are now being supplemented by the next generation of complex discrete-manufacturing software vendors (MES/MOM).
Manufacturo is one of these relative newcomers (they acquired their first client in 2021), but can claim a heritage that spans decades, with a management team predominantly from Apriso (back when Apriso was an independent company and the product was called FlexNet) and from SpaceX.
Manufacturo aims to go beyond MES. Their customers (60+ and counting) are often new entrants in high-complexity, low-volume, highly regulated industries, such as new space, aerospace & defense, new energy, drones, and robotics. These manufacturers have no interest in deploying on-premise, customized MES platforms that take years to implement. They want to move fast and stay in control.
Product Foundation Pillars
Manufacturo built their platform and business on five pillars:
1. Stay true to a digital thread – Keeping track of changes and modifications in a manufacturing environment can be daunting. Manufacturo is designed to maintain the digital thread end-to-end throughout the manufacturing process, ensuring compliance with manufacturing traceability standards.
2. Facilitate changes quickly – In high-complexity, high-pressure manufacturing, change management is crucial. Imagine discovering a failing component that requires an engineering change. Manufacturo can help ensure this part is removed, replaced, and contained across all active builds and procedures.
3. Ensure quick time-to-value and continuous value – One of the benefits of starting from scratch in a cloud SaaS environment is that changes can be applied quickly and flow down to all users. All applications in Manufacturo are optional, so customers can start quickly and build up over time (avoiding the “big bang” go-live scenario). New functions are added every two weeks, enabling quick deployments and upgrades to keep TCO low.
4. Get a single pane of glass for the entire product lifecycle – The Manufacturo team likes to say they’re not just an MES (or any other three-letter acronym). The platform spans from demand to design to planning to the supply chain to the shop floor to quality and out to customers and beyond.
5. Configure the system to match customer processes – Manufacturo promises to mold to customers’ processes. For example, advanced pedigree control allows production and development builds to run in the same system, using the same product structure, but with completely different rules (automatically enforced).
SaaS Speed
The platform is built on MS Azure, and Manufacturo is working to be listed in the FedRAMP marketplace by the end of 2026. To ensure uptime, customers have a redundant real-time failover system, with reporting also occurring.
Customers can go live on Manufacturo in 6-10 days in a standalone environment with no data migration. Their target market of startups wants this quick start and time to value. It turns out some larger companies do too; Manufacturo points to customers such as Sierra Space and Relativity Space, which employ thousands of people. The software can scale with a business.
Companies looking to integrate with existing software will likely take longer to implement. Still, the Manufacturo team claims to have 100+ public APIs, so integrating with popular ERP systems (e.g., SAP, NetSuite, Odoo), PLM systems (e.g., Teamcenter, Windchill), and other third-party systems, such as supplier portals and telemetry systems, is not overly daunting.
Manufacturo Apps
At the core are capabilities such as product-centric as-built genealogy. It also supports WIP installation for next-level assembly and can track the constraint point at which a component or subassembly must be added to the product. Process and document management are also table stakes.
In addition to standard production capabilities, the Manufacturo application suite includes a range of quality capabilities. The idea is to have quality management (including nonconformance) built into production, not bolted on.
It also includes alerts, analytics, and integration and configuration capabilities. Alerts and analytics are based on OneView, and an as-built genealogy tree down to the component level streamlines processes such as isolating material issues for quality purposes. The built-in integrator means customers do not need to make a separate investment for connectivity.
On the supply chain side, customers can issue kits from work order dashboards; the material and production planner capability is important for ERP integration. One of the newest applications is dispatching and constraint management. This creates a foundation for finite capacity scheduling.
Customer-Driven Product Roadmap
Manufacturo’s team knows that long-term success comes from responding to customers’ needs and having a vision that goes beyond what they might request. They report that over 60% of their roadmap is driven by customers. With full visibility into the roadmap, customers can create tickets and vote on each other’s requests. A quarterly review to prioritize is based on how many are asking for it, how much it will impact customer satisfaction, how much it will help gain new users, and the effort to develop.
Our Take
We see Manufacturo as a rich and interesting addition to the MES/MOM market. It is part of the new breed of operations software providers that goes well beyond what traditional MES platforms tried to do. Startup manufacturers seem to appreciate that breadth, as well as the speed of implementation and the ability to begin gaining value. With the highly experienced team and growing customer base, we expect to see continued progress in the market.
Thank You
Thank you, Becky Kelderman, for the detailed briefing for Rick Franzosa and Julie Fraser. We thoroughly enjoyed learning about your company and look forward to our next update as Manufacturo continues to grow.