Re:YC: Requests for Startups
by 9cb14c1ec0 on Wednesday February 14, 2024 @07:06PM
(#39377371)
Completely automated machining cells have been a thing for a long time.
True, but hiring CNC programmers is a significant limiting factor in growing such businesses.
Re:YC: Requests for Startups
by quartesixte on Friday February 16, 2024 @07:29PM
(#39404912)
That army of “low-skilled” workers are highly skilled machine operators.
CNC programming isn’t generally performed by engineers—it is currently mostly performed by veteran machine operators.
To get enough veteran machine operators who have the skill and talent to program at the level necessary for high-precision consumer goods, you need quite the workforce pool.
And then add in all the other CNC machinists and manufacturing engineers you need for the auxiliary industries (tooling, molding, the machines themselves) and it starts to add up.
Don’t forget every other industry that is competing for this labor pool.
What? Are you suggesting that aluminium phone cases nowadays are created by an army of trained CNC machinists? And not programmed once by a (few) dozen engineers per model of the handful of existing phone models and then executed by highly automated factories and an army of "low-skilled" workers.