Ewan Q-Hub | MTD CNC Podcast | 07/04/22

So automation is certainly a big thing at Mac 2022. And staying on the theme of automation, I was on the Open Mine stand this morning going through some of the videos that we're going to be filming on some of their components for Interco.

I bumped into you. You're the co-founder of Q-Hub. Now automation delivers itself in so many different forms. Can you tell our audience a little bit about what you do and the kind of automation that you provide?

Yeah, so automation is fundamental obviously in manufacturing, you know, your machine tools and the great work that they do. But often where it's not being captured fully is when it comes to all your compliance and quality aspects. In the same way, you know, there's always a cost associated with that. We know the cost of manufacturing downtime, cycle times and material and all those kinds of things. But when somebody makes something wrong, yeah, there's a cost in rework and a cost in that machine tool now being reused for something it wasn't planned to. What about the cost investigation? That's somebody's time taken to do that. There's somebody else's time in the office to reproduce paperwork. There's a cost to that paperwork. There's a cost of filling it out, you know, all the compliance requirements, especially for dealing with customers such as Airbus and Rolls Royces. You know, that takes time. That costs companies business. So what we do is automate that to reduce the cost.

So you are working with Airbus there. Are you working with large OEMs or is it open to smaller subcontractors as well?

It's the way that our software is built is it's fully customizable and we've got solutions for your SME. Our smallest customer has six people in the business. Our largest customer at the moment has 200, but we can go up to your sort of 2,000, 10,000.

Now you're the founder or co-founder of the company. When did you start the business?

So started about three years ago. We officially launched last year, but Mac really going to be our catalyst going forward.

Well, congratulations. I mean, to start a business only three years ago in the midst of a pandemic and now for you to be exhibiting at Mac. Where did this come from? Is it a unique product and where did the idea come from?

I think in my background, I'm manufacturing apprentice trained, a machinist for a long time. I was probably the worst person to fill out jobs and paperwork and I know how frustrating it is. So we're trying to cut that cost from companies, reduce that time and just make it easier.

Yeah, it's a big theme, isn't it? I mean, as you know, we travel the globe interviewing lots of people and it's amazing how many products are actually manufactured or made or designed or thought of from ex-engineers, you know. I can't do this, but I can, you know, go to the next level. I hate doing this. A problem. It always starts with a problem. It always starts with, you know, how can we do this better? How can we improve the process? How can we become more efficient?

I mean, myself, it obviously lends itself to end users. But say for an organisation like Schunk, as an example, would that kind of system lend itself to a sales organisation?

Yeah, I mean, every organisation, you know, there's CRMs that are out there, but there's a lot of things that they don't do that affect the rest of the organisation, you know, the training, the interaction between the shop floor and the office. So that's why our system does really, really well.

Marcel, any thoughts on this?

It's a bit hard for me to get all the things that you say, so yeah, touch on the product again for me please.

So anything in terms of automation, if you've got forms, if you've got documentation, tasks that you need shop floor personnel, MRP, ERP. Yeah, I like your names MRP and ERP, but we cover all your quality aspects in the most efficient way.

All right, so you're just linking the whole thing up digitally together.

Yeah, that's pretty cool. Yeah. I know. And when you look at some of the calculus, you know, some savings that some of the companies have, you know, by using the software.

So for a lot of companies that we're working with, we've typically saved about 75% in terms of their quality and compliance requirements. It's a massive saving.

We want to find out more at MTD CNC about your products and then after the exhibition hopefully we can meet up.

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