This is something we are working on right now. The MCPs main focus is going to be integrating with design tools, especially the ones that agents are using. Would be very interested in collaborating on a marketplace. Your project seems cool and has similar intentions!
Hola HN, Will and Johnny from ProvenMetal (https://provenmetal.com) – we’re automating the circuit board supply chain.
Ordering an assembled circuit board is a seriously messed up process.
Roughly…
upload design
chase down manufacturer for a quote
manufacturer emails a bunch of technical questions
you answer the technical questions
they ask more technical questions
you answer more technical questions
then you realize that components that were available at the start of the process are no longer there, so you have to find and source substitute parts
you consign them to the manufacturer and try to co-ordinate with them
deal with shipping delays of the consigned parts, they say they won’t start until all components are there
they start the build, come across some design issue, stop working until it’s resolved
you resolve the issue
they finish and send it to you
and then it gets stuck in customs / a natural disaster happens to the delivery truck
We automated these steps for our own orders, collected data on every error, and built that into our own manufacturing co-ordination system.
I’m a big believer that this time next year, most new circuit board designs will be AI generated. Designs are useless if they can’t be manufactured well.
So we’re connecting agents to manufactured electronics. Design agents should know what can actually be built, with what parts, by when.
A bit on how the sausage is made:
Integrate with both domestic and overseas manufacturers, integrate with their quoting models, use APIs where available, and auto-select based on lead time, price, and capability.
Use manufacturing capability data and historical design data, with heuristic based harnesses, to automate design review. The design agent takes this data to improve designs.
Integrate with component vendors (big and small) to have complete supply chain coverage of every component based on availability, lead-time, and price. With big vendors, we use APIs. With small vendors, we use browser agents.
Manufacturers have technical questions that add days to lead time. We use agents to automate email responses. With enough data, you can predict their questions, and give them answers to questions before they have them.
Every order has a digital thread of every single action related to an order. Each order is constantly monitored to pick up on issues before they blow up lead times.
We’ve done $280k worth of orders in our first 3 months to develop this model.
Limitations:
Rigid-flex & flex PCBs - quotes aren’t instant and need more engineering review.
Complex fabrication processes – HDI and RF boards need more engineering review.
Stuff will break. We launch fast, find issues, and fix them fast.
We can do this by continuing to give them work. They are currently happy with us routing jobs through them, and I expect this to continue. It means they don't have to go searching for customers.
1) Well noted, we are working on fixing that
2) Agreed, fixed with 1)
3) We should be more clear about testing. We offer a range of tests (in house x-ray, functional, bring-up) that we should show more clearly.
4) This will be made more clear on the site
5) We don't aim to be a broker in the end. We aim to own the whole stack. This is how we start.
6) True, we do in-house testing and rework, which should be more clear on the site.
I looked at your site again and see you made changes.
Stop working so fast, it's actually hurting your presentation pretty badly.
I see "We make PCBs fast". I suppose it may mean something to the layman, but to me it just means you do what 4PCB does, except not in 24 hrs like they do. But never mind about determining turn time. When I click that I only see a single time listed (5 days). But if I look at the top of the screen I see another turn time of 7 days.
Just stop working on this site for 3-4 days and get your mission statement together. Maybe put some pictures of actual test fixtures if you test boards or any of your rework equipment. Every PCB/PCBA shop out there puts rework videos on its 'gram. It's just really hard to understand your business with this edgy/terse hustler kind of talk. Or your careers page where I get the sense that move fast and break things is the backend philosophy. Not a good look for someone who wants PCBs fast.
I so want this to work but holy cow I can't even understand where you guys are coming from.
No, that's misleading. "Immediately available" means parts you already have in stock and can start populating without waiting for another supplier - it doesn't mean things that you could order.
True, there are a few standout cases of larger CMs. Tempo was the poster child and they did a lot of things right. MacroFab and CircuitHub will be great competitors to have, and as stated in earlier threads we believe our edge will come from owning the entire stack from design to testing.
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