Manufacturing Showcase
Big Blue Saw By Russ Willcutt
W
hile earning his keep as a freelance IT consultant, Simon Arthur began designing and building robotic war machines, or “battle bots,” and entering them in contests around the country. As he grew to know other enthusiasts he found they shared a problem he’d encountered himself: locating dependable suppliers of the custom-designed parts they required, with a reasonable lead time and cost for small-quantity orders. Arthur recognized a market in terms of “need,” but no existing structure to support and define such an enterprise. That’s when his IT training kicked in. Instead of focusing on the part, as an engineer probably would, he began by imagining the system that could make this happen – what types of services should be offered, and how would order specifications be submitted? Building a strong network of specialty service contractors – laser and water jet cutting, primarily, which the battle bots required most – would take time, and then the years of effort it would require, with no marketing budget, to build a customer
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20 IMD AUGUST 2021
base working the crowd at battle bot events. Arthur began developing the software for the company, which he’d decided to name Big Blue Saw, located near Atlanta, Georgia, in 2005, launching soon after. Arthur graduated from his home into a small office space in 2014, going full-time with the company and soon hiring additional employees. The majority of their work was subcontracted, Customers were drawn to a website that organized and simplified their needs, allowing complete design prints to be uploaded and providing assistance to those requiring polishing, whether the order called for one or 10.000 parts. The company made its last significant move in 2019, gaining more production space and equipment for both its laser and water jet cutting divisions. He quickly found that equipment service was a primary concern in his line of work, “Rather than focusing on the brand to impress potential customers, I found it was more important to identify OEMs that took
