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CAD/CAM/CNC Perspective
By: Tim Paul Tim.Paul@Autodesk.com Instagram: OneEarTim
There is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed countless lives and countless businesses. This month I want to highlight a young shop that has been on an impressive growth path and take a look at what they have done to survive the COVID-19 pan- demic.
Over the last five years, Beau hired a strong team
of sixteen, including Andy Weber as his CNC/CAM supervisor. I brought Andy into the industry near-
ly ten years ago when I managed a machine shop for a large aerospace company. Andy’s skills have been pushed with the diverse work, quick turnaround schedules, and consistent equipment upgrades at Taurus.
It’s hard not to be impressed after walking through Beau’s shop today. Since opening his shop, Beau has made significant capital investments to grow his busi- ness. Additions in the machine shop include a Haas UMC-750SS, a Haas VM6, a Haas ST30SSY and a Haas DS30SSY. As impressive as the machine shop expansion has been, the fabrication shop’s equip- ment expansion is arguably more impressive with the additions of a variety of AMADA equipment including a flatbed laser, an 8-axis press brake, and a very impressive Amada Ensis 3015 fiber laser that has a modular system allowing for a quick switch over from flat work to rotary tube work.
What does it take to start and grow a manufacturing shop in California that is healthy enough to not crum- ble to the ground when the world shuts down from a pandemic? If I had all the answers, I’d probably be growing my own shop. I may not have all the answers, but I have made a lot of observations over the years. I’ve picked up some trends that are pretty consistent with successful shops and wanted to share some that stood out after recently catching up with my friends at Taurus Fabrication.
While talking to Beau, he said a few things that grabbed me. Specifically, his solid belief in the impor- tance of knowing your differentiating value, adaptabili- ty, decision making, and investing in yourself.
Differentiating value: Beau’s whole vision started with a differentiating value proposition – something to set his shop apart from others. He wanted to build an end to end shop that added value from engineering services through to bringing machine shop precision to the fabrication shop. This vision proved itself in short order with success for customers like Tesla who were looking for quick turn deliveries on precision fab-
Through my position at Autodesk, I have the great op- portunity of getting to know a lot of shop owners and staff from around the United States. After the world started shutting down in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic, I couldn’t help but think about the chal- lenges and stress that landed on the shoulders of
all the business owners I’ve met in my 20 years in this industry. I started reaching out to shop friends to see how they’ve been holding up in this crazy time. I found myself feeling particularly uncomfortable while hearing how young shops have been doing, because they’ve been hit especially hard.
One young shop I talked to stood out: Taurus Fabrica- tion in Grass Valley, California.
Early in my time at Autodesk I met Beau Huiskens, owner of Taurus Fabrication. Beau was in the middle of opening his new shop; he had just received two new Haas machines: a basic VF2 and a TL1. In addi- tion to his Haas machines, he had a nice Torchmate CNC plasma table to compliment a well-rounded fab- rication shop. Beau saw an industry need for a shop that offered end to end service by bringing machine shop precision to the fabrication shop while also offering engineering services. Beau had a vision and he was on the gas to make it a reality. As Beau’s CAM software apps guy, I got to know him fairly well in the early days of his business. The past five years have been an exciting time to watch how fast the Taurus team grew and how quickly the shop expanded.
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CNC WEST June/July 2020