Manufacturing Tolerances: Engineering Specifications vs Production Economics and Small Business Growth Strategies
Be willing to work with the people who are making your parts because they know their business, just as you know your business as an engineer in your area, but you know, be open minded and let them talk with you, ask questions.
In this week’s newsletter Aaron Moncur has a conversation with Andy Wells, CEO of Wells Technology, a precision manufacturing company.
In this episode:
Tolerance economics in modern manufacturing
Bootstrapping manufacturing entrepreneurship
Engineer-Manufacturer collaboration for DFM
Social impact manufacturing programs
Bonus Content:
What’s your 4am?
Podcast Spotlight
Andy Wells, CEO of Wells Technology
Andy Wells built Wells Technology from $1,300 startup capital into a multi-industry precision manufacturing company serving aerospace, automotive, medical, and defense sectors. His approach centers on integrity-based customer relationships and collaborative design for manufacturability practices.
Wells emphasizes that modern CNC equipment has fundamentally changed tolerance economics. Where ±0.002" tolerances once carried significant cost premiums over ±0.005", current machinery capabilities often achieve tighter tolerances without price increases. However, moving to ±0.0001" tolerances can double manufacturing costs, making engineer-manufacturer dialogue critical for cost optimization.
The company's growth strategy relied on exceptional service delivery - working weekends for emergency parts, maintaining inventory buffers, and never taking advantage of customers during crisis situations. Wells advocates paying suppliers within 10 days rather than industry-standard 90-120 day terms, creating reciprocal relationship benefits during urgent situations.
Wells Technology operates a social impact program, hiring individuals with criminal backgrounds who represent 32% of their workforce. The company provides on-site training, transportation solutions, and career advancement opportunities, demonstrating that manufacturing skills training can address both workforce shortages and social reintegration challenges.
The episode reinforces that successful manufacturing entrepreneurship requires deep customer service commitment, collaborative DFM practices, and recognition that engineering education alone insufficient for understanding production economics and capabilities.
>If YouTube isn’t your thing, check out this episode and all of our past episodes on Apple, Spotify, and all the rest.
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Quick Byte
What’s your 4am?
"Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard." – Tim Notke
In a famous ESPYS speech, Kobe Bryant said:
"We’re not on this stage just because of talent or ability. We’re up here because of 4 am…because we had a dream and let nothing stand in our way."
There were thousands of athletes in Kobe’s generation who were more talented or athletic than him. But no one worked harder. His discipline, his choice to do the hard things, shaped his journey.
Growing up, I idolized athletes for their mastery, often attributing it to the “I will outwork you” mentality; which I carried into every sport I played.
But in engineering and professional life, I discovered something new: my idols weren’t just outworking others physically, they were outworking them mentally.
Mental discipline makes physical discipline look easy.
Your body has limits. Your mind creates barriers. The difference is, those barriers can be broken.
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Because momentary mental strain builds exponential advantage.
So I’ll ask you...
What’s your 4 am?
The Wave Focum Topic of the Week
Solidworks Macros
A user on The Wave, John Martell, wonders:
Curious as to what tips you have for making, deploying, and updating SolidWorks macros.
From my experience making many macros, the built in VBA editor does not seem very helpful after having used VSCode various languages…
What recommendations do you all have to improve the macro coding experience?
Have something to add? Join in on the conversation at The Wave.
Closing Thoughts
The Real Economics of Manufacturing Tolerances
Engineers fresh from academic programs often specify unnecessarily tight tolerances, driving up manufacturing costs without functional benefits. Wells provides concrete insight into how tolerance specifications directly impact pricing and production feasibility.
Wells explains that equipment advances have shifted tolerance economics significantly.
When we first started out, even 10 years ago, going from a five tolerance, you know, plus or minus, to a plus or minus. Let's say two would probably have increased the cost maybe eight or 10% because it would have been a little bit of a stretch for our machines and and same with our employees. But in the past 10 years...holding a 2000s is just normal daily operation. Now it's easy.
This represents a fundamental change in manufacturing economics that many engineers haven't incorporated into their design practices. Modern CNC equipment routinely achieves ±0.001" tolerances during normal operation, making ±0.002" specifications cost-neutral compared to ±0.005".
However, Wells identifies where significant cost increases occur:
If you went from 1000th to 1/10000ths you'd probably double the price something of that order.
Moving from ±0.001" to ±0.0001" represents the true cost inflection point, requiring specialized equipment, increased inspection time, and premium tooling management.
Wells recommends direct collaboration:
when you call a supplier or potential supplier, say, hey, look, you know, this is the design we're trying to achieve. Here's our beginning sketches or graphs or beginning prints, engineering prints. If you see something on there as a supplier, would you talk with us about it, where we can save some costs.
This approach acknowledges that manufacturing knowledge evolves rapidly, and design engineers cannot maintain current understanding of all production capabilities across different shops and equipment generations. The collaborative approach produces better designs at lower costs while maintaining required functionality.