Site Review: Ponoko.com
Things have been extremely busy for one of my properties, WoodMarvels.com once, via a TechCrunch article about Ponoko, I read that an enormous door full of opportunity had opened up. I had been searching for an on-demand manufacturer for a few weeks prior with little luck, I am selling blueprints but also wanted to sell physical models (user assembly required) for those who don’t have all the necessary woodworking tools. Ponoko came to the rescue!
My personal experiences with Ponoko
Once I finished reading the article on TechCrunch, I posted a note that I will take a serious look at this site as it may suit my needs perfectly. I then began searching for one of the founders e-mail address so I could make some direct contacts with them… right as I was typing an e-mail to Derek, he had already e-mailed me and a quick chat afterwards… I was a member! To say that I was impressed by how fast everything went was an understatement… he was great from the get-go and answered all my questions.
Luckily for me, all my designs where already in an electronic format, as a result, it only took a few days to figure-out an approach that worked. Their technical support was fantastic and Dan was invaluable for getting my files on time as they already had a contest going that I wanted to be involved in with a strict deadline. I won’t bore you with the details, applications etc… but the friendly and extremely helpful help I got from the founder also made its way to everybody I have dealt with at Ponoko, which is a testament to how well run the place is!
The learning curve wasn’t that bad to get my designs in for the contest, I had two designs selected and they where sent to be assembled. Everything fit perfectly and my nephew plays with his WoodMarvels ever since! If you are not familiar with graphic design software or 3D, expect to experience huge migraines as you learn the ropes but if you do this stuff day-in and day-out… migrating your design to Ponoko is incredibly easy and rewarding.
Ponoko.com: Background
Ponoko.com is, so far, the first and only on-demand manufacturer that designers can use to produce their items without having to worry about the associated overhead of inventory management and storage costs. If you sell one table and three chairs that you designed, you sent it to Ponoko.com and they will produce one table and three chairs and ship it right to your customer! Everything is flat-packed which saves on shipping costs dramatically (one reason why IKEA is able to sell things of high quality relatively cheaply) and best of all, they use a computer controlled laser cutting table so from the first to the millionth piece, they will be absolutely identical in every way except for wood grain!
Ponoko.com: How it Works
If you are a designer, you simply convert your design to an .eps file and upload it using their templates and voila, you are done! I don’t mean to over-simplify this process but if you have no experience with graphical software, I doubt you will be able to produce anything meaningful without at least a few weeks of hitting your head against thew all. I was “lucky”, I could export my 3DS Max files to Adobe Illustrator where I could then optimize the design launch it on Ponoko.com.
Ponoko.com: The Problems
Ponoko.com suffers from a number of problems but the biggest in my opinion is related to shipping. They are moving in the right direction though with distributed manufacturing hubs, the closer you are to one, the cheaper the shipping but even now, shipping costs take-up far too much of the actual costs of the final item. They also have an automated shipment calculator in the back-end for designers to use but none at the front-end, which means a designer needs to wade through pages of calculations to figure-out how much X item would be to ship while the customer who wanted to buy your design waits for your reply. Designers want to design, not take an course in calculus! These two shipping issues are among the biggest obstacles that are limiting sales on the site in my opinion. They are well aware of these and working towards resolving them which is very positive!
I also find their process of migrating a design to a showroom (where you can sell it) to be rather clunky and repetitive. For instance, when I upload a design, I can choose the materials (type, size etc.) that it would be produced from. It then gives me an actual production cost which is great! The problem? Well, I have to go through this process again once I add it to their showroom, so YES, I did select I want it designed in “Plywood – Hoop Pine” in the design module but now I have to confirm this AGAIN in the showroom and worse, type in “Plywood – Hoop Pine”! Why? I selected in the design module what materials I wish to produce the item with, don’t ask me again and force me to re-input this stuff! I uploaded images in my design module, why do I need to even deal with these images AGAIN in the showroom? I would chuck-out the need for a designer to input shipping costs (read above), list the production costs next to the selling costs so I don’t need to go back and forth between their design module and showroom module to figure-out my margins and create a one-form input system instead of a multi-stage process. I also have a host of additional ideas but I don’t want to step too-much on their toes. So far, most people have only a few items on Ponoko while I already have 26 items for sale (10 not for sale) and another 20 (for sale) to go in the following weeks so I guess I would be considered a power-user 
Ponoko.com: The Good
First and foremost, their technical support and staff are absolutely fanatically fantastic! You have a question… they got answers! A great forum, technical documents and a whole bunch of designers and other people who are really gunning for you to succeed. I really can’t say enough good things, they answer their e-mails, they reply to questions and really are doing everything they can to improve Ponoko.com in any-which-way they can.
Ponoko.com is also a fantastic opportunity for designers as mentioned previously but what I didn’t mention is the incredible strength that comes with on-demand manufacturing. For instance, imagine having 1000 widgets produced only to find-out you where a fraction of an inch off and as a result, they need to all be thrown-out as they can no longer be assembled into the finished piece. With on-demand manufacturing, you can change the design on-the-fly! The environmental costs are also far more sustainable then the mass-production alternatives. You get an order, it gets produced… you aren’t stuck with huge inventory which needs to be kept warm/cold/dry/wet with associated marketing costs to get rid of it ASAP! Lean on-demand manufacturing is the only environmentally friendly way of manufacturing things in my opinion even if the costs are higher financially, it saves landfills from being filled with useless junk.
One final item, Ponoko.com is slowly developing manufacturing hubs around the world, as such, designers and workers are able to make real living wages unlike the mass-produced stuff coming out of China these days. As such, I believe Ponoko.com is a very bright light showcasing a different business model which I really hope becomes the new standard for manufacturers around the world.
Ponoko.com: What Alexa Says
The site is hovering around 200K which is very respectable for a relatively new start-up.
Ponoko.com: The Competition
So far, none… but I am sure this will change as all that is required is submission software, a laser cutter and some industry contacts (press) to get moving.
Ponoko.com: The Verdict
These guys are amazing… they managed to create a system that makes them money, allows designers to develop new streams of revenue and even better… save the environment in the process!
The Bottom Line
New business models that actually create a paradigm shift are very rare indeed!
Buzvia: Sick of IKEA? Design Your Own Stuff, And Get Rich While You’re At It, Ponoko.com, IKEA
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