Q&A with Glenn McMinn

By Ann Mazakas

This is the tenth in a series of interviews with leaders in the CAM industry.—DE

Glenn McMinn served as president and CEO of Engineering Geometry Systems from 1988 to 2005. He guided the company from its initial startup through an acquisition by English software developer, Delcam plc in March 2005. After the acquisition, he was named president of Delcam USA, which was established as a result of the purchase.

McMinn’s focus at Delcam is to grow the market share of FeatureCAM worldwide via continued innovation, quality customer service, and expanded distribution. Prior to steering Engineering Geometry Systems,  McMinn held positions at IBM and The Upjohn Drug Company developing scientific software. He holds a BS in computer science from Colorado State University, as well as an MS in computer science and an MBA from the University of Utah.

What prompted Delcam’s acquisition of FeatureCAM?

McMinn: What we had were two companies that were doing well,  two companies with complementary products, and two companies with complementary distribution. We determined that we had a similar management style and a similar way of developing technology, but at the same time we both felt that we could combine our experiences since both groups have been in CAM for quite a while. It made for a positive merger and it was something we went into after about a year and a half of discussions. The nice thing about the merger in general was that we had two companies that were having record years relative to the rest of the CAM industry and relative to their past in terms of sales and profitability.

When it comes to Delcam plc, their sales are spread around the world evenly with a third in Europe, a third in the Americas, and a third in Asia. They have good, broad international coverage. When you look at what Engineering Geometry Systems had, our strongest markets were in the United States and Japan. Delcam was looking for a stronger presence in the United States and Engineering Geometry Systems was looking for an opportunity to take our products and distribute them more widely. Delcam has excellent distribution around the world.

Will the FeatureCAM product line continue?

McMinn: One thing we want to emphasize is that there are no plans to merge the product lines. Delcam will continue to develop both the FeatureCAM and Power Solution lines of software products. FeatureCAM has always served the prototype and production markets for milling,  turning, and wire EDM. The Power Solution product is more focused on tooling, aerospace, 3-axis and 5-axis milling, inspection, and design for manufacturing. If you draw two circles defining our markets,  there’s not a tremendous overlap. It’s very different people that we’re talking about, different customers in general. People use FeatureCAM to machine parts rather than tooling. We do have quite a few moldmakers that use our product, but as their tooling needs become more demanding they have the option of transitioning into the Delcam PowerMILL product.

We really want people to know that, unlike other CAM mergers, we’ve got two healthy products with distinct markets. The FeatureCAM group is going to continue here in the US. We’re doubling our support staff and increasing our development significantly to make FeatureCAM an even more dominant product. This is a very positive step for FeatureCAM and our customers, and a positive step for Delcam as well. They’ve picked up an experienced, profitable company with a strong presence in the US, a market they’d like to strengthen.

Have your customers seen a benefit from the merger?

McMinn: Our customers now have a single source for solutions that can grow as their company grows. We now offer a broad product line. Delcam is organized with specific organizations tasked with making those individual product lines a success, so our customers get the best of both worlds. When you put together a best-in-breed solution from individual products, it helps if the overall company has put them together for you. The answer is not to put everything together under one monolithic system. FeatureCAM automates the details to make things simple, but you can still go far into the product without giving up the automation. When people want to make the leap into PowerMILL, they’ll still have the benefit of being able to continue working with the same company. In most of our new international markets, customers can license both products from the same sales partner. For many people, that’s the consistency they’re looking for. They want to work with the same people they’ve dealt with in the past who understand their needs.

What are your plans for the next release of FeatureCAM?

McMinn: We’re putting a lot of effort into our 3D product since that’s our largest-selling product. We’re also enhancing our CAD connectivity and feature recognition, both automatic and interactive. We are improving our support for complex machines. We’ve put a lot of effort into our turning module and into multiple-turret machines because the distinction between mills and lathes is becoming less and less. There are still reasons to buy separate mills because of the rigidity of the machines, but when it comes to lathes I think people will move away from buying the simple 2-axis machines. In the leading-edge markets, we are definitely seeing more complex machines. The price hurdle for these machines has been lowered but the hurdle for the expertise to run them has been raised. There are just too many things moving at once to program them manually. Customers are looking for better simulation of the machine movement and that’s where we’ve put a lot of time and effort.

What else do manufacturers look for?

McMinn: The idea of manufacturing automation and customization is coming up more and more. Companies like our automation and the larger manufacturing organizations need more customization. Our larger customers do all kinds of things to customize the system because FeatureCAM has always been based on underlying databases and manufacturing rules. We have a higher level of information stored in our system to begin with. Because we offer a system that’s simple to use, we can appeal to entry-level people. On the other hand, because there is all this manufacturing knowledge embedded in the system, we also appeal to larger manufacturers who want to customize.

Customers are looking for automation to do more for them. There is one category of people who want to program many prototypes in a day. Their biggest hurdle is their programming time. There is another category of people who are very much concerned with the efficiency of their code so they want automation, but they want it their way. Their main objective is to optimize the NC code. In a single system it’s unusual to find that kind of automation, but our automation and feature-based approach does allow us to be both an entry-level system and an advanced system for people who want to extend it. But no matter what they do, everyone wants to simplify the details. There is always more that we can do to make things even easier for our customers.

What types of forces are shaping the future of the CAM industry?

McMinn: Having a strong global presence is going to be one of the keys to succeeding in the future. Establishing global distribution is a tremendous task that requires a large investment and a lot of local connections. We’re seeing a shift in the manufacturing base. Companies are producing more goods than ever,  but they may not be making them in the same places as in the past. We want to help people come up with global solutions. We have plenty of customers that use FeatureCAM in countries around the world. One automotive supplier uses FeatureCAM in Thailand, Japan, the US, and the U.K. The standards are being raised for customer expectations from a CAM company.

It all starts as a coordination of effort at the executive levels of the company and then it filters down to the local countries. Many companies centralize their purchasing in one country and expect support for the product at their manufacturing operations in other countries as well. There’s also the internationalization of the product. FeatureCAM was originally available in four languages. Right now we’re working on five additional translations and making sure it’s done professionally. All versions of our software have to be released at the same time because a company can’t have a new version in one country and an older version in another. We can’t release a product in the US and make the other countries wait for the translated versions.

I also foresee more mergers in the CAM industry or a few dominant players emerging. You can already see some CAM companies who were quite competitive a few years ago who are now struggling. If you look at the CAM industry from the business side of things, it’s a maturing market, and I think it’s going to become more so. It will be positive for the customer in that you’re still not talking about behemoth companies that will distance themselves from customers. The dominant players will be large relative to the CAM industry but still small enough to respond and remain close to the customer. As a result, I think we’ll end up with great product depth and breadth while still focusing on customer support. Looking at what Delcam has done, we now have a much broader appeal and fit most people’s CAM needs.

CAM is not an enormous market. We’re much smaller than the CAD market. We still need to be very much in touch with our customers. There are still some tough problems in a relatively small market, which means that we’ll never run out of things to do.

Ann Mazakas is the owner and president of Intelligent Creations LLC, a provider of services to the manufacturing industry. Send your comments via e-mail by clicking here. Please reference “CAM & Design, January 2006” in your message.

Company Highlights

Company:    Delcam USA
Headquarters:    Salt Lake City, Utah
Founded:    1988
Products:    FeatureCAM,  FeatureMILL, FeatureTURN,  FeatureWIRE, et. al.
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