Q&A with Hugh Humphreys

By Ann Mazakas

This is the twelfth and final installment in our year-long series of interviews with leaders in the CAM industry.—DE Editors

Hugh Humphreys has been managing director of Delcam since 1989, when he and Technical Director Ed Lambourne led the staff buyout of the company from the Delta Metals Group. Over the course of the last decade and a half, he has guided the company to its current position as the world’s leading specialist supplier of NC software and services in the CIMdata rankings. Helped by the acquisition of the FeatureCAM business last year, Delcam now has more than 13,000 customers in more than 70 countries.

Humphreys began his engineering career as an 18-year-old apprentice at the de Havilland Aircraft (now part of BAE Systems) factory in Chester, UK. He joined the Delta Metals Group in 1974, initially looking at new methods for production engineering and control, but progressively focused on the developing area of CAD/CAM within the Delta Computer Aided Manufacturing Division (DeltaCAM). At first, the software being developed was only used within the Delta Group. In the early 1970s, though, Humphreys was the instigator of the first sales of the software outside the Group. He has subsequently traveled the world supporting the company’s reseller channel and promoting its products. In 1994 his efforts were recognized when Queen Elizabeth awarded Humphreys with the Order of the British Empire for services to exports.

What are some of the changes you’ve seen   in the CAM industry over the past year or two?

Humphreys: Looking at changes in the overall CAM business, there has been a move in market share away from the integrated CAD/CAM systems (such as CATIA, UGS, and Pro/Engineer) and an increase in the market share of CAM specialists. This has obviously benefited Delcam, which is unique among CAM suppliers in offering its customers the choice either to buy a complete design, machining, and inspection package from us or to buy whichever point solutions they require to remove bottlenecks in their processes and increase productivity.

There are a number of reasons for this change. Firstly, CAD systems like SolidWorks, Autodesk Inventor, and Solid Edge are becoming more popular and these programs do not have an integrated CAM system. Instead of being dictated by the design software, the choice of CAM is left to the customer. A growing number are choosing specialist programs like our PowerMILL software. Secondly, there has been a growth in the use of shop-floor programming, which also benefits from the use of dedicated CAM software. Thirdly, the improvements in data translation mean there is less need to use an integrated system throughout the product development process. Instead,  the most appropriate software can be selected for each stage of design and manufacture.

The other change in the industry is a move towards consolidation. There are more than 100 CAM suppliers of various sizes in the market and that number seems unsustainable in the long term. While I don’t believe the consolidation will go as far as that on the CAD side of the industry,  I do see further mergers and acquisitions. The recent addition of the FeatureCAM range of software to the Delcam family has gone very well. We will certainly be looking for similar opportunities to expand our portfolio of products and grow our business.

Delcam is known for its strength in multi-axis machining. Have you seen more demand from your customers when it comes to advanced machining capabilities?

Humphreys: The growth in five-axis machining, both positional and continuous, is the biggest change we have seen over the last few years. Until recently, smaller companies have been discouraged from adopting this technology because of the price of these machines and the complexity of programming them. However, both of these barriers are becoming less significant. The cost of five-axis machines has fallen steadily, while Delcam and other CAM developers have made five-axis programming systems much easier to use. In addition, powerful simulation systems, which are also available from Delcam and a number of other suppliers, mean that programs can be tested within the software,  with high confidence that what you see on the computer is what you will get on the machine. Now, even smaller subcontractors and toolmakers can invest in five-axis machining with confidence.

Indeed, with competition—both locally and internationally—becoming more intense and customers getting more demanding in terms of faster delivery, lower costs, and higher quality,  it is more important than ever that companies adopt the highest levels of technology possible. The benefits of five-axis machining are well documented, including the ability to machine even complex components in one or two setups, and the opportunity to improve accuracy and increase machining speeds by using shorter cutters. Five-axis machines can also produce parts that would be uneconomic, or even impossible, to manufacture on three-axis equipment. Thus, companies with this equipment can provide a broader range of services and so win more business.

Five-axis machining is also a significant factor in the move to producing short runs of parts from solid material rather than using casting or forging techniques. Success with this type of low-volume business is necessary for North American companies that are seeing more and more high-volume projects move to countries with lower labor costs. The growth in demand for custom-made parts, for example in the autosport industry,  means that there is more work of this kind and the short time scales in most projects of this type make it impractical to undertake them overseas. However, there is also increasingly fierce competition between subcontractors for the work, and the ability to deliver high-quality parts on agreed deadlines is essential.

A similar change is happening in the turning business, with the growth of multifunction mill-turn machines. We are responding in a similar way with the FeatureCAM Mill-Turn product, which allows companies to also gain the maximum benefits from these machines with fast, easy-to-use programming.

As one of the world’s top CAM software providers, how does Delcam plan to stay ahead of the pack?

Humphreys: Delcam’s philosophy has always been to invest heavily in the development of all our software, including, of course, our CAM packages. We have traditionally invested around 50 percent of our software revenue in development and that percentage has stayed more or less constant as our sales have increased. This high level of investment does affect the short-term profitability of the company, but it is essential to ensure that we stay ahead of our competitors.

We are increasingly using the Internet to get these enhancements to our customers as quickly as possible. We still release at least one major upgrade to all our software each year. However, we now also produce regular software patches that users can download from our website. Admittedly,  these cover bug fixes and minor enhancements rather than major additions to the software, but the improvements they contain can still contribute significantly to our customers’ productivity.

We are also supplying our CAM system with our PowerINSPECT inspection software. This is especially important for the manufacture of large and complex components, where techniques like on-machine verification and adaptive machining are being used to shorten manufacturing times and increase quality and consistency. As one of very few developers creating software for both machining and inspection, Delcam is very strongly placed to meet the demand for systems for these applications.

Do you plan to remain focused on the mold and die industry?

Humphreys: Alongside the technical development of the software, on the commercial side, Delcam is in the process of changing the overall balance of our business. We have traditionally been associated with the mold and die area, but are now expanding into other industries, including aerospace and autosport. While some of the machining techniques used in these areas are different from those used in toolmaking, the fundamental requirements are the same. Companies want software that can be learned quickly so that new users can become productive as soon as possible, they want fast calculation times so that expensive machines are not left lying idle, waiting for programs. And they want a wide range of machining strategies, with powerful editing, so that they can produce parts exactly as they wish without being limited by the programming system.

We have already seen some important successes in both our new target markets. For example, Delcam has become a member of the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), a joint initiative by the University of Sheffield and global aircraft manufacturer Boeing with a mission to create a center of manufacturing excellence for the aerospace industry. AMRC will be using PowerMILL to program its range of five-axis machines as part of its attempts to push the boundaries of all aspects of machining difficult and exotic materials, to test new research techniques in a real-world environment and to introduce advanced, efficient, and effective manufacturing processes.

In the motorsport area, PowerMILL was chosen by Zytek Engineering for the manufacture of all engines for the new A1 Grand Prix series. This contract involved the manufacture of more than 50 identical engines in a timeframe that was only possible through the use of Delcam’s software and advanced five-axis machine tools. Other Delcam customers in this sector include Proton KR, the Moto GP motorbike team owned by racing legend Kenny Roberts, Centro Ricerche Cagiva, the research center for the Cagiva, Agusta, and Husqvarna motorcycle brands, ATR Group, pioneers of the use of carbon fiber-reinforced plastics in autosport, and Brembo,  supplier of braking systems to most prestigious car and motorbike manufacturing companies.

It’s been a year since Delcam acquired Engineering Geometry Systems, the developer of FeatureCAM. How does Delcam USA fit in with your business expansion plans?

Humphreys: Delcam USA is a key part of our future plans. Unlike most other mergers in the CAD/CAM industry,  both companies were already growing strongly and were profitable in their own right. As a consequence, there was not the usual pressure to use the merger to reduce costs at either company. In contrast, being part of a larger organization has enabled FeatureCAM to grow more quickly. We were fortunate that all the former staff of EGS decided to stay with the company and that we have been able to recruit more excellent people for the Salt Lake City headquarters, including a doubling of the size of the support department.

Also unusual is the fact that there was very little overlap between the FeatureCAM software and our existing products. The FeatureCAM range gave us a better solution for job-shop machining to complement our existing products for tooling and prototype manufacture. At the same time,  Delcam’s extensive international distribution network meant that FeatureCAM could quickly be made available in more countries, while FeatureCAM’s reputation in North America helped to raise Delcam’s profile in the region.

Ann Mazakas is the owner and president of Intelligent Creations LLC, a provider of services to the manufacturing industry. Send your comments about this article by clicking here. Please reference “Humphreys, March 2006” in your message.

Company Highlights

Company:    Delcam plc
Headquarters:    Birmingham, UK
Founded:    1977
Products:    Power Solution
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