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Case study · CNC machines and manufacturing automation · Central Asia

East CNCFrom zero engineers to a CNC product that earns $500,000+ a year and cuts part design time by 70%

East CNC supplies and services CNC machines across Central Asia, and when I joined as fractional CTO it had no engineering department. I built a team of six from scratch, and with it a product that earns more than $500,000 a year: custom CNC software, a design system, our own AI that designs automatically and helps maintain the machines, and a Dark Factory control system that runs machines and workshops fully automatically. Customers now spend 70% less time designing a part, and their machines stand idle 30% less. More than 100 machines at more than 50 customers run under our system, and six engineers cover the whole region, work that usually takes a far larger department.

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Client
East CNC (MetalPromIndustry)
Business
Official Taizhou Eastern CNC representative in Kazakhstan
Market
All of Central Asia, 50+ customers
My role
Fractional CTO
Team
6 people, built from scratch, covering the whole region
Machines
100+ running under our system
East CNC: the product

In numbers

a year from a product built by a team of six
$500k+
part design time at customers, with our own AI and CAD
−70%
downtime of customers' machines, with AI helping maintain them
−30%
machines running under our system across Central Asia
100+
customers in the region, served by the same six engineers
50+
engineers, in a department I built where none existed
0 → 6

The machines

CNC lathes and machining centres from Taizhou Eastern CNC Technology, the manufacturer East CNC represents. Pictures from east-cnc.kz.

east-cnc.kz
  • A workshop hall lined with CNC machines
  • A gantry machining centre
  • An engineer at a coordinate measuring machine
01

The starting point

East CNC, run by MetalPromIndustry, is the official representative of Taizhou Eastern CNC Technology in Kazakhstan. It sells CNC lathes and automation lines, and delivers, installs and services them.

Machines alone are not enough. Every customer's shop needs design systems and CNC setups made for its own parts, in every country of Central Asia, and without them the value of each machine sold stopped at the hardware. When I came, the company had no department that could do that.

02

What we did

  1. I built the engineering department from zero

    I built a team of six from scratch and I lead it. I hire, I make the technical decisions and I own the architecture, so the company got a working department without the long ramp-up a first engineering team usually costs.

  2. One team for a whole region

    I own the rollout of automated design systems to customers and the setup of custom CNC solutions in every country of Central Asia. Six people serve more than 50 customers and more than 100 machines under our system, a market that integrators usually staff country by country.

  3. Our own CNC software and design system

    We develop custom software for CNC machines and our own design system, so every machine the company sells comes with software the company owns.

  4. Our own AI: 70% less design time, 30% less downtime

    With the team I train our own AI network. It designs automatically and helps maintain the machines, so customers spend 70% less time designing a part and their machines stand idle 30% less, while routine design work comes off the engineers.

  5. Dark Factory: workshops that run themselves

    We designed and built a control system for machines and workshops on the Dark Factory concept, where everything inside runs fully automatically. Few teams of any size take on lights-out manufacturing, and we delivered it with six people.

  6. More than $500,000 a year

    The product my team and I built brings in more than $500,000 a year, and it comes from a department that did not exist before I came.

03

The result

A company with no engineers now has a team of six, its own AI, a Dark Factory control system and a product that earns more than $500,000 a year. More than 50 customers across Central Asia spend 70% less time designing parts, and their machines stand idle 30% less. I built all of it from zero.

oleg.isSent on request

Full case · PDF

East CNC

From zero engineers to a CNC product that earns $500,000+ a year and cuts part design time by 70%

  1. 01Building the department from zero: structure and hiring
  2. 02The architecture of the CNC software and the design system
  3. 03Training our own AI for design and maintenance
  4. 04The Dark Factory control system: workshops that run themselves
  5. 05Covering Central Asia with a team of six
  6. 06The product and how it earns $500,000+ a year
Prepared by Oleg SotnikovPDF

The full East CNC case

The public story stops here. The PDF has the rest: the architecture before and after, the migration plan, how the team works with AI agents, what it all costs to run and where the savings came from.

I send every case myself and use your email for nothing else.

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