Ponoko is an online service for manufacturing. It gained some considerable media attention because of its unique business model. Ponoko is one of the first manufacturers that uses distributed manufacturing and on-demand manufacturing.
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Ponoko builds on the success of the information age, and applies it to digital fabrication. Customers who have digital designs can contract with Ponoko, and sell their objects either via the Ponoko site, or their own retail outlets. Ponoko takes orders, and has it cut at the time of purchase by laser cutters or shop-bots (CNC milling machines). The manufacturers exist in a distributed network that is growing around the world, and often the manufacturer closest to the customer is sourced. While Ponoko uses desktop manufacturers to produce small-scale products, many believe that such distributed, on-demand manufacturing could create a major paradigm shift in manufacturing[1]. As of 2009, the Ponoko site had 20,000 items available.
Ponoko was founded by David ten Have and Derek Elley in 2007[2]. In September 2007 they launched the company at TechCrunch 40[3]. In 2009, Ponoko formed a relationship with 100K Garages, a decentralized network of shop-bot manufacturers in North America. In 2010, Ponoko began forming similar relationships and opening offices in Europe in partnership with local manufacturing services Formulor, Vectorealism and RazorLab.
In 2011 Autodesk announced a partnership with Ponoko as part of their 123D offering[4]. Late in 2011 Autodesk announced the launch of 123D Make and 123D Catch offerings[5] using Ponoko Personal FactoryTM to offer fabrication services to users of these tools.