Russ Bukowski is the President of Mastercam, one of the most widely used CAD/CAM software solutions in manufacturing. Mastercam bridges the manufacturing skills gap by providing intuitive, efficient, and accessible CNC programming solutions for shops of all sizes. This conversation discusses how AI and Mastercam Copilot are transforming the user experience, strategies for bridging the manufacturing workforce shortage, and his vision for making CNC manufacturing accessible to the next generation.

Watch the Full Interview on YouTube!

Chapters:

• 0:00 Introduction
• 2:05 From Shop Floor to Software Leadership
• 4:14 Building a Customer Centric Culture
• 9:48 Closing the Manufacturing Skills Gap
• 14:50 Solving Data Management Challenges
• 18:02 Acquisitions and the Digital Twin Vision
• 22:39 Hybrid Manufacturing and Additive Workflows
• 26:11 Optimizing Machine Performance and Sustainability
• 30:34 Lessons from the First Year as President
• 36:19 Innovation Through AI and Mastercam Copilot
• 40:56 Advice for Aspiring Manufacturers
• 45:07 A Vision for Manufacturing at Home

Nate Wheeler is the owner of weCreate, a nationally recognized marketing agency that helps manufacturers grow, save money, and become more efficient. Need help or want to be a podcast guest? Reach out to us below.

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Nate Wheeler (00:01)
manufacturing insiders. Today I have Russ Bukowski with me. He is the president of Mastercam, which is a very, very popular software. If you’re in manufacturing, can almost guarantee you know the name. And I want to talk today with Russ about some of the innovations with our product, how it’s integrating with additive manufacturing, how we’re thinking about AI, and how it’s really solving some issues with you know sort of the workforce shortages and how master cam can kind of make some of those transitions easier But very excited to have this conversation today. Thanks for joining Russ

Russ Bukowski (00:42)
Thanks for having me, Nate.

Nate Wheeler (00:43)
Absolutely before I get into it just like to say if you enjoy the content we’re putting out and You are want to follow and get more of this information. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel follow us on LinkedIn We’re on boy, whole range of them, TikTok, LinkedIn, et cetera. Find us everywhere and follow us, bottom line. Also, if you’re a leader in manufacturing and you feel that you have some insights that other leaders could benefit from, go to manufacturinginsiders.com, fill out the form there, and we’d love to have you on as a guest. So Russ, you are just a great American story of success, kind of moving from the sweeping the shop floor

Russ Bukowski (01:27)
Thank

Nate Wheeler (01:28)
up to CEO or president of Mastercam. How did that happen?

Russ Bukowski (01:34)
Yeah, it’s been a long journey, Did get my start working in a machine shop, actually a company that made magnifying lights for the dentistry industry and inspection, QC inspection industry. Started out sweeping floors, doing some light assembly work, worked my way up to manual drill press, deburring and some manual lathe work. But my passion had always been in creating software. And that’s my background by education is software design and computer science. And when the opportunity landed to take a role at Mastercam 15 years ago, it was really a combination of those two passions that I had from when I was younger. Software design, creating software and manufacturing, which at the end of the day, both of those areas of interest for me are all about creating solutions, right? Bringing a vision to life and having the intersection of those two industries has been incredibly rewarding to be part of for the last 15 years. And certainly having our own manufacturing lab on site at the Mastercam World headquarters, get even more exposure to the technology on the manufacturing side. So it’s been quite a journey learning more about the industry, especially the more complex nature of the CNC manufacturing aspect of things. When we talk about five axis, multi-axis machines or mill-turn machines. There’s a lot to unpack there and it’s given me a real deep appreciation for what Mastercam needs to be able to do to support our customers long-term.

Nate Wheeler (03:08)
Yeah, and I mean, think having that industry experience in the machine shop and then, you know, having that close touch with the customer base would certainly be illuminating. And so with that knowledge you kind of took into Mastercam, you said before that you were really their first product designer, right? So what did

Russ Bukowski (03:27)
Yes.

Nate Wheeler (03:27)
that entail? Like, where were they? And where did you, you know, when you came in, you know, was it the user experience of the platform? What were you looking at?

Russ Bukowski (03:36)
Yeah, so when I originally joined Mastercam, you know, they were very much, we were very much a design by tech organization. We had 30 years of software engineering experience all in the CAD cam space and never really took the approach to say, well, how do we validate the user experience with the actual people using the software? It was more of this makes sense to me as a developer. So I feel like it should make sense to somebody who’s going to use the software.

Nate Wheeler (04:06)
And that never works.

Russ Bukowski (04:06)
So I came in, no, no it doesn’t. No, was, I think it was a painful learning experience for a lot of people in the organization when we started actually testing, know, early versions of the software in front of users and you get this feedback and the developers are scratching their heads going, why aren’t they clicking the button? It’s right there. It’s so obvious. And the users just can’t, you know, figure it out or find what they’re doing. So I

Nate Wheeler (04:28)
Right.

Russ Bukowski (04:29)
came into the organization and started the user experience team here at Mastercam, which now I believe we have seven full-time user experience professionals on staff that are carrying forward the work that I started. And really it’s about understanding the customer’s needs first and foremost, having the conversations. I encourage everybody at Mastercam to go out and visit customers no matter what their role is to better understand what we do in the business. But especially important for those user experience professionals to go out and really understand what are the pain points that the users are facing. And it doesn’t have to have anything to do with Mastercam, right? We often ask questions about, just tell us what’s happening in your shop, in your business, that’s a challenge. Are you supply chain issues? We may not be able to solve all those issues as a CAD-CAM vendor, but it’s good for us to have that knowledge of what’s impacting the industry beyond just what the end users are using our software for. So we encourage people to go out, meet with the customers, meet with the, you know, the, one machine in a garage all the way up to the multinationals that have multiple sites because I think it’s important to see the spectrum of customers and how they operate, get that appreciation. So that’s one thing is I’ve really pushed hard to build a customer centric mindset at Mastercam in the last

Nate Wheeler (05:45)
you

Russ Bukowski (05:45)
15 years. And then we’ve also invested a lot of time, energy and money in improving the user experience. Through a data-driven approach. So when we come out with a new design, a new piece of software, a new set of functions, we try to design that as lightweight as possible at first, just so we can get in front of the users, get their feedback. And we have a lot of different methods. We survey customers, we release alpha versions of software. We do formal usability tests where people jump on and take remote control of Mastercam. We do focus groups. We have a lot of different methods. At the end of the day, the whole point is figuring out does the software actually work the way the customers think when they go to do the job in the shop? And those practices have evolved quite heavily over the last 15 years. And we underwent a major redesign of Mastercam about eight or nine years ago where we shifted from our old interface, which at the time was the Mastercam X product. And we moved it into the what’s the current naming convention where it’s Mastercam and the year. We shifted to a ribbon interface, which is a much more modern user interface. It was much more accessible for people learning the software. Things were compartmentalized a lot better. And that was really the big push on the user interface at the time to really up level and modernize. And now we’re already talking, boy, that was almost 10 years ago. We need to start thinking about, you know, what’s coming next in the industry? What does the next generation of users want? Do they want more? AI like interfaces where they can chat with the software. Do they want more graphical interfaces? You know, do people want to be able to speak to the computer and have it drive it

Nate Wheeler (07:27)
All right.

Russ Bukowski (07:28)
for them? You know, there’s a lot of new emerging tech on the user experience side that we’re investigating and figuring out what’s going to work well for the industry, not just today, but 10 years from today.

Nate Wheeler (07:38)
Right. Yeah, and mean, that’s such an interesting topic because I see these new technologies coming out. You for example, I interviewed a guy a week or so ago that he made what he calls a factory in a box. And basically, know, it’s whatever the size of a refrigerator, but it allows you to do subtractive, additive, QC, and a whole number of operations that you formerly would have to have separate machines to do. And so kind of what I see something like that, you know, where my mind went was… wow, somebody that doesn’t know anything about manufacturing could get one of these and instead of having to buy a CNC machine and buy a 3D printer and have QC technology and all of that, they could start a manufacturing business in their garage with this one thing. And so these types of hardware, I feel, are kind of democratizing manufacturing in a way. And I think the limitation is in the design side because that’s something that it takes a long time to learn. So I think it’s really interesting to and probably the future of CAD where, you know, either the learning curve is super short or, you could have somebody describe the product that they want. Hey, I kind of want it to look like this. I kind of want it to look like this. I to be bigger, smaller, whatever. And you’re having that modeling program create the model in real time. think that’s amazing.

Russ Bukowski (09:10)
Yeah, you know, I always when I when I talk to especially young people about manufacturing, I try to get away from from the process of manufacturing and position as manufacturing is an industry that is really focused on solving problems by creating physical goods, right? And a lot of people a lot of the younger people, especially they don’t have the education background in what I call the old school manufacturing principles, right? They’re not sitting there with the machinist’s handbook on their desk and understanding the feeds and speeds. In their mind, they have a vision for solving a problem and they want to move from vision to physical good as quickly as possible. And

Nate Wheeler (09:51)
Right.

Russ Bukowski (09:51)
we focus a lot of our time on that. And certainly there are a lot of companies focused on generative design. Especially when you think about additive manufacturing using honeycomb structures and lots of lots of really interesting generative design methodology to produce a rigid part with the least amount of material that can be manufactured as quickly as possible. I do see that becoming the future of manufacturing is more about that problem solving. But right now there’s still such a need for subtractive manufacturing through traditional machining methods like CNC machining, whether it be because additive doesn’t have the clearance, especially when you think about regulations for aerospace, automotive industries, things like

Nate Wheeler (10:35)
Right. Yep.

Russ Bukowski (10:36)
that, or just the general cost of producing a part. And so one of the approaches we’re taking at Mastercam is how do we build that additive experience for subtractive manufacturing? How do we lessen the gap for people who have the idea, have the vision and want to bring it to reality? How do we do that without them needing to have 20 to 30 years of manufacturing experience? And that’s honestly the big challenge that we’re facing at Mastercam these days is making CNC manufacturing more accessible to a new generation of users.

Nate Wheeler (11:10)
Right. what’s the kind of the first like when you’re looking at KPIs for product development or user experience improvements, do you kind of look at that like time to achieve a base level of understanding as a key metric and say, hey, it used to take someone eight hours to get to this point. Now it only takes them two or something like that.

Russ Bukowski (11:38)
Yeah, we do. And we do it at more of a micro or macro level rather than across the entire system because everybody’s manufacturing needs and process are different. But we take discrete areas of the software and we benchmark them and say, OK, if it used to take a user an hour to produce this end result with our new software, our new design, you taking advantage of not just the workflow improvements, but also improvements in the underlying technology. Well, now they can do it. 50, 60, 70 % faster than they used to be able to. So we create a lot of benchmarks around individual components of the workflow like that to say, well, how long does it take somebody to just create this cross-hole drilling operation in the software? Okay, great, we’re making progress on that. So we do look at a lot of metrics like that as well as general satisfaction metrics. Are people satisfied with the software? Are they willing to recommend the software? But we also, something that’s interesting is we have a program that customers can opt into where we don’t collect the data on what they’re actually designing and cutting in Mastercam, but what we do collect is the behaviors, right? So where do they

Nate Wheeler (12:44)
Okay.

Russ Bukowski (12:44)
move throughout the software? That gives us a really good picture to say, hey, it’s very common for people to run this series of operations and how can we take that workflow and optimize that?

Nate Wheeler (12:56)
Mm, okay. Yep.

Russ Bukowski (12:56)
So that way people have a better experience. And again, all the data is anonymous, but it allows us to look and see that chain of commands and say, okay, when they’re

Nate Wheeler (13:04)
Right.

Russ Bukowski (13:04)
going from step A, B, C, and D, how do we make the gaps between those processes faster for people? So we’re a very data-informed organization. We like to collect a lot of this data so we can better understand. But honestly, Nate, sometimes the easiest thing to do is call up a customer and say, hey, can I watch you work for 30 minutes and just show me what you’re doing here?

Nate Wheeler (13:23)
Yeah. Yeah.

Russ Bukowski (13:25)
the insights you get are completely different than what you think you get from the data.

Nate Wheeler (13:29)
Yeah, no, that’s amazing. Yeah, I can picture that. Like it almost has like a little pop-up that says most people do this next. Do you want to do that? Yes. Okay. No, that’s really cool. So, you know, I love the fact that you are getting on the phone. You’re watching people do these operations, the designers. What are some like interesting pieces of feedback or like surprising like, wow, I didn’t realize people use it like that. And then you make a change to your product based on that. I don’t know if maybe that flows into some of the mergers and acquisitions that you’ve made. I guess what are some interesting things that have come out?

Russ Bukowski (14:12)
Yeah, so in my 15 years at Mastercam, some of the things that we didn’t initially think were challenges for customers, like data management, are things that we’re finding that a lot of these customers don’t have good data management processes. So for instance, just managing their digital tool library, they may not have a consolidated tool library. They might be creating tools every time they’re going into program apart, which is obviously reducing their productivity in the long run. So we’re finding that we need to provide better systems, not just around the CAD-CAM workflow, but maybe around more of the manufacturing data management workflow for these customers as well. That was a bit of a surprise to me coming into the industry because there have been a lot of great third-party products for doing digital tool management over the years, and they’re not as heavily utilized in a lot of our customer base as we had thought. And so it does make us think, well, how do we… how do we bring those tools into Mastercam in a way that’s not obtrusive and we still want to work with all the partners who are creating these great tools as well. And so we have a lot of tool data connectivity now inside of Mastercam to connect with these other industry tools that are out there. So that was something that we found that was really interesting. But then some of the other things that we find in the process is with Mastercam, it’s a lot about We talked about data management, but like revision controls parts as well, right? So you have a customer who is moving from one version of Mastercam to the next. And if that requires them to regenerate their tool paths or their operations and actually output new GCO to the machine, well, that might have to go through a whole control revision process at the customer level as well. So we’re looking at ways to say, well, how can we optimize and how can we figure out to prevent that migration from needing to happen? So that way if somebody opens up an NC program from 10 years ago, they can still output that same NC program without needing to regenerate. So these are some of the problems that we’ve identified over the years that I think just come with a mature business. And I’m speaking from the customer side, customers that have been in business for 20, 30 years, they have a lot of data, they have a lot of processes and trying to figure out how Mastercam can work in their process as much as possible. is really a focus for us because we want to be an enabler. We don’t want to disrupt their business. We want to enable them to do things better and faster. And there’s

Nate Wheeler (16:39)
Right.

Russ Bukowski (16:39)
always a balance when you introduce any new technology. It’s going

Nate Wheeler (16:42)
I know. Yep.

Russ Bukowski (16:43)
to be disruptive for a period of time, but how do you make that disruption as seamless as possible for the customers?

Nate Wheeler (16:49)
Yeah, yeah, I mean I run into it all the time I use a lot of software and like when my proposal generation software comes out with an update I’m like, where is this button I used to use? It’s it’s very frustrating

Russ Bukowski (17:02)
Yeah, and we try to keep an open mind to it because we’re not immune to those changes in the software that we use as well at Mastercam. So we try to be very conscious of the things that frustrate us as users and make sure that we don’t push that onto our customers as much as possible. I think in any high tech business, is inevitable. And it’s a matter of how do we make that change as seamless and easy for people as possible.

Nate Wheeler (17:24)
Right. So kind of back to the mergers and acquisitions, know, so in my mind, and I’m not as, you know, I’m not a designer, I’m not a manufacturer. I have enough conversations that I know a thing or two, but not a lot. So I see, you know, Mastercam is sort of you know, pre manufacturing solution. You know, you’re getting it to the point of manufacturing. But you you mentioned some of the probing technology and some of the MNAs and so it seems like you’re kind of migrating towards in-process manufacturing or at least adding some of those capabilities.

Russ Bukowski (18:07)
Yeah, absolutely. Our acquisition strategy is really twofold. The first is we’ve been acquiring several of the Mastercam channel partners that provide the direct customer sales and support and services for the Mastercam business. Up until about three years ago, Mastercam was primarily a software development vendor, and we resold the software through a reseller channel globally. But now, because we want to be closer to the customers and really have that direct relationship with the customers, we’ve been acquiring some of our channel partners and strategic locations so we can start to get a better understanding of what the customers need because we always felt like we were one layer of separation away from the customers by having the channel

Nate Wheeler (18:50)
Right, right.

Russ Bukowski (18:51)
partners. But then on the other side, we are looking at horizontal expansion and things like in-process probing that are going to enhance the overall workflow for somebody that is using Mastercam. And Mastercam for all intents and purposes, we see it being a core component of the digital manufacturing workflow. So while we have some acquisitions like the Mastercam probing that we conducted earlier this year, Mastercam itself was acquired by Sandvik in 2021. Sandvik being obviously a very popular tooling company in the manufacturing industry, but also now has a wide range of digital solutions in the portfolio.

And we’re working on partnering with those solutions. So VeraCut for simulation and optimization, Verisurf for reverse engineering, Metrologic for inspection and analysis. And so we’re looking at this as more of building an ecosystem alongside the rest of Sandvik, whether that means we partner or we have to go out and acquire the solutions. Our goal is to really have that end-to-end solution for digital manufacturing, basically a complete replica digital twin, if you will, of the manufacturing flow that customers need.

Nate Wheeler (20:05)
That’s fantastic. think anybody who can come up with that whole entire technology recipe for manufacturing is going to be the big winner. Because I mean, just, you in all these conversations and all the guys I talked to, there’s so many tools out there. you know, which ones do you use and when do you use them and which one is better than another. But being able to wrap all of that inside of one blanket, I think, is going to be a huge thing. That probing capability that’s feeding back into the design in educating that design or the next time that part is being designed to say, well, this is the feedback we got from the probe. You probably want to slow down this part of the operation or whatever it might be. I can see that kind of feedback loop being very valuable.

Russ Bukowski (21:00)
Yeah, absolutely. two things on that. One, having that data round trip from the machine back to the CAM system or the digital twin and manufacturing is going to be so critical in the future for automation and optimization of the process. And that’s something that Mastercam is very interested in. I do want to note that while we’re partnering inside of Sandvik to build these solutions, Mastercam, we have to remain open and we continue to support. Any third party company as far as, you know, complimentary solutions, because I understand that not every customer is going to be willing to invest or reinvest in a brand new digital twin in their, in their shop. So, you know, the same things that we’re doing inside of Sandvik with our partners inside of Sandvik, we’re doing with partners outside of Sandvik to ensure that we can fit into any size shop to be a key player that can work with any of the technology there. But of course there are key components like probing that we feel are well within our wheelhouse of improving that digital twin experience for the customers.

Nate Wheeler (22:01)
Right, Yeah, and, you know, I just shout out to my friend, Jason Jones with hybrid manufacturing technologies. I actually called him this afternoon before this conversation because he’s developed these really cool add-ons to CNC machines that allow you to do additive and subtractive manufacturing. And I just asked him, said, hey, I’m going to be talking to Russ a little bit later today and curious kind of like, you know, what feedback you’re getting about CAD CAM from your customers. said, well, a lot of them do use CAD CAM. And I said, well, is there any, you know, any things they’re asking for anything that could be valuable to this conversation? And he said that the one thing, which I think the probing is a solution for the one thing when you do these additive manufacturing processes, a lot of times there’s there’s more heat generation that can affect the, you know, the way that the part is manufactured and the precision at the end of it. And so he thinks that there is some need in the marketplace for that sort of calculation to be made. Like when you’re adding heat into the process where usually there is just fluid, how does that change how the tool operates?

Russ Bukowski (23:21)
Yeah, so we don’t have any additive software that we’ve created our own, but we have partnered with a company out of Canada called Cameo Factoring. They make a plug-in for Mastercam or an add-in for Mastercam called A+. And they have done a fantastic job of really managing all the material science behind that, right? A lot of what we see the workflow in Mastercam is we see people that are running these hybrid machines or these retrofitted machines where they have the laser centering alongside a traditional CNC mill where they’ll do a lot of break fix repair on things like impellers or blades or any type of blisk things like that where they’ll come in to lay the the material down and then they’ll come back and finish it to tolerance using the CNC machine. So what we often see is we see customers will compensate by adding slightly more material than they need to adjust for any retraction or expansion of the heat and then let the CNC

Nate Wheeler (24:18)
Thank

Russ Bukowski (24:19)
mill really manage the tolerance because

Nate Wheeler (24:21)
I see.

Russ Bukowski (24:21)
while additive is improving, you still can’t get as tight of a tolerance with an additive machine as you can a CNC machine. And so combining

Nate Wheeler (24:28)
Right.

Russ Bukowski (24:29)
those two technologies is really proving beneficial in the industries where they’re able to use that type of hybrid or combined machine out on their floor for doing these types of operations. And again, so we have a partner that we work with that creates that add-in for Mastercam. So you can do everything in one stop. You can do your reverse engineering. You can lay down your laser-centered material. Then you can come back and do your finish passes in Mastercam. And in one software package, you can do all that work from one CAD cam system with Mastercam. So that’s where we’re seeing a lot of people using Mastercam for the additive workflow. And again, it’s really that hybrid workflow. Don’t worry so much about the material science because you’re gonna cut it to tolerance with the CNC machine.

Nate Wheeler (25:14)
Right, exactly. Yeah, and he did speak highly of the A plus add-on. The other question that he had was what other sorts of interesting capabilities are being developed or, know, partnerships that you have other add-ons similar to A plus? Are there?

Russ Bukowski (25:33)
Yeah, so there’s some pretty exciting things in development. We have a partnership with Veracut, which in the last 12 months released their optimizer product, which is something that can be used. And this isn’t additive, but this is more on the subtractive manufacturing side. But it uses a set of analysis tools to go in and actually optimize the feeds and speeds at the point in the machine to really get as much horsepower out of the machine as possible. So it takes it.

Nate Wheeler (26:00)
I see.

Russ Bukowski (26:01)
It takes an already efficient tool path out of Mastercam and it just finely tunes the feeds and speeds so it can really get the most out of the machine. So that’s a real value add in the manufacturing environment, especially if you have people that aren’t comfortable manually making those changes at the machine, you can have Optimizer come in and produce those results for you. So that’s a great partnership that we have that

Nate Wheeler (26:22)
Hmm, that’s cool.

Russ Bukowski (26:25)
we’ve been focused on, yeah.

Nate Wheeler (26:26)
So it’s actually kind of monitoring the you know, the, that you know, the spindle speed and various other metrics inside of the machine while it’s happening and saying, Hey, we can go faster here because we’re cutting through this faster than expected.

Russ Bukowski (26:41)
Right, exactly. so Mastercam already has a technology called Dynamic Motion, which is really there to leverage constant engagement of the tool, consistent chip load and chip thickness. And so then when you combine that with Optimizer, where it’s actually micro managing the individual feeds and speeds as it’s going through to cut at a certain rate, you get a lot of leverage. And we can see production times reduced drastically through this process when it actually hits the machine.

Nate Wheeler (27:09)
Wow.

Russ Bukowski (27:10)
The next step is, as we talk about that full loop, how do we get that optimized data back into the CAM system to update the original CAM program so that way it’s all part of the feedback loop? So that’s kind of the next step there. And then when you think about this, I mean, can’t have a conversation these days without saying AI. How do we leverage AI to be providing smarter, more intelligent upfront options for users to say, hey, before you even go to the shop floor, we think we can optimize this. Do you want to view the simulation of option A versus option B? Those are some of the things that we’re looking at to really enhance that experience. Again, especially when we’re looking at an industry where we have a gap of skills, right? You’re going to have people who aren’t going to have that experience that can go on a machine and just manually change the feeds and speeds while the program is on the machine. They’re going to want the confidence coming out of the verification or simulation system to say,

Nate Wheeler (28:07)
Right.

Russ Bukowski (28:08)
you know, I’m comfortable with what’s going to happen. So that’s another big area that we’ve been looking at partnership, but, you know, Mastercam has a lot of great partners that we work with and, we could, we could spend an hour just talking about some of those great partnerships.

Nate Wheeler (28:21)
Yeah, no, mean, those are very interesting capabilities. I’m curious, so with the VeriCut add-on, is it getting down into the power use, like the electricity side of things, like to say the machine is using more than expected electricity? How is it actually measuring and adjusting feeds and speeds?

Russ Bukowski (28:47)
Yeah, so the optimizer will actually produce a full report on the sustainability improvements of the manufacturing as well. So they’ll tell you, hey, we can cut out this much time, we can save this much material, or we can extend the tool life by this certain amount as well. So it provides those estimates. So it’s not necessarily just all about the on-machine performance of which there are great improvements, but

Nate Wheeler (29:09)
I see.

Russ Bukowski (29:10)
it’s measuring those other aspects which sustainability is becoming a larger and larger item that we get asked from customers all the time. What are you doing to improve sustainability manufacturing? How can you help me reduce the amount of waste in my process? How can you extend the tool life in my process? And optimizer is one of those tools that allows us to do that with our customers by saying, hey, you can actually see, you know, we’re reducing, yes, we’re reducing the amount of kilowatt hours you’re using for a machine. But, you know, through this process, you’re also producing, you know, X less waste or things like that.

Nate Wheeler (29:44)
Yeah. yeah. mean, unbelievable amount of benefits there. So you, you know, you you’re relatively new to the president position really about a little less than a year. Is that right?

Russ Bukowski (29:56)
Yeah, that’s correct.

Nate Wheeler (29:57)
Yeah. What was like the biggest challenge? Like what was the most surprising thing about moving into the president position? You know, new leadership responsibilities, more people looking at you, having to, you know, coach other leaders on improvements. Like what’s the hardest part of that?

Russ Bukowski (30:16)
Yeah, good question, Nate. You know, I think for me, it’s going from managing a group of maybe 40 people, 50 people to now managing, you know, a business of almost 400 people. There’s just a lot more things to think about in the business. And I’ve always had very broad roles working at Mastercam. My prior role was the executive vice president and chief strategy officer. And so I was leading a lot of the corporate strategy. But change management in an organization is such a critical aspect and we’re going through lot of transformational change now with our acquisitions, product innovation, with things like our new Mastercam Copilot AI. And bringing people along is always a challenge. And now being responsible, going from 40 people to 400 people, a 10x responsibility there. You of course, you want to bring everybody along with you. And that to me has been the challenge over the last 10, 11 months that I’ve been in the role is, you know, making sure people understand the direction that we’re headed, not just the direction, but the reason why we’re moving in that direction. And people are comfortable and on board with the change, you know, and then there’s always the day to day challenges, Of, you know, meeting your top line, meeting your bottom line. But those are expected in business. And for me, I think if you have a good strategy, it’s a clear strategy and you take the time to bring people along with you, the people are gonna work hard and the results will come from the other end. So, very much focus on the people, focus on the strategy. That’s where I’ve been spending a lot of my time over the last 10 or 11 months is just making sure everybody understands the mission and where we’re going as an organization. But what surprised me about that is just how much time I spend doing that. And I tell people these days, even employees, well, what do you do all day? they say, well, 90 % of my time is just spent communicating. other 10%, exactly, the other 10 % is

Nate Wheeler (32:17)
We’re repeating the mission.

Russ Bukowski (32:21)
spent in PowerPoint and Excel. But 90 % is just making sure people have the alignment and the understanding of where we’re going, making sure that we remain customer focused, making sure that we’re innovating in the industry and that we’re meeting our targets. That’s a lot of the job these days, honestly.

Nate Wheeler (32:39)
Right, right. And I would imagine that the mission statement would change depending on the audience. is there, what is the broad, like when you say it to everyone in the company, what is that statement?

Russ Bukowski (32:52)
Yeah, you know, it’s largely been unchanged even prior to our acquisition by Sandvik. And our mission today is to create and deliver software and services that solve the world’s manufacturing challenges. We’ve added the delivery component now that we’ve been acquiring channel partners to actually focus on the direct customer experience, the sales, the services and the support. But we’ve always had the same mission. It’s about solving the manufacturing challenges, making that production cycle easier and faster for customers, finding ways to close the skills gap. We invest a lot in education. Really, that’s the mission. And I have to say that the team we have at Mastercam, we have a lot of people that not only live that mission by the work they’re doing here, but when they leave the office, they’re taking this home with them. We have employees who have full-size four by eight routers in their garages. We have some people that have some bridge ports

Nate Wheeler (33:47)
That’s cool.

Russ Bukowski (33:47)
in their basements. mean, you know, we have a really tech focused manufacturing focused team that they love what they do every day at Mastercam because they’d be doing it even if they weren’t being paid by Mastercam. They’d be involved in this stuff. Yeah, it’s really great.

Nate Wheeler (34:01)
That’s incredible. That’s incredible. Yeah, I mean, having them use the software in their garage operation and then come to work and bring those insights. mean, how amazing. Yeah, think every company would love to have that situation. So how did you, you know, I don’t know how much of, you’ve been involved in the hiring side of things, but like, how do you find those type of people?

Russ Bukowski (34:29)
Yeah, you know, we suss that out a lot in the interview process. We ask people what their interests are and even people who maybe don’t have the direct manufacturing experience, they have related experience. So our world headquarters isn’t far from the University of Connecticut and they have a program there called the FSAE. So they make this the small, you know, Formula One car and they manufacture the parts. And we actually get a lot of interest from students coming through there because they see the holistic manufacturing process and even if they don’t have direct Mastercam experience, they have some level of manufacturing, technology experience, and they’re really interested in the intersection between what we do and what they do for that program. So we see from like universities and things like that, we just naturally attract those curious people that are. You picture most of the people at Mastercam were the kids who would take something apart just to see how it works. That’s what I always say, you know, and

Nate Wheeler (35:25)
Right, exactly.

Russ Bukowski (35:27)
whether they get it back together or not, that’s a different story. But, you know, we have a lot of curious minds that always want to see how does this work? And that curiosity is such a driver in our business because we have to remain curious if we’re going to continue to push the envelope in manufacturing.

Nate Wheeler (35:41)
Right. Yeah, and speaking of that curiosity and kind of, you know, engaging with some of these groups, what’s going on with the hackathon you mentioned?

Russ Bukowski (35:50)
Yeah, so actually today we’re doing a hackathon, not just at Mastercam, but across Sandvik, Sandvik Intelligent Manufacturing, with the goal of we’ve got, I think, a dozen and a half or so teams around the globe that have gotten together and they’re looking to utilize AI to help improve and customer productivity and efficiency in not just tools like Mastercam, but some of the other business units as well. so we’ve kind of set aside this day. And we’ve said, okay, everybody, you know, get your teams together, come up with an idea. Everybody will have five minutes to pitch their idea at the end of the day. And we’ll actually, you know, award some, some of the groups based on what they come up with for ideas. And we may even green light some of these ideas into production if we feel like it’s going to add that customer value. So it’s, it’s an important thing to really give some of our engineers and some of our product development people the opportunity to step back and have that freedom to experiment.

Nate Wheeler (36:48)
All right.

Russ Bukowski (36:48)
And really try to come up with something new and novel and so I’m really excited for it We have a group of employees here in the world headquarters that I had lunch with and they were telling me about some of their ideas and what they’re working on and it’s the kind of stuff that really gets you energized when you’re like if we can pull that off, that will be a great addition for

Nate Wheeler (37:05)
Yeah.

Russ Bukowski (37:05)
the software, you

Nate Wheeler (37:06)
Yeah. Are you allowed to share any of these ideas?

Russ Bukowski (37:11)
Well, I wouldn’t want to do that just yet. We have a process that we’re going through internally. But I can say a lot of people are focused on generally leveraging large language models to increase end user productivity. So whether this is through something similar to Mastercam Co-Pilot, where you can ask the software questions and it can provide information, that’s really a lot of the focus. Because we do know there’s that big knowledge gap in manufacturing. So the more somebody can interact directly with the software and get that information from the software, means there’s less reliance on an industry veteran with that information. So I’m hearing a lot of ideas about that, but of course also AI and automation. How can we use AI to automate workflows? I’m hearing a lot from the teams around, yeah, we’re really investigating. How can you easily put together three… pieces of the process and let the AI figure out what data is needed from one process to the next, which can be a challenge for new people getting into manufacturing, right? I mean, you go into Mastercam and you say, okay, I’m going to mill out a part. Well, there’s 80 strategies sitting in front of you. How do you know which strategy to use, right? And why do you use

Nate Wheeler (38:16)
Right, right.

Russ Bukowski (38:17)
strategy A versus strategy B? So we’re seeing a lot of people trying to figure out how can we provide more information, more context to allow people to be able to do that in a more productive way.

Nate Wheeler (38:27)
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, and that kind of flows back or goes back to the the cop cop copilot idea. What I’ve noticed in a lot of these softwares that have the copilot, it does something really, really annoying to me where you ask a question and it takes you to a post feed of like, you know, 50 related articles or FAQs. I’m like, that’s not what I was looking for. I wanted you to direct me to that part of the software. And tell me what to click like like just something to think about when you’re doing that like the copilot should actually make it quicker and like point you not just point you in the direction but actually take you to an action i don’t know if that makes sense i don’t know if you’ve experienced that

Russ Bukowski (39:13)
Yeah, and what I can tell you, Nate, is we got you covered. So with Mastercam Copilot, it will aggregate the information for you and say, OK, here’s the information. But you can actually, through the Copilot, you can dictate commands. You can actually speak to Mastercam and be like, OK, Mastercam, do this.

Nate Wheeler (39:29)
that’s great. Yep.

Russ Bukowski (39:30)
Even if you don’t know the exact right command, Mastercam is using the AI in the background to say, hey, I think this is what the user is asking for.

Nate Wheeler (39:37)
Right.

Russ Bukowski (39:38)
And so that way, we’re trying to close that gap. So if somebody knows you know, maybe they’re looking for a section view, but maybe they don’t call it a section view, right? Maybe they’re like, hey, I want to see a cross section of my part. Well, we’re still going to map that over to the section view. It’s going to get you where you need to be in the software. So we’re trying

Nate Wheeler (39:53)
Right.

Russ Bukowski (39:54)
to fill in those gaps as much as possible for people. And, you know, obviously there’s challenges. Mastercam is a global organization. How do we do this in a global environment, multiple languages? Those are some of the challenges that we need to overcome. But we’ve got a lot of that working right now in the base Mastercam product where, you you don’t have to say exactly the right things. Cause just to your point, if you don’t give an AI exactly the correct inputs, you’re not going to get what you expected

Nate Wheeler (40:18)
Right,

Russ Bukowski (40:18)
on the back end.

Nate Wheeler (40:19)
right, yeah that’s absolutely right. So, you know, if there was a younger person that was, you know, fascinated by the manufacturing design process and they wanted to start playing around Mastercam, start learning, you know, with the goal of maybe getting a job working for a manufacturer as a designer, what advice would you have for them? You know, are there some free resources they can do? Are there college classes they should be looking at or tech school classes? What, you know, what would you say?

Russ Bukowski (40:48)
Yeah, so first and foremost, you can get a home learning version of Mastercam from Mastercam.com where it will allow you to design and program to your heart’s content. The only limitation is it can’t actually allow you to produce GCO to go to a machine. So it’s something that people can get their hands on. We offer free educational curriculum, both directly through Mastercam and through some of our partners that are available on Mastercam.com as well. So if you’re interested in learning the digital aspects of manufacturing, highly recommend starting there. I would also encourage people to take a manual machining course, whether it’s a full program or just a night class, something along those lines, to get an appreciation for what the software is actually doing when the rubber hits the road at the machine. Being able to understand, and this is something that I learned early on in the industry. A lot of machinists don’t watch what the machine’s doing. They listen to what the machine is doing. And

Nate Wheeler (41:45)
Right.

Russ Bukowski (41:46)
you don’t get that appreciation unless you have that manual experience and you realize, I’m running this tool a little too hot. I’m trying to be a little too aggressive. You know, I’m getting a little too much chatter. Maybe I should cut back. So I always recommend people take at least, you know, one manual machining course, whether it’s on lathe or mill, to really understand that aspect of the project. But if you want to be really successful in the industry, you know, I recommend at minimum a two year program around manufacturing technology. And if you can find an apprenticeship program, I highly recommend that. And I’m seeing that more and more from Mastercam customers where they realize the only way they’re going to get the future talent is to build it themselves. So they’re

Nate Wheeler (42:27)
Right.

Russ Bukowski (42:27)
offering more, you know, paid apprenticeships to come in. And I was at a customer back in July over in the UK and they offer a multi-year apprenticeship program where they bring 12 people in a year and they run them through everything from the manual machining process all the way through CNC and quality inspection and everybody gets a rotation in the different areas of the business. Very, very well done, very professional operation. And those types of programs, while they won’t guarantee employment at the end, a lot of times the employers are looking to fill their staff. And so there’s a good opportunity

Nate Wheeler (43:00)
Sure.

Russ Bukowski (43:01)
there for somebody to land a career after finishing

Nate Wheeler (43:04)
Yep.

Russ Bukowski (43:05)
the apprenticeship program.

Nate Wheeler (43:06)
Yep. Yeah, they’re, they probably wouldn’t go through the effort of having an apprenticeship program if they didn’t, didn’t want to hire and, and if you didn’t get hired after the apprenticeship program, you may need to take a look in the mirror.

Russ Bukowski (43:19)
Well, if you don’t get hired by that company, I guarantee that apprenticeship program is going to add a lot of value to another business as well. you know, that’s

Nate Wheeler (43:25)
Right.

Russ Bukowski (43:26)
and people, young people coming into manufacturing today are in an enviable position because there are more openings than there are than there’s there’s talent to fill those positions, you know, so

Nate Wheeler (43:36)
Right.

Russ Bukowski (43:37)
people can really pick and choose what excites them about manufacturing. Is it, know, hey, I want to be manufacturing in the racing industry. Okay, there are opportunities out there for that where I want to be working in aerospace or defense. And there are opportunities in every industry when it comes to manufacturing.

Nate Wheeler (43:52)
Yep, absolutely. Yeah, and I love the way that you guys are working towards making it more approachable, easier to learn. Because because yeah, as we continue to deal with and it problems not going away with, you know, kind of a workforce shortage, we’re gonna need ways to make it easier to get into manufacturing and more accessible. So that’s very, very helpful. What so I already kind of stated my you know future of of you know manufacturing design, which is rudimentary and uneducated. But what is your vision for the future of design and manufacturing?

Russ Bukowski (44:29)
My vision is if you can come up with the idea, we’ll provide the tools to bring it to reality for you. We’ll bring it to life for you. That’s really, I think the thing that’s going to empower the next generation is getting excited about seeing the end product more than the process. And so for me, it’s how do we create that full seamless digital twin process that really automates as much of the knowledge gap as possible. And while I encourage people to get on a machine and learn about the machines in the future, you you may never need to do that. It may be as easy as, you know, heating up food in a microwave. You don’t need to be a world-class chef to do that. The machine handles a lot of it for you. You know, I’d love to see us get to that point somewhere

Nate Wheeler (45:13)
Right. Yeah.

Russ Bukowski (45:15)
in the future where manufacturing is, you know, accessible to everybody who has an idea that they want to produce something physical.

Nate Wheeler (45:24)
It’s a great goal. mean, I think what what that does for me is, you know, when I look at the way that China has advanced and really surpassed our manufacturing capabilities in a lot of ways, and the way that they’ve automated their factories in the way that they’re producing parts at a cheaper cost, faster, everything like that. You know, it kind of makes you think to yourself, well, what is the future of manufacturing in the US? Because at this point, we haven’t invested in automation like they have. We haven’t thought about it like they have. So for us to catch up, by the time we catch up, where are they going to be? But I think what you’re doing could give us that edge. Like if we could make manufacturing that accessible to the average person that has an idea, that could be the thing that kind of puts America back into the lead in manufacturing.

Russ Bukowski (46:18)
Yeah, and I would love to see more manufacturing being done at home as well. You know, when I think about the hobbyists, and I consider myself a hobbyist, and that’s a bit of a stretch when it comes to manufacturing things. But you know, we’ve got some great partners. Haas, for instance, has this great mini mill, benchtop mini mill, that anybody could fit in their house. And I know this sounds crazy, right? But if think about 30, 40 years ago, people didn’t think about having a paper printer in their house, right? Oh, I got to go

Nate Wheeler (46:45)
Right.

Russ Bukowski (46:45)
to a Kinko’s or something to get something printed. Now you just print at home. What if you can manufacture at home? I wonder if the process was so easy. They’re like, hey, I

Nate Wheeler (46:52)
Absolutely.

Russ Bukowski (46:53)
need to make a modification. I’m a golfer. Not me personally, but if you’re a golfer, I want to make a modification to my putter head. Well, great. You do it, and you mill it on your machine at home, and you go out there and you try it. And how do we close that gap? And short of having the Star Trek replicator, I think

Nate Wheeler (47:10)
Right.

Russ Bukowski (47:11)
products like Mastercam is what’s going to enable people to really you know, take an interest in manufacturing their own goods. So you don’t have to import these things, right? And, and you, and whether it leads to a full-time career or not, you’re still manufacturing things locally and, and, know, you’re, you’re focusing on that engineering aspect and you’re really, you’re working some different muscles as a designer, especially when you’re designing your own goods that you’re going to use at the end of the day.

Nate Wheeler (47:36)
Yeah, that’s an awesome vision. really like that. Last question for you. So I always like to just ask the question in case there’s somebody in the audience that could be a resource to you. Is there anything that you have thought about recently, whether it be a type of partner, a type of add-on, a consultant? Is there anything that you’ve been thinking about keeping your eye out for recently?

Russ Bukowski (48:05)
So we’re always open to working with new partners and consultants. There’s a lot of things happening in the US in education right now, as far as getting students ready for what we believe is going to be an onshore and of manufacturing the next five to 10 years as we continue to see global economic policies impacting things. So if anybody is working in that space and wants to discuss strategies on how you know, we can work with them, whether it’s individual universities or entire school systems or partners that are creating, you know, manufacturing content. We’re very open to that. Beyond that, I always put the pitch out there, the bat signal, if you will, there are any Mastercam customers listening, we want your feedback, you know, so don’t hesitate to reach out to us, whether you’re a customer or a partner of ours. You know, we want that feedback so we can continue to improve and… and go on the Mastercam forums and be vocal and reach out to us, reach out to me on LinkedIn and let’s start a conversation because at the end of the day, that’s how we’re going to drive real productivity gains for customers is by hearing what they’re focused on and what they need from Mastercam so we can build a better system for them.

Nate Wheeler (49:17)
Excellent. Yep, that’s awesome. Well, thanks a lot Russ for coming on today. I think what you shared is incredibly valuable to a lot of people and it was fun for me to learn about what you’re doing and about what the future of the industry looks like. So thanks a lot.

Russ Bukowski (49:31)
Thanks, Nate. I appreciate you having me on the show today.

Nate Wheeler (49:33)
Absolutely.