The General Session on day of SolidWorks World 2011 was filled with profiles of many interesting SolidWorks customers. From my perspective, the two most talked about companies afterwards are Mako Surgical and Local Motors.
Mako Surgical Corp. is a medical device company that developed advanced knee implants for a minimally invasive orthopedic procedure called knee MAKOplasty. Their technology involves a surgeon interactive tactile surgical platform that incorporates a robotic arm and patient specific visualization technology and prepares the knee joint for the insertion and alignment of knee resurfacing implants through a minimal incision.
Local Motors is a new American car company whose business model is based on sustainably designing and building vehicles. They create a direct connection with customers who guide and participate in design development of a car based on personal desires in an open source manner. Local Motors plans to built micro-factories throughout the US. Cars are built and sold from the micro-factories on a just-in-time basis. They state that development and manufacturing processes dramatically reduces waste while maintaining the flexibility to incorporate new, efficient technologies as they emerge.
