Munich-based robotics startup RobCo uses Xometry’s on-demand CNC machining to source parts quickly for prototypes and last-minute design changes, keeping its project-based robot manufacturing agile without holding large inventory.
The manufacturing sector has a labour problem it can’t hire its way out of: an ageing skilled workforce and too few young engineers to replace it, especially in small and midsize factories scattered across rural areas. RobCo, a Munich-based robotics startup, was built to close that gap, and Xometry’s on-demand manufacturing platform has quietly become one of the tools keeping it fast enough to do so.
“Automate the ordinary so humans can do the extraordinary.” That motto shapes RobCo’s hardware itself: a modular platform reconfigured for machine loading, palletising, handling, finishing, and other tasks manufacturers struggle to staff.
Rather than selling a fixed robot, RobCo builds custom solutions around the company’s standard robotics platform. It’s a model built for flexibility, and that same demand runs straight through to how RobCo manufactures its own parts.
The company has grown fast, from three founders and two working students to more than 140 employees today. But scale has brought a familiar challenge: most of RobCo’s work is project-based, built around customer-specific requirements layered onto its standard platform. Specs change mid-project, and new use cases surface constantly. As the RobCo team puts it, “just when a project seems finished, a customer often comes back with a change request, and rightfully so.” In a fast-moving robotics business, that’s the norm, not the exception.
Reacting to those changes on a hardware timeline is where most manufacturers lose momentum. RobCo doesn’t have the luxury of warehousing components against every possible revision, and storage space at its Bavaria facility is limited to begin with. Large batch orders sitting on shelves waiting for a design to stabilise aren’t compatible with how the company works.
That’s where Xometry comes in. RobCo turns to Xometry’s on-demand CNC machining whenever it needs parts fast, for prototypes, zero-series and pre-series builds, or project-specific changes, particularly when quantities are too small to justify a traditional production run. The workflow is simple: upload a CAD file, configure options, compare quotes, and order online. When a deadline is tight, RobCo leans on Xometry’s express manufacturing service, which can turn parts around in seven days or less.
“As a small, agile team, we need efficient workflows, and Xometry absolutely delivers,” says Sebastian Wildner, RobCo’s Head of Supply Chain.
It’s a telling comment coming from a company whose entire pitch to customers is agility and speed. Xometry’s instant-quoting model gives RobCo something traditional job-shop sourcing rarely does: cost transparency and dependable lead times without back-and-forth manual quoting.
The payoff shows up in how RobCo develops its robots. Because part sourcing no longer bottlenecks engineering, the team can iterate later into a project, absorb customer change requests without blowing up the schedule, and take on complex builds with more confidence that parts will show up on time. In a business whose value proposition is flexible automation for customers who can’t afford long lead times, RobCo has extended that same flexibility into its own supply chain.
It’s a pattern that shows up across Xometry’s robotics customers more broadly: companies like Franka Robotics and Zauberzeug have leaned on similar on-demand, custom CNC sourcing to keep hardware development moving at software speed.
RobCo’s story reflects what Xometry offers robotics and automation companies at large: on-demand access to CNC machining, sheet metal, 3D printing, and more, without the lead times and minimums of traditional suppliers.
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