Searching & Matching with Make Works

Some practical tips to guide you through the process of searching, matching, and contacting the right manufacturer for you!

Tips are divided into the three main stages. 1. Searching Make Works, 2. Matching with the manufacturer and 3. Contacting the manufacturer.

Searching Make Works

Make Works lists high-quality manufacturers, workshops and material suppliers, who importantly are accessible and want to work with others. We help you find fabricators, manufacturers, makers, factories and workshops in your local area that you've been looking for to build relationships with for your projects and products.

The best way to use Make Works is through our explore page to find specific processes, materials, industries, manufacturers or machines.

When searching Make Works, it is often easier to find relevant results if you know what processes or materials are involved. You can then search for factories that offer these processes and the necessary machines available to work on various materials. Our filters help you pinpoint a location, but it can be a good idea to start with a wide search to find all of our listed companies who may very well be able to help you out.

Search tips Examples

Matching with the manufacturer

Our distributed Make Works team collects in-depth, practical information including turnaround times, minimum order costs and previous clients to verify and list skilled local manufacturers. We do this to provide the best possible information for those who want to make. We encourage you to evaluate, based on the information provided, whether that manufacturer is right for your product or project before you get in touch. We are committed to making sure that this information is open, accurate and up to date.

Contacting the manufacturer

Using Make Works means that you can get in touch with a manufacturer directly.

We know it can feel a bit intimidating when you first get in touch with a new manufacturer, especially if it is in an industry you haven't worked with before.

On each listing, we've included our recommended contact along with a photo so that you can even put a face to a name! You can then use the contact information provided to start a conversation with manufacturers about your project. In our experience, manufacturers who are unable to assist with specific projects will often generously signpost enquirers to those they believe can help you with your research and building your networks.

If you haven’t worked with a manufacturer before, you can read our tips for working with local manufacturers And how to build strong relationships with factories

In brief some tips:

Best practice for approaching local manufacturers

Messaging local manufacturers

And finally - tell us how you got on

If you've worked with a manufacturer that you've found on Make Works, let us know what your experience was like. We love finding out what you've made and would be keen to feature stories in our Made Works blog series, and to find out what we can do to make it easier for you to work with local makers, workshop and suppliers. The fastest way is just to email us: make.works@fablabbcn.org

Best practices for approaching local manufacturers

Messaging local manufacturers