In Stay Sharp Episode 108, Digital Product Series: Who is First Resonance, co-hosts Jonathan Scott and Juliann Grant are joined by returning guest Devin Patel, the Head of Solutions at First Resonance. In Devin’s first visit‚—Revolutionizing Manufacturing: Redefining the Digital Footprint—he advocated for small and mid-size manufacturers to focus more on finding solutions to fit their needs rather than fitting your organization into the mold of the big PLM or MES platforms. This time, he digs into the company behind the modular, data-driven approach he described.
How First Resonance Fits into the Industry
First Resonance isn’t your typical PLM, MES, or ERP platform, Devin says. “For us it’s about connecting the dots between people, processes, data, and having it all work together instead of having it in different silos.” Their biggest goal is bringing all the information you need, from engineering to your supply chain, under one roof—hence the platform’s name: ION Factory OS, an operating system for your factory. “Doing that in a way that doesn’t strain the team from a technical perspective is something that we take a lot of pride in,” he adds.
While Devin admits they’re usually seen as an MES system, they also offer elements of financial, ERP, QMS, and other systems—and they’ll work with any system for any discipline you already have in place. The bottom line is, he says, “You want to make sure that you solve all of your use cases as efficiently as possible.” First Resonance’s unique value proposition is they help companies move and grow quickly. “Start fast, move fast, not create any blockers in the future for building and scaling something too quickly, so being very agile in that sense,” Devin says. Jonathan adds, “It’s about speed, while under control.”
The First Resonance customer base tends to be companies making advanced and complex hardware, such as aerospace and defense, and they typically help out in what Devin calls messy situations. “You bring us in to help you solve those problems,” he says. “We can make it a little bit cleaner, but we want to keep it just a little bit messy, because that means you’re moving the needle and you’re trying new things. But giving you that foundation to make sure you feel comfortable where you’re at is really important to us.”
How First Resonance Operates
While First Resonance partners with organizations, including Razorleaf, that offer complementary expertise, they primarily work directly with their customers. Input for their product roadmap comes directly from their customers, Devin says. “What do our customers need us to do for them to succeed more? That’s what goes in. And it’s very much a two-way relationship.” That means Devin and his team are actively helping innovative small businesses make big, fast moves. An example he offers is Epirus, a directed energy systems company that went from prototype to field-ready systems in less than a year with First Resonance’s support to help them focus on speed and visibility from day one.
Flexibility and speed have been central to First Resonance since their founding in 2019 after the founders realized how rigid systems were holding back fast-moving manufacturers. “We’re not just trying to solve one small problem for our customers,” Devin says. “We really do serve as a foundation for their entire factory. And then if you want to add things into it, you absolutely can. And it’ll be all under this one piece of connective tissue that’s going to give you iteration control, traceability, over everything you’re doing.”
First Resonance may be so successful at helping their customers be agile and fast in part because its own culture operates the same way. Some of that has to do with the SpaceX effect in the manufacturing industry, represented by workers who are used to not doing things the traditional way. Jonathan notes, “It’s the go fast, break stuff, fail fast, fix it, repeat, iterate, that rapid pace of change.” Devin credits the founders for creating a company ethos of doing things differently. “We know they’re going to be hard, but we’re not afraid to go for it. We’re not afraid to fail,” he says. “We’re going to succeed fast, and we’re going to make sure that we can give our changes, our success, our iterations, our product to our customers as quickly as we possibly can so they can go and change the world.”
Learn More About First Resonance
The full podcast contains more discussion and details on a variety of topics, including what types of organizations First Resonance isn’t suited for, how agentic AI incorporated into the ION platform could revolutionize production line planning, the goal First Resonance has to combine enterprise-level visibility and control with startup pace, and more.
Be sure to check out Stay Sharp Episode 108: Digital Product Series: Who is First Resonance and join us each week for a new podcast.
Follow the Razorleaf Podcast, Stay Sharp in Digital Engineering on:
