Another class of predictive models relates the milling parameters to the cutting and noncutting times given the part geometry. These models use the peak or average cutting force, which depends on the part geometry, CNC tool path and milling parameters, to modify the cutting and noncutting times by updating the instantaneous feed rate along the tool path to maintain a constant average force. The outcome is optimized cutting and noncutting times for maximum productivity.

To date, however, these two predictive capabilities have remained separate. Machining dynamics models do not typically include the time-dependent cutting conditions imposed by CNC tool paths. They tend to focus on, for example, a fixed radial depth to determine stable combinations of spindle speed and axial depth in the graphical form of a stability map. Feedrate scheduling solutions do consider the variable cutting conditions for arbitrary three-axis and five-axis tool paths, but do not include the effects of relative vibration between the cutting tool and workpiece on the milling stability. This relative vibration occurs because the tool and workpiece are not rigid and a complete solution requires more than geometry.

To demonstrate the combination of these two predictive models, the part geometry displayed in Figure 1 was selected. It provides a continuously variable radial depth of cut with a fixed axial depth. The combination of varying radial depth with fixed axial depth mimics traditional three-axis, 2.5D CNC machining tool paths, where the material is removed with X-Y planar tool paths that implement the user-selected stepover (radial depth) and advance the stepdown in the Z direction (axial depth) between each planar tool path. The Figure 1 geometry was machined multiple times using a different axial depth to transition from stable (low axial depth) to unstable, or chatter (high axial depth), cutting conditions. The workpiece material was 6061-T6 aluminum in all cases.

For the part geometry shown in Figure 1, the variation in radial depth of cut with cutting time is displayed in the top panel of Figure 2. The constant radial depth of 3.18 mm is observed at the beginning and end of the toolpath. The radial depth increases from 3.18 mm (25% radial immersion) to 12.7 mm (slotting) at the center of the cut. The variation in angle of engagement is shown in the bottom panel of Figure 2. The angle is 60 degrees for the 25% radial immersion portion of the tool path and increases to 180 degrees for the slotting condition in the middle of the tool path.

Machining tests were performed where a 6061-T6 aluminum workpiece was bolted to a cutting force dynamometer so the in-process cutting force could be measured. The workpiece geometry was the ramp profile shown in Figure 1 with the variation in radial depth displayed in Figure 2. The axial depths were 7 mm and 12 mm. The spindle speed was 7,000 rpm and the feed per tooth was 0.05 mm. Flood coolant was applied to evacuate chips.

Results for the 7-mm axial depth are displayed in Figure 3. The black line is the predicted time-dependent cutting force, the red line is the measured time-dependent cutting force, and the blue line is the peak cutting force (assuming a rigid tool). Figure 3 shows that the force profile mimics the variation in radial depth of cut in Figure 2. The 7-mm axial depth provides stable cutting conditions.

A magnified view of the beginning of the Figure 3 cut is shown in Figure 4. Figure 4 shows that the cutting force constantly varies as the teeth enter and exit the cut and the radial depth of cut increases to the constant 3.18 mm value.

Figure 5 displays results for the second ramp case. The axial depth is now 12 mm and the cutting conditions are unstable near the middle of the tool path. It is observed that the predicted and measured cutting force grows dramatically as the radial depth approaches 12.7 mm (slotting) and chatter occurs. However, the peak force predicted by feed rate scheduling with the rigid tool assumption does not show the chatter condition.

Figure 6 displays a magnified view of the transition from stable to chatter conditions. The force increases substantially due to the self-excited vibration and poor surface finish is obtained. As noted, the peak force predicted by feed rate scheduling with the rigid tool assumption does not predict chatter.

When automation is mentioned in the context of job shops or small companies there may be a number of perceived obstacles: the technology itself can be intimidating, the assumed cost and integration required to incorporate automation into a shop’s workflow and the training needed to run the tech are just a few. And many shop owners just don’t know where to start. Consulting firm McKinsey has released a number of studies on industrial automation and found that while 94 percent said digital solutions will be an important part of their future automation efforts, 61 percent said lack of experience with automation was their primary barrier to adoption. McKinsey also found that 62 percent of respondents sought an automation provider who could offer full-service models for implementation and support. 

Enter , a machine-tool importer and engineering services provider that offers a variety of automation solutions to its customers, from simple automation like tool changers up to fully integrated robots and cobots for automated cells linking multiple machines and technologies. With more than 300 applications and machine experts and engineers at locations across North America, Methods works closely with manufacturers from presale through installation and production to ensure that its customers are taking full advantage of all the technology offers.  

Small shops, big results: breaking down automation barriers

Jon Star, director of marketing and communications at Methods Machine Tools in the Boston area, believes we are at an interesting time in manufacturing. “There are a lot of converging forces and themes and I call it with a lot of disruption in manufacturing today,” Star said. “There’s the rate of change in technology, the labor shortages and aging-out of existing manufacturing employees. And companies have higher pressure than ever to perform, particularly small, non-OEM businesses that are dealing with a higher cost of running their businesses.”

The Methods Plus-K60 Automation System is added to a medium bed FANUC RoboDrill. This system not only exchanges part carriers, but also tool holders to enhance the functionality of the RoboDrill. Source:

Star continued explaining the holistic way he looks at approaching automation. “Automation certainly isn’t new to manufacturing, but with each passing quarter, the pressure is there for business owners to ask how they can embrace it,” he said. “They ask where to start and need help looking at it from the perspective of their entire business and not just at the application level. That’s where Methods tries to deliver for our customers, helping them drive the most value in and out of their businesses and still meeting or exceeding their customers’ expectations.” 

Skylar and Nick Squillace with Bryson Pope, sales engineer from Methods Machine Tools. Source: NS Precision

Nick and Skylar Squillace were just the right business owners to embrace this way of thinking and automation in their business. Finding the right partner who provides the machines and automation solutions and can instill a level of confidence and comfort in the technology and offer ongoing training and support, is not automatic. So when the founders of decided to pursue opening a job shop, they knew finding the right supplier who was a true partner would be crucial to their success.

The brothers started their manufacturing careers during college at a small machine shop in the motorsports world. “There was a machine in the corner that no one had touched, and it still had the wrapping on it and we told our boss we needed to use that machine for the parts we were building at that time for a race car,” Skylar said. “I picked up the manual and we both started reading it and figured out how to run it from that and YouTube videos.”

Fast forward to 2019, with both brothers working on motorsports teams, when they started a small job shop in Nick’s garage. Nick went full time in 2022 while Skylar is still working in motorsports and  working part-time at the shop with his brother, with plans to eventually go full- time. Last summer, they hired their first full-time employee.

The automation imperative: meeting industry challenges head on

When they decided to pursue building a business from scratch, they knew they wanted to do it right the first time, and that meant buying the right equipment and technology that would serve them immediately and still allow them to grow their capacity down the road. Their first machine in Nick’s garage was a T14iA FANUC RoboDrill, a 3-axis vertical CNC machine that they still operate every day in their business. Nick said they wanted to embrace the latest technology.

RoboDrill being delivered to NS Precision. Source: NS Precision

“At the time, the was relatively new and there weren’t a ton of people using it yet,” Nick continued. They reached out to Methods and had a sales engineer calling on them. “We were asking about it on forums and our sales engineer was taking us to different companies that had the machines just so we could see what it did for them in their business. We decided we were probably going to buy more equipment (down the road) with automation than without, and long term knew that was how we would amplify what we got done.”

Zachary Spencer, director of engineered solutions at Methods, said he thinks of the Plus K60 systems as a pallet and tool manager for a small vertical mill. “It takes a lot of the technology from the past with horizontal machining centers, where you have big tombstones, and it shrinks it down to a smaller spindle workspace that allows for the automatic pallet loading and tool management for that type of machine instead.”

Star said the genesis of this platform was for shops running high-volume or high-mix/high-volume and offering them a platform to leverage the speed and precision of the RoboDrill with a very user-friendly interface and system for parts and tooling management, to free them up to focus on more strategic parts of their business.

Embracing technology from day one

Star describes Nick and Skylar as “automation natives.” Much like millennials are considered the first “digital natives” because they grew up immersed in the internet and connectivity that those born before them had to adapt to, the Squillaces have embraced automation from the founding of their business. 

When automation became more prevalent, shop owners and employees initially thought they may be replacing workers with robots or machines — but that has not been the case. “I’ve never been involved in a discussion where a company is trying to replace an operator with a robot, it’s always that they can’t hire enough people to do every-day tasks so they can replace the monotonous loading and unloading of parts with a robot so operators can focus on part inspection and programming the next parts that will run on the machines,” Spencer said.

We delivered this pretty massive amount of parts and the customer thought we were some machine shop with 100 people and we’re a two-man shop!

NS Precision runs lights out to serve customers. Source: NS Precision

NS Precision, located in Cornelius, North Carolina, does some higher volume production parts, but also has a lot of high-mix, lower volume parts they run for customers in the aerospace, defense and motorsports industries. “During an 8-hour workday we’re doing a lot of set up and essentially dialing in the parts. Once we get parts that pass our quality inspection we set up the automation cell, load it up and go home,” Nick said. “We can only get so much done during an 8-hour day so that was a big reason for us to go with the Plus K60. We can do the heavy lifting so to speak during the day and let the machine run at night. In the past year we’ve pretty much done that every night.” 

Nick said they average about 100 hours a week of automated production, and they’ve come up with some innovative ways to run parts sequentially.

Skylar recounted one order where the shop produced 153 unique part numbers in days, in quantities of five to 24 of each part, by running three machines around the clock. “The Methods Plus K60 probably did half of that order and the other half was split among two people operating two other machines, so you can see how much volume we are able to run through that machine during a 250-hour continuous cycle, or almost two full weeks of active machining time. We delivered this pretty massive amount of parts and the customer thought we were some machine shop with 100 people and we’re a two-man shop!” 

And NS Precision is winning jobs because of their lights-out automation. Skylar shared one example of this: “Another company is quoting six to eight weeks because they’re only quoting eight hours a day, no weekends, five days a week. We’re 16-hour days and an additional eight days a month in that same period,” due to their ability to run full production unmanned. This advantage allows them to offer customers shorter lead times and is helping them grow their business.

The right solutions for the right customers

Success isn’t guaranteed just because a shop installs some automation; it must be the right solution for the applications they are running. Spencer said they ask a lot of questions to learn the pain points customers are having and they find common questions and problems over and over that drive them to the right solution or system to recommend. 

“For NS Precision, they are changing over more frequently so a more standardized set up that allows for quick changeover time and high spindle utilization was a requirement for them,” Spencer continued. “When we work with someone like an automotive OEM customer, they need equipment that runs one, two, or three million of the same part every year and they don’t ever want to change it. That leads to a very different type of solution where they can’t handle a 1-minute load/unload cycle — it has to be 1-2 seconds, maximum. 

“Other considerations include how they are doing maintenance — does each operator maintain their own machine or is it a regular cycle for the shop? What about probing, tool checks, tooling vendors? What do they have now and use for chip and coolant management? Although those don’t sound like automation questions because it’s machine-tool focused, all of these factors go into whether the automation is going to be successful or not. If you don’t have tools that are going to last a whole shift, but you have three day’s worth of parts on an infeed conveyor, that won’t do you much good! So these are the types of questions I get into every day when I talk with customers about automation cells.”

Grow your business without growing headcount

Star said they do an in-depth ROI analysis with customers. “If you were making this on a RoboDrill in a standard three-axis set up, what does that dollar figure look like for machine cost, hours, uptime and revenue? Now let’s transpose that with automation and see what the new revenue opportunity looks like. That goes for the people side of the business, too. With automation, they can spend more time on application and engineering work and let the machine do what it’s built to do,” he continued. “We look to help them maximize their people so an operator who might be moving materials or punching details into a control could be resourced to more strategic or complex matters in their business. If you’re spending fewer hours on engineering and programming your productivity rate is being lost from the human capital side and you’re not maximizing their talent and potential.”

Automation showroom at Methods Machine Tools.

“NS Precision is a great example of how automation can help a business because they are a two- or three- person shop. Other small shop owners may be thinking that they’re too small for automation because they can manage the machine. If you’re that small, you’re the operator and owner, and automation can help you spend more time just being the owner and bringing in business. Similar to how small shops may view five-axis machining, thinking a one-person shop can’t really get into something that complex, we help them understand it really is more profitable for them in the long run because they can run hundreds of hours consecutively and grow the business.”

Methods looks at automation as a turnkey, custom solution for their customers. “We look at it from a holistic sense and aren’t just an integrator who will build the cell for you,” Star stated. “Our operation runs the full gamut from automating small tasks to full automation cells for companies with one employee or thousands.” 

For shop owners considering what automation might do for them, they need to think about the targets they want to achieve each day, week, month, or year, and find a partner that will run the scenarios with them. Star said, “With the cost of doing business continuing to rise, tries to really deliver for our customers by helping them look at things from a total business perspective and not just at the application level. We win when we can help them drive a more profitable and healthier business.”

SolidCAM’s is an ideal solution!

The modules are affordable, integrated into SolidCAM and easy to implement. SolidShop can even serve as a Manufacturing Execution System (MES), bringing real-time visibility and control to the entire shop floor.

Manipulate NC code and automate programming with Editor

Designed to bridge the gap between CAM programmers and shop floor operators, SolidShop provides a seamless, real-time solution for managing G-code, tracking production and eliminating costly mistakes. Built on SolidCAM’s proven expertise and CIMCO’s industry-leading technology, SolidShop creates a fully integrated digital ecosystem that boosts productivity, prevents errors and maximizes machine uptime. Whether you are running a small job shop or a large-scale manufacturing operation, SolidShop gives you total control over your shop floor, without the headaches.

Robust communication with CNC controls allows uploading and downloading programs and signal capturing from PLCs or sensors.

SolidShop is not just another shop-floor tool, it’s a complete digital ecosystem that extends SolidCAM’s reach beyond the CAM programming department into every corner of the CNC shop floor. From NC code verification, through operator simulation and editing, DNC and machine monitoring, paperless manufacturing PDM, as well as ERP integration, SolidShop delivers real-time control, increases productivity and reduces downtime. SolidShop offers a modular approach with three progressive levels, enabling shops to scale their digital capabilities with ease.

Step 1: Ensure the Right G-Code, Every Time

Ask any programmer or operator — version control is a necessity. Files get renamed, modified, overwritten or pulled from the wrong folder. That one small mistake? It can lead to major costs on the shop floor.

Machine simulator detects collisions and axis overtravel and offers fast material removal situation among many other features.

With SolidShop’s NC Program Editor and G-Code driven simulation module, shops gain full control over G-code. Errors are caught before they happen. Collisions are avoided before they become costly. This simple step alone eliminates countless hours of rework and scrap.

“SolidShop has made it nearly impossible for the wrong G-Code to reach the machine,” says one production supervisor. “That peace of mind is worth everything.”

Step 2: Replace Paper Trails with Digital Traceability

As quality standards rise and compliance becomes critical, shops need more than tribal knowledge and clipboard notes. SolidShop introduces its Manufacturing PDM and SolidCAM for Operators, digitizing job packets, drawings and revision histories. Changes in NC programs and manufacturing documents are meticulously tracked. Granular access controls and protects the information from being exfiltrated from the company and meets the most stringent needs in an era where cybersecurity is a permanent concern.

Product Data Management manages all types of documents in a centralized database accessible to anyone in the company.

Operators access everything they need at the machine — no binders, no misprints, no chasing down programmers for answers. Every file, drawing and setup instruction is available in real time, with full traceability from a central database. Everyone in the company sees the same information, paperlessly, from anywhere, stopping the pain during audits.

Merge, manage and revert the operators’ changes made directly at the CNC control. Review program modifications before incorporating them into the released version. Manage the relationships between main and subprograms optimally and send them all to the machine with a click. All this with the possibility of full integration with the DNC module.

Step 3: Connect Your Machines—and Your Business

Here’s where it all comes together.

Real-time machine monitoring with interface to shop ERP, FMS, Power BI, TCP connections and more.

With real-time machine monitoring, DNC communication, and ERP/MES integration, SolidShop gives shop managers and business leaders full visibility into their operations.

See exactly when machines are cutting — and when and why they’re not. Track jobs. Eliminate bottlenecks. Make decisions faster with real-time shop data at your fingertips.

One job shop reported a 23% increase in spindle uptime after implementing SolidShop. “We finally have eyes on everything. Scheduling is tighter. Mistakes are down. Profitability is up.”

Built for the Real World

SolidShop wasn’t built in a boardroom; it was born on the shop floor.

During a visit to a SolidCAM customer in Germany, CEO and founder Dr. Emil Somekh saw them struggling to manage production with spreadsheets and disconnected tools, despite having invested in high-end CNC machines and top talent. After witnessing their transformation using CIMCO’s technology — boosting productivity by more than 20% — Dr. Somekh realized that this was the foundation for building something bigger.

That vision became SolidShop: a robust, real-world ecosystem designed to bring digital manufacturing to life for CNC shops everywhere.

SolidShop was designed with flexibility in mind. Whether you are running a couple of machines or a full-scale manufacturing operation, you can start small and scale up. The platform is modular, so you implement only what you need, when you need it.

And with SolidCAM as your single vendor, there’s no finger-pointing between vendors and the IT department, or integration headaches. Everything works together out of the box, just how it should.

The Bottom Line

For shops ready to move past outdated processes and into the future of manufacturing, SolidShop delivers a smarter, more connected shop floor —without the pain of a massive system overhaul.

“SolidShop was built to meet the real challenges our customers face every day,” says Somekh. “It’s about eliminating waste, increasing control and unlocking the full potential of every CNC machine on the floor. Over the years, manufacturing shops have consistently upgraded their CNC machines and CAM technologies. However, the tools to manage and deliver shop floor information or handle connectivity and NC program management pains are often obsolete and ineffective. SolidShop is the answer to all these pains. It’s a proven productivity booster for everyone in the shop.”

SolidShop brings Industry 4.0 capabilities to CNC machine shops of all sizes — whether small, medium or big. It’s affordable, scalable and easy to implement.

Want to see SolidShop in action? Book your personalized demo today and take the first step toward total control of your CNC operations.

These automated guided vehicles (AGVs) at DMG MORI’s assembly plant in Tortona, Italy, will soon serve as active transport systems to guide DMG MORI’s universal turning centers through different stages of the assembly process. Source: Brent Donaldson, MMS

The French phrase “déjà rêvé,” or “already dreamt,” is the feeling that you’ve dreamed about an experience you are having in the moment. Like déjà vu with a surreal twist, this feeling snuck up on me during a recent tour of DMG MORI’s assembly plant in Tortona, Italy. I was standing in the middle of a large, open, white-floored assembly room lined with massive automated guided vehicles (AGVs) sitting dormant in neat rows around the edge of the facility. When these slow-moving robots are activated in the coming months, they will serve as active transport systems, using optical navigation and laser scanning technologies to guide DMG MORI’s universal turning centers through different stages of the assembly process. Standing in the middle of these towering robots-at-rest evoked a strong childhood vision of the future.

Like the steady pace of these AGVs — which travel approximately 1.77 inches per minute and are already in use at the company’s Pfronten, Germany facility — we are clearly moving toward a collective vision of fully-automated production. From small job shops to large captive operations, it is now common to find connected devices offering instant feedback loops, increasingly underpinned by artificial intelligence (AI). Robots and cobots are nearly ubiquitous. Digital twins and simulation are growing increasingly sophisticated. And at the center of it all is data.

Our May, 2025 print edition offers five stories that unpack data-driven manufacturing and showcase its role in a variety of shop settings. Incidentally, this is the first print edition of 91爆料网 in recent memory dedicated solely to a single technology topic (albeit a broad one) and how that technology is being deployed in real time at American companies.

Let’s start with AI’s role in discrete part manufacturing — a topic prone to wildly varying interpretations within our industry. “Enhancing the Shop Floor With AI” (page 48) examines AI’s function across a host of production steps, beginning with its ability to serve as a “CAM co-pilot.” MMS readers are by now likely familiar with AI technologies that help generate tool paths (arguably AI’s most common use today outside of predictive maintenance) but here we explore its ability to detect early signs of chatter, optimize energy use and even enhance ergonomics through human simulation. The article shows how AI can be used to amplify human expertise and allow shop-specific knowledge to seamlessly integrate with the shop floor. This article is clear evidence that AI’s capabilities will only grow as digitalization becomes commonplace in job shops, producing ever-higher quantities of AI fuel: data.

Our next story takes this principle and extends it into the CNC itself. On page 42, Senior Associate Editor Eli Plaskett offers an intriguing look at Gemineers, a German startup that has developed a machine-connected digital twin that captures spindle loads, axis motion and positional errors with ±10-micron resolution to provide real-time process insights. Gemineers’ closed-loop system doesn’t just simulate machining, it also predicts errors, diagnoses failures mid-cut and refines future production runs. By offering real-time feedback in addition to foresight, the company believes its digital twin is precise enough to minimize the need for quality inspection or at least shift its role.

Closer to home, LeClaire Manufacturing, an aluminum casting and precision component shop in Bettendorf, Iowa, offers a different method of tracing issues back to their root cause. On page 62, Senior Associate Editor Evan Doran profiles the company’s Caddis system, a custom, cloud-connected software platform developed by LeClaire that tracks essential metrics such as uptime, temperature, amperage and cycle times, then sets alerts based on deviations from each metric’s norm. By tracking essential data to inform real-time decisions, the Caddis system has reduced setup times by two-thirds, decreased unplanned downtime and increased machine utilization by 38% — all without investing in new equipment.

On page 54, Doran walks us through a different challenge when tracking data — how to make sense of it within a complex, interconnected workflow on the shop floor. While MachineMetrics has long been known as a machine monitoring provider, the company is evolving its platform into something closer to a manufacturing execution system (MES) by integrating machine data with ERP schedules and AI-driven analytics. In both high-production and high-mix settings, this rich data stew can be contextualized to provide real-time feedback on cycle times, tool load anomalies and production delays. Doran’s article shows how meaning, not just volume, represents data’s true power on the shop floor.

Finally, on page 58, Doran spotlights how Woodward Inc., a precision manufacturer serving the aerospace and power generation industries, has evolved into a true “digital factory” through Caron Engineering’s MiConnect software. Previously, Woodward spent months building custom APIs to connect its CNC machines to its SCADA software, but today, MiConnect allows them to not only streamline data collection from a diverse array of controls but also supports bidirectional feedback and facilitates real-time adjustments, robotic integration and automated tool compensations across sites. The story also reveals why this level of digital integration requires sophisticated engineers to helm the controls and showcases the critical importance of human expertise to maximize data-driven manufacturing technologies.

So what do these stories tell us?

Each of the companies highlighted in this issue uses data to enhance, not eclipse, human ingenuity. They use data as a force multiplier, but in distinct ways for distinct purposes. From small shops building their own monitoring systems to global producers synchronizing multi-plant operations, the lesson that connects these stories is clarity. The ability to see what’s happening at your shop is important, but understanding why it’s happening allows you to refine your processes and, ultimately, redefine what’s possible.

Mark: My father worked at another manufacturing company making gun drills. He must have done work on Saturday morning, so my brother and I had to go in and we were exposed to a larger shop.

They were making gun drills, and we were mechanically minded, so we loved it. We loved going in there. This was in the 1970s, when we were elementary school-age kids, and then we had tools. And then when he bought his plastic machine shop in 1985, I was in high school. And so I started working for him on the weekends.

Nancy: I was completely left out of all of the mechanical musing that were going on at our house. And I pursued a totally different path.

About 25 years ago, my mother was working together with my father in their business. She did the bookkeeping, and she wanted to retire. So they recruited me to leave my job in Boston and come down to Connecticut and work in the shop and learn everything about all the financial information, the tax information. I ended up doing a lot more than my mother did because I took over website advertising, customer service, things that she didn't do.

Mark: I approached Nancy and — we've always gotten along. We've always been like minded as far as siblings. We don't argue. We understand each other and it was a natural fit.

Mark and Nancy Rohlfs left their family shop to start their on January 1^st, 2006. Over the past 19 years, they’ve managed risks and opportunities to grow from a garage shop to a 10,000-square-foot facility producing plastic parts.

Nancy: I think that we were both ready for a new opportunity and wanted to make a change and it was at the right time in our lives where we could do both. Take some risk and start a business.

Mark’s the risk taker. I am more risk averse, which is probably a good balance between the two of us.

We don't come to disagreements too often because we always will go with “who's the expert on this decision,” and then they get to make it. So if you're not the expert, you can put in your two cents, but you don't get to make the final decision.

Mark: Yeah, even if I'm not the expert, Nancy still lets me make the decision if it affects my work and I'm the one working in that environment.

Nancy: Mark has a lot of “out of the box” schemes, and East Coast has been a good opportunity for him to test them out. And I like to remind him of the times he's made some questionable decisions. But for the most part, I say he's batting at least 95% on his schemes ending up working out.

Mark: What we learned is patience and stringing our finances along and being stingy and innovative. So you have to have years of patience and you have to have enough money upfront to string you along through all the lean years. And if you add one customer a year, you have to think, “Go 20 years out and this is gonna be something.” We take a long view.

Nancy: We're kind of in a small industry, which is — I think — good in a way. As long as you make a good product, you're reliable, you have good pricing and good customer service, it allows you to kind of differentiate yourself within a smaller group. The metal shops that are in the United States, or even our competitors, if they're doing metal they are much larger. And I think it would be harder to break into that business than plastic.

The joke is that some girls had Barbie dolls, and I had a centerless grinder. I was cleaning the shop, cleaning the tanks, helping with the shop. My brothers and I would be in the back seat, and when a truck would drive by with some steel rods we would write down the name on the trailer. Sometimes we would make calls — I remember cold calling places as a little girl, and my brothers did the same. And whoever got the business was excited. It was how we spent our family time, and looking back at it now at age 55, I have no regrets. I learned so much at a young age.

Source: Pioneer Service Inc.

As I grew up and became a woman, I didn’t see sustainability for myself in the family business — not because of my family, but because anyone outside our four walls that would come in. Whether it was a new employee or a truck driver, they would come in and ask, “Where’s your brother?” or, “What would you know?” “Don’t worry your pretty little head about that.” I honestly laughed it off at first, but I was just unable to be productive. I think it came to a head one day when my brothers were not in the office and I had to call the shots. Every time I tried to take an inch forward, I would get pushback. And in my mind, I really didn’t understand it. I didn’t know how male-dominated the industry was because I was only in my four walls with my mother working right beside me my entire adolescence. I saw that there was no way I could navigate through it, so I told my family I was leaving. The joke was that I would come back, and I said to my brothers I would learn how to say, “Do you want fries with that?” before I came back to the family business.

Fast forward, my uncle wanted to open his own grinding shop. He had also worked for my dad back in the day and I had a very good relationship with him, but I didn’t want to compete with my family. Although I was 23, a single mom with two very young children, I knew I could figure it out. So I told my uncle we’d do part grinding, but we’d focus on machining, and that’s how I joined Pioneer Service in 1993. My uncle was my silent partner from day one. 

Together, we built the company. We had Brown & Sharpes and Davenports. We had a lot of grinders, but we did piece parts, not bars, because my family was strictly bars. We would also solicit our competitors, who would send the parts they machined so we could grind them. I was wearing so many hats, back in the ‘90s and 2000s, so we expanded the team.

And then in 2012, we lost 90% of our business. A company bought up our top five customers, and as a small machine shop we unfortunately weren’t as diversified as we should have been. Looking at it in hindsight, I remember trying, but then you get a big order and you have enough work on your machines. You're in your own circle and you're not really learning anything. We didn't learn about new technologies. When I would hear CNC, I'd cringe. Fast forward, and we had to figure this out because failure was not an option. I was not going to close the doors. I was not going to send my employees home. I was forced to lessen the hours, but I wasn't going to lay people off. We didn’t, and we learned that we had to go into CNC.

We tried turning centers for a couple of years, but we weren't successful. We had a few jobs here and there, but we didn't have the support that we needed. The business was slowly going away, and so I did some research. I was taking courses and going to these events and conferences. I was taking notes and photos, and I would come back so overwhelmed. Then I learned about Swiss machining through YouTube. Not a competitor, but YouTube. I walked into the shop and said, “We're going into Swiss.”

They thought I was going crazy. They thought I had totally lost it, so I told them there's no other options. If we want high volume, we need to be high precision, and for us to do that, we needed to learn Swiss. So I started visiting Swiss machine builders and ran into Star. They became a fantastic partner and, I will never say that lightly. I will never forget the support that they provided. The Swiss made more sense. It was a lot of tighter tolerances, but now we have an order with thousands of pieces instead of 10.

Fast forward to 2021, my father retired, and he wanted to sell his shares. They called me and asked me to come back to M&M Quality Grinding, so I ate my words. But only because they asked me. I gave them the same condition I gave my uncle back in 1993: If I’m coming back, the buck stops here. I’ll be the CEO. I’ll run things. I’ll be accountable, but I also need the flexibility to make decisions. Now, they’re separate entities operating under one roof: M&M Quality occupies 70,000 square feet, and Pioneer Service is in 62,000. They were very old school, but like Maya Angelou eloquently said, “Once you know better, you do better.” And my dad was of my mindset. He would come and visit, even though he sold his shares, and he’s said, “I'm so proud.”

Reader Question: We expect to see a lot of growth this year, but are currently struggling to lock down key process decisions from job to job that create inconsistency. How do you recommend standardizing programming/setup techniques for a shop that is growing fast?

Miller’s Answer:

As the manufacturing industry continues down the path of reshoring —potentially accelerated by recent news and events — all shops are going to be pushed to grow and hire more. Rarely do new hires perfectly match your shop’s approach, so standards and a solid reason “why” are important to bring them into the fold quickly. This applies to young hires who need to develop their habits and even experienced hires who may have some habits from previous jobs. In fact, the habits might not even be that bad, they are just different from how your shop operates. Programming standardization is a great way to get the shop on the same page to eliminate mistakes and streamline communication across people or departments.

The Approach

I’ve been lucky in my career to trial a lot of different machinery and controller types. I can say I’ve run all the household names and all the major controller types that they come with. That’s not to say I know them all as well as some of you do, but that experience did teach me a big lesson: All CNC operations boil down to how you handle tool offsets, work offsets and programs. Meaning, all you need to get a rudimentary program going on any machine is to tell it how long the tools are, where the work piece is and to upload a safely formatted program. The rest is a matter of preference and performance.

How this applies to your shop: No matter how many machine brands or types you have, there are three categories that apply broadly to build your programming standardization. If you are a shop with primarily one or two machine types, then you can push this standard down one level further into how, why and when you may use specific machine functions as well.

Tool Offsets

The first decision I would make is how the shop is going to handle tool offsets. For tool length, some will be easy to decide, like flat end mills or boring bars, in which you will probably elect to always set the length to the end. However, tools like ballnose end mills might be set to full length or center of the ball (tool tip minus ball radius). Drills can be set to tool tip or full diameter depending on how you want to program drill depths. Tools that can cut on both sides like T-slot tools could be programmed to the front or back and need to be offset accordingly. As you may tell, all of these require a decision so that programmer, setup, tool crib and so on are all standardized to the same thing.

The second part of this decision may also depend on what’s easiest during setup. For example, a presetter may not be available, so it will be easiest to set all tools to their full length at the center of the tool in the machine. Another example is a contact tool setter, which cannot measure a drill’s length at the full diameter, but an offline presetter can. Very complex form tools may not have a good edge to preset in the machine, so using an indicator or touching off the table is the only viable option. Therefore, it’s worth it to standardize based on the resources available and how you envision programming your most common part features.

Work Offsets

The next decision point is where to set the work offsets on a consistent basis. Options here are endless, but some common strategies exist. First is the part itself. The center of the billet in op. 1 is common, while op. 2 may be a critical datum or the intersection of the A, B and C datums. Another is to choose a fixed asset in the machine, such as the hard jaw on a vise or the center point of a zero-point system. Another option might be ensuring the center of the rotary axes stacked on the table — meaning any riser, vises and so on — are just compensated for via the program.

All these options are valid, but should also be decided among the broader view of the shop’s operations. How often does workholding move in and out the machine? Is it critical that program coordinates to match the drawing coordinates for cases where accountability is key?

Programming

When it comes to program standardization, it should first be done with respect to how the tools offsets and work offsets were standardized. This is just a baseline to anchor the process and reduce “special cases” or odd instructions that could follow each job and create problems between programmers and those doing setups.

Secondly, while all controller types do take somewhat different code — sometimes very different — this is where working with your CAM supplier on the postprocessors will become key. I believe, as a baseline, all programs should have safe start blocks at the beginning of every tool so that processes can pick up seamlessly from any tool. They should also be well documented with good headers and a note of each tool. These simple procedures will make sure those at the machine know when the programs where made, and that they reflect the job they were meant for and can be operated with proper understanding of what is going to happen. From here, your shop can introduce other standards like when and how coolant codes are used and when to implement special machine functions, as well as develop procedures for safely recovering a process from failure, such as a broken tool.

While standardizing multiple employees who run multiple machines and balance multiple jobs a day can feel daunting, keep it simple and start with tool offsets, work offsets and programs. At the very least, you are streamlining setups and reducing the risk for errors like wrecks. From here, you can refine this process as the shops begins to embrace the standard and offers clever ideas of their own to implement further standards that safeguard operations. Before you know it, the “standard” will just become “how we’ve always done it.”

Do you have a machining question? Ask the expert. John Miller leans on more than a decade of industry experience to answer machining questions from MMS readers. Submit your question online at .

Automation Is King

Almost every machine tool on display at PMTS doubled as an automation display. Automation has simply become so vital to production for both high-production facilities and job shops that OEMs must consider it when designing machine tools.

One interesting feature of automation at the show was the prevalence of integrated automation packages: machine tools sold with standard automation solutions as part of the package. Methods Machine Tools, for example, showcased the Robodrill Plus K Max package, which pairs a full five-axis FANUC VMC with a compact integrated robotic automation system. It comes standard with 90 pallet stations for small-to-medium sized parts loaded into the machine with a FANUC robot arm. It has a 90-slot tool magazine in addition to the 28-tool turret already in the machine tool’s work area. One uncommon feature of this package is that users can customize the tool and pallet stations, combining stations for larger workpieces or replacing tool stations with additional pallets. This customizability is designed to enable job shops to adjust the machining cell to the variety of jobs that come in.

Haas provided a novel high-mix, low-volume automation solution in its booth, one the company’s team designed specifically for the show. A UMC 500 SS milling tool had a station of high-mix parts with various features but similar sizes, as well as diamond-shaped dovetails in the base of each workpiece. Both the robot arm and workholding were designed to clamp onto this self-centering dovetail with specialized grips. The robot would transfer a workpiece from the staging area to the workholding, and then the machine tool would use a probe to determine the diameter of the hole in the dovetail the robot had been gripping. Different machining tool paths were programmed to correspond to different hole diameters, and the machine would load up the corresponding program based on the probe’s measurement.

Muratec showcased integrated automation in some of its turning solutions, such as the gantry-loaded MSR60 on display. The MSR60 is a single-spindle turning machine popular with job shops due to its gantry-loaded automation system, which provides the chance to automate both high-mix and low-mix part runs. According to the company, the gantry moves at 240 meters per minute thanks to its carbon fiber construction, which provides excellent durability at a low weight.

Tooling is the Slice of Life

Perhaps unsurprisingly for a trade show with so many Swiss-type lathes on display, tooling designed for machining minute features into small parts filled the show. Kennametal, for example, showcased a number of micro-tooling solutions that use through-coolant to manage heat buildup. This included the Kendrill Micro line of drills that range from 0.5 millimeters to 2.9 millimeters, all of which sportthrough-coolant channels despite the tiny size. Guhring also showcased a line of micro mills with through-coolant channels. However, Guhring places the coolant holes further up the shank from the cutting edge to accommodate the complex geometry of the cutting tool. Both solution

Novelty Never Ends

One aspect of trade shows that remains consistent is the neverending supply of novel machining solutions. Derek Korn from our sister publication Production Machining covered the Nano, a desktop Swiss-type lathe that uses fully functional guide bushings. Maintaining the rigidity needed for Swiss-type turning at that size is an accomplishment in and of itself, but this machine does so in a compact space that runs on only 120 volts of power.

I spoke at length with representatives from , a machine tool manufacturer that supplies compact machine tools to both grade schools and trade schools to grow the pool of workers for the industry. The EDU Mini Mill can fit on a workbench at less than 3 feet wide. Working off of a FANUC control, the mill can machine metal parts and help students learn the ins and outs of machining at an early age.

Every booth had an interesting perspective and interesting technology. Moreover, the sense of community fostered by the Precision Machined Products Association running the show provides genuine excitement in both the exhibitors and attenddees, which makes attending the show a joy year after year.

AI can enhance shopfloor operations in many ways, including by aiding in the creation of CNC programs. All images provided by Siemens. 

As the push for digitalization continues across all industries, data is increasingly becoming the lifeblood of modern manufacturing. Standing at the cusp of the AI revolution, this has never been truer. Different areas of the manufacturing process already produce and leverage huge quantities of data in a variety of ways. But the sheer volume of this data means that many optimizations and key insights are left on the table.

While there are concerns about AI replacing workers, applying AI to part manufacturing doesn’t mean automating away people and processes. Instead AI-powered programs can act as a force multiplier, improving efficiency and productivity by augmenting existing systems. An example of this is a copilot in a computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) system, which can automatically generate toolpath suggestions by analyzing the 3D model of a part. Combining traditional production processes with smart data collection, AI and the comprehensive digital twin will be instrumental in achieving the next generation of data-driven manufacturing.

The Need for Industrial-Grade AI

While AI offers many benefits to part manufacturing, it must be applied with care. In the consumer space, the occasional error or hallucination might be acceptable. But in industry, where vast sums of money and even lives might be at stake, any mistake in production could have disastrous consequences.

To reap the benefits of AI in industry, the AI itself must be industrial grade. Answers returned by the model must be robust, reliable and repeatable so users don’t second-guess every result. Some features that set industrial-grade AI apart from other AI include continuous testing frameworks to ensure models are still giving expected results, automated processes that can check for correctness and software designed to keep humans in the loop for critical tasks. With a strong foundation in place, industrial-grade AI can then be leveraged in three ways to enhance part manufacturing: to optimize manufacturing processes, analyze manufacturing data and processes and generate manufacturing gains.

AI Optimizes Manufacturing

AI can accelerate many tasks in a machine shop or other production environment to reduce waste in labor and materials while improving production efficiency. AI is now being applied in many areas, including:

• Natural language processing (NLP) for interacting with maintenance manuals, production data and more through tools such as Siemens Industrial Copilot
• Energy optimization to generate data-driven insights that enhance the understanding of energy usage across production processes
• AI-driven CAM operation editing for faster completion of jobs

These are just a few of the ways AI is even now helping improve production efficiency. And as shops continue to invest in digitalization, the benefits of AI will also increase.

The Insights Hub Production Copilot from Siemens simplifies insights and quickly identifies root causes to prevent losses, as well as provides clear operator guidance, eliminating guesswork on next steps by recommending actions based on data and experience.

Analyzing Data for Bigger Gains

Connecting more advanced AI with shopfloor, design and production data will enable optimizations of everything from workflows to ergonomics through powerful analytics. Connecting all this information within tools like Siemens Insights Hub allows AI to be applied to everything from quality control reports to shopfloor production schedules for deeper analysis, which in turn unlocks new optimizations.

One big way AI can help improve production efficiency is through predictive quality. By analyzing defect data and correlating it with the production and performance data available from smart machines, it is possible to build an AI model that can identify key indicators of defects early in the manufacturing process. Catching these errors early will decrease waste of both time and materials. For example, chatter during a machining operation results in a sub-par surface finish and reduced tool life through uneven tool wear and tool breakage. Chatter marks are visible on machined surfaces, often showing as wave-like patterns or regular marks. AI algorithms can analyze data from various sensors measuring vibration, acoustic emissions, forces, current and more in real time to detect the onset of chatter. This allows for immediate adjustments to machining parameters before chatter becomes severe and affects part quality.

In addition to analyzing huge data sets, AI can expedite time-consuming analysis of specialized data and use cases, such as improving ergonomics for human workers. Repetitive motions can be physically taxing, especially if they require bending or reaching in awkward ways. While there is a certain amount of intuitive analysis that any person can do when it comes to repeated motion, assessing the long-term impact can be harder. By applying an AI model trained on ergonomics data and information about the mobility of the human body, we can assess the ergonomics of a particular set of movements from a single picture. AI-driven human simulation can analyze high-risk scenarios effectively. This information can then be fed back into the comprehensive digital twin to quickly and easily design a workstation that is both healthy and efficient to use, with parts and tools placed in intuitive, easy-to-reach locations.

The copilot in NX CAM automates the NC programming process, saving up to 80 percent of engineering time.

Generating Manufacturing Gains

One of the newest and most well-known forms of AI is generative AI, with its unprecedented ability to converse in a human-like way. In industry, generative AI is positioned to stand as a bridge between people and technology, making complex tools easier to use. Going forward, generative AI will likely be a key component of no- and low-code platforms, allowing users to program complex machinery through NLP. 

An AI-driven copilot can also significantly accelerate the creation of CNC programs, calculation of speeds and feeds, and validation of tool paths. Today, using CAM software to go from a 3D model to usable G-code can be a complex and time-consuming task requiring significant expertise in both CNC machining and the specific software. While the need for a human CNC expert isn’t going to change any time soon, AI, in the form of a CAM copilot, has the ability to speed up this process by making the tools more accessible while automating many of the labor-intensive manual steps. A CAM copilot can help to automate the creation of machining strategies for CNC machines, cutting programming time from hours to minutes.

By simply selecting a feature on the 3D model, a CAM copilot can produce several suggested combinations of operations, tools, feed rates and more for user approval before automatically filling in all those values within the software. At the same time, it can be trained to understand the production machines, instantly validating if a given design and tool path could be safely produced on a particular machine. 

These types of generative AI tools can also serve as a knowledge base, learning from expert users and past work to use manufacturing methods based on the shop’s best practices. A strong industrial-grade AI deployment keeps proprietary knowledge secure and makes it more easily accessible to new hires and veteran employees alike, while also ensuring that valuable know-how isn’t lost as employees move to new roles or retire.

Analyze, Optimize and Generate with Industrial AI

As the digitalization of manufacturing continues, it will become increasingly important that companies big and small are able to leverage their data to achieve quality, sustainability and efficiency goals. AI is and will increasingly be an important way of analyzing, optimizing and generating manufacturing improvements. With everything from simple insights to full-featured assistance, AI will be a vital part of bringing data-driven manufacturing to life as it can turn otherwise unused data into a goldmine for improving efficiency across the board.