Small to medium machining shops know all too well the importance of experienced machinists and programmers. Their unique knowledge of your tools, machinery and their controls—not to mention the floor as whole—is invaluable. Add a high-mix, low-volume workflow to the equation and there’s no substitute for his ability to adapt, set up tools and machines and program on the fly.

In addition, experts on business operations of any kind will tell you clear and repeatable processes are a foundation of success. They stabilize the day to day and build a barrier between efficiency and inefficiency. One way they do this is by making it easier for different people to step in and get different things done, something that will be crucial as you prepare new leaders for the shop floor.

You might call programming the center of the shop wheel: tooling and machinery, quoting and cutting, programming impacts the hardware, software and processes throughout the business. It’s why we think improving and simplifying the process can have a huge impact on a shop’s ability to be resilient in the face of key personnel departures and get more 3-axis work done. It’s a big reason we developed Prism for CNC programming.

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