First of all, let’s talk about automation. These are some quotes we’ve taken from customers over the last couple of years, in testimony to what automation can do for your business.

For example, a customer mentioned that he went from 25 to 95 percent spindle utilization on two shifts. You can imagine the dramatic increase in capacity and productivity with those kinds of numbers, going from a stand-alone operation to a highly automated system.

“Our scrap rate went down from 2 percent to 0.7 percent due to less handling,” is another customer quote. What we’ll show you today involves much less handling due to the 5-axis abilities, which help reduce cycle times and scrap rates.

“We can get the same productivity with one person versus three people,” said another customer. Obviously that’s a key issue as it relates to your direct labor against jobs. Many customers tell us they want to increase output without increasing labor. It’s not an issue of laying off labor; it’s an issue of increasing output without increasing labor costs.

Finally, “it saves us tons of time and money, including thousands of dollars, because we no longer need to outsource.” Because of all these productivity gains, you can easily increase your manufacturing capacity, which means you can reduce outsourcing to further control quality and delivery costs.