by Chris Anjel | Aug 26, 2026 | Uncategorized
Most shops don’t lose money on cycle time. They lose it on everything that happens before the spindle starts or the print head moves. Workholding, tool loading, program verification, first-article inspection — these steps eat hours but rarely show up as line...
by Chris Anjel | Aug 26, 2026 | Uncategorized
Every shop knows the sting of a bin full of rejected parts. In digital manufacturing — whether you run CNC mills, powder-bed fusion printers, or laser-cut sheet metal — scrap is the silent margin killer. It inflates material costs, consumes machine hours, and pushes...
by Chris Anjel | Aug 26, 2026 | Uncategorized
Tooling costs — fixtures, jigs, custom workholding, and specialized cutting tools — are a frequent source of quoting friction. Charge the full tooling cost upfront on a small prototype order and you risk losing the job. Spread it too thin across a large production run...
by Chris Anjel | Aug 26, 2026 | Uncategorized
Ask ten estimators how they calculate shop rate and you’ll get ten different answers. Some use a single blended hourly number. Others separate machine time from labor time but apply the same overhead multiplier to both. Few actually track them independently from...
by Chris Anjel | Aug 26, 2026 | Uncategorized
Mid-run setup changes are a silent margin killer. A customer calls at 2 PM requesting a tolerance tweak on the next 50 parts. The machine stops, the operator re-fixtures, the programmer adjusts the CAM, and the inspector re-checks first articles. Meanwhile, the clock...
