One of the common things I hear is "That is how we do it" and more so at older companies.

One of the sticking points you will likely run into is how do you know what you need? Finishing is what we know so we are going to stay on that branch of machines here. Many of the general concepts will apply to all manner of machine but finishing is the topic here.

The stroke sander is one of the machines that some may not have ever even seen before. Then there are some that will have seen one in the past but were not sure what it was for. Lets dip into what a stroke sander is and what its for. I will just touch the high points to give a general feel for the machine. Never hesitate to ask questions as its the best way to learn more.

There comes a point in every machines life where you have to look at letting it go.

One thing I learned early on in machinery was to look to the future. Many times folks will look at a situation with blinders on. The issue here is they miss the larger picture and only see the topic right in front of them. If you focus on just the issue at hand your decisions may let you down later when other issues come to light.

There were so many good questions sent my way on this topic I wanted to do a follow up. So what I am going to do is answer some of the questions here so more folks can have the same information. These are just some of the more common ones and please feel free to send your question if its not answered here.

When the topic of automation comes up cutting costs is always part of the conversation. More often than not people do not understand the full scope of what this means.

What are the main issues or points that need addressed?

In some cases it comes down to "I don't know where to start" and that is what I want to touch on just a bit. Every case will have its own unique aspects but in a general sense the steps are much the same.

Small parts are one of the challenges most shops face at some point or every day in some cases. They can be tough to manage and tend eat up a lot of time while in some cases being dangerous.