Lower Labor Requirements

A CNC machine can eliminate several processing steps. Where once a sheet of material would move from one production machine step to another, the CNC machine can do more operations in one set-up. Full sheets of material may be used, rather than "pre-blanking" on a saw or other machine. One operator can do the jobs of several people.

CNC machines require good operators to make good parts. But once the company's part programming information (knowledge) is contained in electronic files, the craftsmanship of the company resides in the machine, not in human operators. Training for new employees relates to how the machine operates and what the company expects for finished part quality, not in teaching the operator information about basic trade skills.

Better Production Parts

No human could hope to control the movements of a machine as precisely as a CNC. These machines work with very small units of measure. A CNC is able to drill a hole at one end of the worktable, move to the far corner and return to make the same hole again with only a few ten-thousandths of an inch error. The accuracy of a CNC can be explained this way: take a hair off your head and slice it the long way six times. The sliver you have left is about the margin of error with the machine.

Increased Productivity

A CNC may also be programmed to allow for wood grain, material type and special cutter requirements. Humans are not able to balance all of these factors in a repeated way over extended periods of time. Machines may work two or three shifts per day without shut-down. The only limiting factors in CNC production relate to material availability and cutter wear.

CNC machines used to be associated with high-volume production due to the time involved in machine programming. New computer technologies, along with software advances, now allow easy programming of CNC machines for custom or one-of parts. In fact, the ability of a CNC to accept precise mathematic information to create custom parts reduces production costs by reducing potential errors.

Better, Safer Production

A CNC machine does not require any positioning of the spindle to be made by hand during production. The operator's main job is to monitor the machining process and make any needed corrections. Most machines feature at least one emergency stop button to instantly halt production should a part processing error occur.