MT Magazine January/February 2026

THE INDUSTRY UPDATES ISSUE

14

FEATURE STORY

Before exploring some trends and technologies that manufacturers may use going forward, it is probably worthwhile to review what some of the best manufacturers are doing right now. So, we turn to some of the results of the Top Shops program conducted by Gardner Business Media. Now in its 14th year, the benchmarking survey has earned more than a slight amount of credibility associated with its findings – to put it mildly. For 2025, GBM found that the industry’s top shops don’t just have newer equipment than the other shops (7 1/2 years versus 10 years), they run the equipment more (15 hours per day versus 8 1/2 hours) and make more with it ($350,000 in sales per machine versus $183,000). It is also worth noting that top shops produce less scrap and rework (0.9% versus 2.4%); their first pass quality yield is better (95% versus 90%); and customers get their deliveries on time more often (94% versus 86%). Which brings us to the equipment utilized by the top shops. As it turns out, while all shops have similar equipment, top shops have more of it than other shops:

And Then Robots… Another enabler for lights-out/unattended machining – one that also works when the lights are on – is robots. But even at the top shops, there are significantly fewer than you might expect: Only 54% of top shops use robots for part loading/unloading. That shrinks to just 27% for other shops. Ryan Kelly, vice president, technology at AMT, said, “A lot of manufacturers are interested in flexible automation, but they don’t want to leverage robotics in a fixed system; they want to be able to move the robot from station to station on a mobile base.” However, robot deployment in a shop presents some issues for manufacturers. Kelly said that, for many shops, robots are still too expensive. And if a decision is made to add robotic automation, the time between making that decision and deployment is too long. What’s more, small and medium-sized

• Vertical Machining Centers: 94% vs. 80% • Horizontal Turning Centers: 89% vs. 74% • Horizontal Machining Centers: 67% vs. 50% • Turn-Mill/Multitasking: 69% vs. 44% • Twin-Spindle Turning: 53% vs. 37%

Despite a high level of similarity (although the delta between the use of multitasking machines is notable in top shops), equipment utilization – in terms of setup, load/unload, and tooling – makes a big difference: 71% of top shops perform lights-out/unattended machining, while the others are at just 54%. That helps explain the difference in spindle utilization – 74% at top shops and 60% at others. After all, if the spindle isn’t turning, parts (and revenue) aren’t being made.

Amazon’s Vulcan robot has a sense of touch for carefully handling items. (Image: Amazon)