Buyer Q&A
Direct answers to the questions manufacturers actually ask.
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These are the blunt questions manufacturers ask us in private and rarely see answered straight in public: is automation actually worth it for a shop our size, what should we automate first, why do so many of these projects fail, and what should we be asking an integrator before we sign. Each page leads with a direct answer and then shows the reasoning, because a buyer deciding whether to spend six figures deserves a position, not a hedge that sends them back to a salesperson.
The answers are deliberately uncomfortable where the evidence points that way. Sometimes the correct call is to hire, fix maintenance, or fix a changeover problem before buying a single robot, and we say so. We keep these pages tied to the cost and comparison work so that a yes-or-no answer is always backed by the same itemized numbers used elsewhere on the site, and so you can pressure-test our reasoning against the realities of your own plant.
In this section
- Why Automation Projects Fail (and How to De-Risk Yours)Roughly one-third of manufacturing automation projects underperform. The usual causes: broken process, product variation, wrong ROI math, scope creep.
- What Should a Manufacturer Automate First?Start with a dull, dirty, or dangerous high-volume task on a stable process. CNC machine tending is the classic first project at roughly $40,000-$65,000.
- Questions to Ask a System Integrator Before You SignTwelve to fifteen questions to vet a system integrator, grouped by experience, scope, spares, docs and commercial terms, with red-flag answers to watch for.
- Is Automation Worth It for a Small Manufacturer?Automation pays off for small manufacturers when a repetitive task runs enough hours to clear a 12-30 month payback and labor is hard to hire.