Read Our Benchmarking Summary, Attend Our Benchmarking Conference

2017 marks the seventh edition of our Top Shops benchmarking program. Read survey results in our Executive Summary, and consider attending our first benchmarking event this September.

2017 marks the seventh edition of our Top Shops benchmarking program. Read survey results in our Executive Summary, and consider attending our first benchmarking event this September.

It’s hard to believe we’re on our seventh edition of our Top Shops benchmarking survey. The results of that survey are available in the 2017 Executive Summary, which compares the top-tier benchmarking group’s data to the other shops that participated. Here are two interesting tidbits I gleaned about types of equipment used by a majority of the shops in this year’s benchmarking group:

32 percent use Swiss-type lathes, which is up from 19 percent last survey. Although screw-machine shops were the first to adopt multifunction CNC Swiss-type lathes, an increasing number of “traditional” shops are considering this machining platform to, in some cases, produce complex parts complete, reducing setups, secondary operations and work-in-process.

37 percent have additive manufacturing/3D-printing capability, which is up from 19 percent during the last survey. Virtually all of those shops use this capability for prototyping, but 74 percent of them also use it to 3D-print tooling and fixturing for their own use on the shop floor.

The Executive Summary includes much more about the types of machining and business strategies being applied by leading U.S. machining businesses as well as key performance metrics they’re attaining. Give it a read. It could be that information could help direct your own continuous improvement efforts. It could also be that after attending the Top Shops Conference this September in Indianapolis, Indiana, you’ll come away with interesting ideas for ways to grow your shop.