VIDEO: How C&M Precision Tech Made Machine Monitoring a Team Win

How do you get operators to buy into machine monitoring? At C&M Precision Tech, it started with an honest question and a room full of people ready to win.

“Together is always gonna be better.”

That’s how Justin Edwards, Manufacturing Manager at C&M Precision Tech, sums up what happened when his shop brought in Datanomix Production Monitoring. Spend five minutes with him, and you believe it. His energy is contagious, and so is the culture he’s helped build on the floor in Hudson, New Hampshire.

This is a story about machine monitoring without micromanaging. Mostly, it’s a story about people ready to win.

Data That Says “We’ve Got Your Back”

When production monitoring goes live, every machine is suddenly visible to the whole floor. Justin addressed the team’s biggest concern up front. “What we’re doing is trying to come up with a solution to bring stress down for you,” he explained to the team. “You’re not being micromanaged by being given data or information.”

At C&M, the data’s job is to support the team. “You need an engineer, you need maintenance, you need material, you need tooling, you need many things,” Justin says.

“What you can do with Datanomix is you can reach out for that help and support is alerted in real time.”

Justin Edwards, Manufacturing Manager

Who Is C&M Precision Tech?

C&M Precision Tech is a third-generation, family-owned machine shop founded in 1979. The company operates more than 100 machines across roughly 90,000 square feet and employs about 100 people. It started as a Swiss shop and has grown into four-axis and five-axis milling and turning.

It Started With a Room Full of Raised Hands

Overseeing a 100-machine shop is a big job. Justin’s first move wasn’t focused on a new KPI or a tighter schedule. It was a team meeting.

“I got everybody in a room, and I said, ‘Hey, guys, I wanna be successful. Life is hard. Does anybody else feel like they wanna be more?'” he says. “And I saw the hands raise up.”

No big speech. Just an honest question and a room full of people who wanted the same thing. “We’re all in the same boat, so why don’t we all start rowing in the same direction?”

Justin was just as honest about his own limits. “What I’ve realized is that when I took over the position as the manufacturing manager, I couldn’t do it alone,” he says. So he brought in Datanomix, starting with a pilot, and worked hand in hand with the Datanomix Kick-Ass Coaching team on the installation. “They met me in the middle. We figured out what would be the path forward for C&M.”

That partnership shaped a philosophy that still drives C&M today:

“Everybody having a voice, no matter what their title is, is the most important thing for any company.”

Justin Edwards, Manufacturing Manager

Data That Says “We’ve Got Your Back”

When production monitoring goes live, every machine is suddenly visible to the whole floor. Justin addressed the team’s biggest concern up front. “What we’re doing is trying to come up with a solution to bring stress down for you,” he explained to the team. “You’re not being micromanaged by being given data or information.”

At C&M, the data’s job is to support the team. “You need an engineer, you need maintenance, you need material, you need tooling, you need many things,” Justin says.

“What you can do with Datanomix is you can reach out for that help and support is alerted in real time.”

Justin Edwards, Manufacturing Manager

Reason codes show the team where to invest. “The bar feeder’s constantly going down, right? So maybe we need to get that.”

That’s the payoff. Real-time notifications help find the machine raising a flag instead of the operator hunting for help. Repeat problems get fixed at the root instead of patched every shift. Machines spend more time making chips, and the people running them spend less time stressed about performance.

Everybody Wins Together

C&M has always had talented people. Before Datanomix, each of them was chasing their own wins. “Everybody tried to create their own successes,” Justin says. “What Datanomix has done is kind of torn down those walls and allowed everybody to be successful together.”

Now the whole floor plays off the same scoreboard. Operators know a part isn’t done when it comes off the machine. It still has to get through wash, quality, shipping, and the plater before it reaches the customer. So they run through breaks, run unattended to the end of the shift, and leave the machine ready for the next person. According to Justin:

“We’ve created a system where we all understand each other’s pains, and we wanna minimize that so we’re all successful.” 

Justin Edwards, Manufacturing Manager

When every department pulls in the same direction, accountability stops being top-down. It becomes how the team works. “We don’t even have to have reviews anymore because we review each other every day.”

Now the whole floor plays off the same scoreboard. That’s rarer than it sounds. At IMTS, shop after shop told us about the 5 stages of ERP grief, building side spreadsheets because nobody trusts the numbers. At C&M, operators are aligned to the plan, and the plan is backed by real machine data.

The Numbers Followed the People

When a team rows in the same direction, the results show it. During the Datanomix Pilot, C&M increased utilization by 18%, uptime by 19%, and capacity used by 13%.

Per machine, that adds 178 hours per year and $14,274 in added productivity at an $80 shop rate, a 6x return. It all came from machines already on the floor. No new equipment required.

Justin’s formula for keeping it going is refreshingly simple. “Get the machine running, run for as consistently and as efficiently as possible, and then go home and do it again tomorrow.”

Curious what’s hiding on your floor? Run your numbers with our ROI calculator, or see how machine monitoring makes you more money.

Twenty Years of Experience, Shared in Five

For Justin, the best part isn’t the numbers. It’s watching his people grow. It took him 20 years to get where he is, and he wants his team to get there faster. “If they can do it in five because I’ve shared all my goods and bads with them, that makes me feel accomplished,” he says.

Datanomix gives him a shared picture to teach from, the same kind of knowledge transfer other customers see. See what Killeen Manufacturing unlocked when it turned a century of tribal knowledge into data insight.

In an industry fighting a skills gap, that investment builds loyalty money can’t buy. “These guys won’t leave me. I won’t leave them.” And it shapes who C&M hires next. “Anybody can learn how to run a machine or check a part. But you can’t be taught integrity.”

“A Life Preserver for Manufacturing Management”

Justin is refreshingly open about how new the role was when he stepped into it. “For me personally, it was almost like a life preserver for manufacturing management,” he says. “I was in the middle of an ocean, and I needed something to help me get to shore.”

Real-time data gave him solid footing to drive daily decisions across a 90,000-square-foot facility. Today, he’s doing much more than staying afloat. “Now I’m starting to grow into that, so it’s helping me build confidence as a manager of a giant facility.”

Better Together

Justin’s formula isn’t complicated. “The answer will always be love, kindness, accountability, forgiveness.” Pair that with real-time data that supports people instead of watching them, and a 1979 family shop becomes a place where people grow, stay, and win together.

“You can’t do it alone,” Justin says. “But together we can do anything.”

Your team is ready to raise their hands. Give them a reason to. Book a demo, and we’ll show you what your machines have been trying to tell you, and how to turn it into better days for everyone on your floor.

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