--- title: "VIDEO: Why Automation Without Data Visibility Falls Short, and How Reata Engineering Got It Right" date: 2026-06-16 14:11:24 description: "Reata Engineering's 27% uptime gain and 7x ROI prove automation only pays off when the data behind your decisions is real." keywords: "automation data foundation" categories: [Datanomix Customer Stories, The Datanomix Blog, Video Interviews] tags: [Customer Interviews, Customer Story, Digital Transformation, Machine Monitoring, Manufacturing Technology, Production Monitoring, Real-Time Production Data, Tony Gunn] --- There’s a story precision manufacturers don’t talk about enough: the[ automation investment that didn’t deliver](https://datanomix.io/2026/04/27/best-automation-investments-for-precision-manufacturers/). The pallet pool that’s running half empty. The capacity gain that was sold in the quote but never materialized on the floor. These outcomes don’t happen because the hardware was wrong. They happen because the data layer underneath the automation was wrong, missing, or guessed at. [Reata Engineering](https://reataeng.com/) in Englewood, Colorado, figured this out before they wrote the check. They built the digital foundation first, and then they let the numbers tell them where automation would actually pay off. **The result: **27% more uptime. 28% more utilization. 10% reduction in time wasted. 204 hours and $16,308 in additional productivity per machine, per year. And a [7x ROI on their Datanomix investment](https://datanomix.io/2026/04/23/how-to-make-more-money-in-precision-manufacturing-with-production-monitoring/). In this video, you’ll hear it from Reata’s engineering team, in their own words. **Video:** Vimeo video embedded ### The Automation Conversation All Shops Need to Have When a precision shop starts talking about automation, the conversation usually goes straight to hardware. Which pallet pool? Which cobot? Which fixturing strategy? Which mill-turn platform? Those are the wrong questions. The first question should be: _Do you actually know what your current machines are doing right now?_ Not what you think they’re doing. Not what the schedule says they should be doing. Not what the operator reported at the end of the shift. What they are actually doing, measured continuously, in real time, with no human in the reporting loop. If you don’t know, automation won’t fix it. Automation is going to multiply it. Every blind spot in your current shop becomes more expensive the moment you add a pallet pool, a robot, or unattended hours. Mike Masterson, one of Reata’s engineers, put it this way: _**“If you want to automate anything, you have to be accurate. Our schedule is very accurate because we take so much time quoting. So the quoting is the secret sauce for us to make that schedule work. And that’s probably the linchpin for our automation.”**_ ### What Reata Built Reata runs an engineer-led shop, which is rare. Their engineers don’t just design parts and processes. They also run operations, manage flow, and act as the technical bridge between the floor and the customer. Craig Seykota, an Engineer at Reata, described it this way: _**“We’re leveraging our engineering expertise and bringing that to a more director’s kind of role, which really helps bridge the gap between the shop and the customer.”**_ So [Reata built a connected technical ecosystem](https://datanomix.io/2025/08/20/video-connected-manufacturing-software-how-reata-built-a-technical-ecosystem-that-works/). Datanomix delivers the machine-floor truth: live utilization, real cycle data, automatic notifications when something goes off-plan. Their ERP,[ Fulcrum](https://datanomix.io/fulcrum/), sends its job-planning data, cycle times, and delivery targets straight into Datanomix, so[ the planned and live numbers sit side by side on the same screen](https://datanomix.io/erp-insights/). Reata’s engineers work from a single picture of the shop, plan, and reality simultaneously. Plan and reality at the same time. That’s what the[ digital thread](https://datanomix.io/hexagon-webinar-series/) looks like when it actually works in a precision shop, and it’s a conversation Datanomix is having with the broader manufacturing world. Mike again, explaining the value of that combined view: **“_From the machine side, we can see if we’re getting the utilization that we want out of each of the cells, out of each of the machines.”_** There’s a second payoff most shops miss. When the data is honest, customer conversations change. Every shop has had the moment where a customer asks for an update, and nobody really knows. Someone hunts down the operator. Someone else checks the spreadsheet. The answer is “we think it’ll be done Friday.” That’s not service. That’s a guess with a deadline. With real-time visibility, Darius Totah, another Reata engineer, described how that changes: _**“The biggest thing is obviously just the visualization. That’s helped tremendously with being able to get answers as quickly as possible to customers, especially when they’re expecting parts, or they’re needing something changed real quick.”**_ Customers don’t mind hearing a job is running late nearly as much as they mind hearing it after it’s already late. [Real-time data](https://datanomix.io/production-monitoring/) makes the difference between a defensive phone call and a proactive one. ### The Numbers That Tell the Real Story After the [Datanomix Pilot](https://datanomix.io/request-a-pilot/) wrapped and Reata kept running with it at their normal production rhythm, something interesting started to show up in the numbers. Uptime climbed 27% because the team could finally see where machines were stopped and do something about it instead of finding out later. Utilization climbed to 28%, because once a shop can stop guessing about idle time, the idle time starts declining. [Run the math](https://datanomix.io/roi-calculator/) on what that means per machine, per year. 204 additional productive hours. At a standard $80 shop rate, $16,308 in recovered productivity, every machine, every year. Across the shop, a 7x return. Numbers like that don’t come from a single source. They come from visibility that wasn’t there before, applied to a shop that was ready to act on what it saw. ### What This Means for Your Automation Strategy If you’re a precision shop [looking at automation](https://datanomix.io/2026/04/27/best-automation-investments-for-precision-manufacturers/), the lesson from Reata is worth hearing. Automation amplifies whatever shop you’re already running. If your current operation has blind spots, automation makes them more expensive. If your current operation is clear and well-measured, automation can make it more productive. Real-time machine data is what tells you which one you’ve got. It shows which machines are actually[ ready to automate](https://datanomix.io/automation-calculator/), which cells need attention first, and where the bottlenecks really live, rather than where everyone assumes they do.  That’s the part Reata got right before they started scaling. It’s also why Mike Masterson’s framing keeps coming back to accuracy: _**“If you want to automate anything, you have to be accurate.”**_ Eight words. The whole automation conversation in one sentence. Reata didn’t earn their results by guessing. They earned them by building a foundation so honest that every decision became easier than the last. ## Start With the Foundation Reata’s gains came from seeing their shop clearly, not from buying their way there. Datanomix gives you that same visibility on the machines you already have, so your next automation decision is a measured one instead of a hopeful one. Let’s talk about the foundation under your automation plan. [Book a Demo](https://datanomix.io/schedule-a-demo/) ## RELATED VIDEO: Connected Manufacturing Software: How Reata Built a Technical Ecosystem That Works Reata proves the power of connected manufacturing software. See how they are linking real-time data, production monitoring, and ERP integration into one seamless ecosystem. [Watch Now](https://datanomix.io/2025/08/20/video-connected-manufacturing-software-how-reata-built-a-technical-ecosystem-that-works/) #### Automation Investment Calculator ## Now Run the Numbers for Your Shop Pallets. Cobots. Lights-Out Monitoring. We’ll show you which one pays off first. [RUN THE NUMBERS](https://datanomix.io/automation-calculator)