In an industry long defined by hard work and incremental improvement, a new chapter is being written. But not everyone seems to realize it.
Some are still telling companies to squeeze more productivity out of crews by reorganizing work paths, tracking stopwatch data, and optimizing jobsite ergonomics. Others celebrate modest efficiency gains after retraining workers to use old tools better.
But let’s be clear: That’s not automation. That’s mechanization.
Mechanization helps people move materials faster. Automation eliminates the manual thinking entirely. Mechanization still needs someone to direct the flow. Automation builds logic into the process so the flow happens without waiting for permission.
Who’s Doing the Thinking in Your Plant?
If your team still depends on pickers and whiteboards to keep production moving, you’re not running an automated facility—you’re just managing organized chaos.
We’ve seen some consultants warn that automation doesn’t fix labor problems. But in 2025, that warning misses the point. Automation literally eliminates personnel problems. That’s the point. It automates the mundane, sequences the complex, and schedules production based on demand—not availability. A smart system doesn’t need your “best guy on the floor.” It frees him to manage exceptions, not operations.
If your definition of improvement still includes clipboards and crew choreography, it’s time to upgrade your thinking.
Are We Still Celebrating 30 Percent Gains?
Lately, we’ve seen applause for production lines that gained 30 percent output after cleaning up workstations or better coordinating labor. That’s fine. But let’s not pretend this is what modern manufacturing is about.
Modern operations don’t try to stretch the crew. They try to reduce the need for the crew. And they definitely don’t rely on the same staff to guess what part goes where, and when.
Some argue that component saws are “underperforming” if they aren’t running at 60 percent or more of theoretical capacity. But we don’t measure productivity by raw blade speed. We measure it by the right part in the right place at the right time. Flooding the floor with overproduction just creates backlog, waste, and confusion. That’s not lean. That’s lazy.
Design-Led Production: The Future Is Here
Some industry voices still frame automation as a back-end problem—a machine running without enough people to feed it. But true automation starts at the design level. With the right software, the design is the process instruction.
Hundegger’s systems optimize from the office, not just the shop. Our software doesn’t just push cuts to a saw—it reverse-engineers the job from the delivery schedule, nests by output, and automatically buffers the flow. It doesn’t need someone to babysit it or make judgment calls at 7 a.m.
And when changes hit, the system adapts instantly. That’s not luck. That’s logic. Built in.
Automation Doesn’t Just Work, It Thinks
Consultants often claim that labor problems are solved by improving hiring or cross-training. That worked in 2010. But if your strategy in 2025 still revolves around staffing up and hoping your A-crew sticks around, you’re gambling with your margins.
Today’s intelligent automation pulls jobs through the plant based on data, not guesswork. No pick lists. No morning huddles. No “best guy” trying to keep the line moving.
And yes, automation literally eliminates personnel problems. That’s the point. It schedules itself, sequences jobs with downstream logic, and doesn’t need your floor supervisor to nudge it along.
Final Thought
If you’re comparing systems this year, ask tougher questions. Are you buying faster blades and more conveyors, or are you buying intelligence?
Are you empowering your crew to keep up, or empowering your system to do the thinking?
If the answer still relies on people to pick, route, decide, or adjust—then it’s not automation. It’s mechanization, with a glossy brochure.
At Hundegger, we believe automation should do more than work. It should think. And in this market, that’s not optional anymore. It’s essential.