When companies consider adding automation to their plants, often they’ll focus on certain details and think that’s all there is. But true automation is about more than just reorganization, and it can take your company to a new level of production and success. [For all images, See PDF or View in Full Issue.]
Where Automation Actually Begins
In the race to improve efficiency, many shops still fixate on factory layouts, trolleys, forklift paths, and CAD diagrams of machinery placement. It’s a familiar pattern—measure the building, drop in your existing equipment, stretch some dotted lines from one workstation to the next, and call it “workflow optimization.”
But that’s not automation. That’s rearrangement.
Mechanization moves parts faster. Automation removes the question of what part goes where—and when. To really take a business to the next level, automation is the next step in a company’s evolution. Real automation doesn’t begin on the shop floor. It begins in the office—with software that batch-optimizes by construction phase, nests by output, and sequences material delivery based on downstream needs.
The Illusion of Progress
Some voices in the market promote factory layouts with Kanban systems and picker-led material flows that rely on visual cues and tablets to improve coordination. But what happens when the picker’s out sick? What happens when two jobs converge on a roller table and block the outfeed?
If your system still needs a human to pick, read a tablet, or redirect cut lumber to the correct table—you haven’t automated the process. You’ve mechanized the bottlenecks.
There’s a significant difference between incrementally improving your process with an updated floor plan and some new pieces of equipment versus fundamentally reimagining your production with advanced automation.
Real Automation Pulls the Work—It Doesn’t Push It
Automation is not a push system—it’s a pull system. The job doesn’t move forward until everything behind it is ready to feed the next step. That’s the magic: flow control from the front end, not chaos at the back end.
With tools like Hundegger’s Cambium software, the intelligence happens before the first cut. And when paired with Hundegger’s TD-II, TACTical distribution system, and the WoodRanger, parts are selected, cut, stacked, de-stacked, sorted, buffered, and delivered in build order. Automatically. No guesswork. No scavenger hunts.
Let’s do some real math and consider parts per minute rather than steps per worker. With a fully automated system, your production will soar to the next level.
System: Hundegger TD-II + WoodRanger + the right TACTical distribution system (because stacking, nesting, de-stacking, sorting, and buffering is the magic)
Output: 9 parts per minute
averaging 5.5 board feet per part
totaling 2,970 board feet per hour
Production: More than 23,000 board feet in a single 8-hour shift
Number of Operators: 1
Compare that to a system that gets excited about cutting 30% more just by reorganizing picker paths. That’s fine, but it’s still pushing material through the shop. Hundegger pulls the job through with live optimization, smart sequencing, and no human rerouting required.
Mechanization is a Step—Automation is a Leap
Factory layout matters, but not more than logic. True automation means:
- AI-based job sequencing
- Automated material sorting and delivery
- Live optimization and bottleneck avoidance
- Systems that don’t ask the operator what to do next—they already know.
So yes, smart trolleys are better than chaos, but if your picker still holds the keys to your throughput, then the system isn’t running—it’s being run.
If your floor plan is built around moving people and forklifts efficiently, then you’re still solving for labor. Mechanization will only take you so far in your evolution.
When your floor plan is built around pulling jobs through automation, then you’ll be solving for scale. True automation is not about layout—it’s about logic. And logic doesn’t take breaks, call in sick, or wait for someone to push “go.”
When you’d like to learn more about what Hundegger can do for you, please contact me directly or visit the Hundegger website.