Multi-tasking is the “in” phrase in engineering circles these days. It makes eminent sense. Why use a variety of machines to fabricate a component if you don’t have to? Every time you have to break a machine down and re-set it, it results in down time, and down time is unproductive time. The longer that any piece of kit remains idle, the less efficient any company’s production process will be.

The Advantages of Multi-tasking

In addition to the actual down time of the machine, there’s also the physical act of moving components around the shop floor to be considered. It’s not only labour intensive. You also run the risk of losing or miscounting items within a batch, or of course misplacing the batch altogether. With a multi-tasking machine, (where all of the various operations are done on the same piece of kit), there’s far less down time. The risk of losing or misplacing items is completely eliminated.