Productivity metrics for precision manufacturing

December 12, 2025

by a searcher from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH, USA

Hi all! I recently acquired a precision manufacturing company with ~30 machining centers and ~65 staff. Tons of exciting opportunity in this space (we make tooling for aerospace & defense customers.) Any recommendations for sources on productivity metrics (revenue per employee, spindle cutting vs. idle time, etc.)? Anyone seen great documents on shop floor productivity initiatives, e.g., shop still uses paper prints (which obviously needs to stop), etc.?

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Reply by a searcher
from Rice University in Marietta, GA, USA

All are good points especially for machining. I’m currently running a $6m ebitda manufacturing company for a private equity firm and implemented metrics to track the business. I started high level metrics within the first couple months of the acquisition by tracking and reviewing these every day with my employees: # of safety incidents, # of quality defects, Past Due $ amount, On time delivery %. I then got more detailed with things like takt time and inventory turnover as I built more trust and got my employees bought into the benefits to them for tracking the metrics. Also on the paper prints, I would give it some time before getting rid of them. It’s more a difficult implementation than you’d think and you’ll need your team 100% bought into you and how you run the business before you change over to electronic prints and work orders. Good luck! Message me if you have any more questions or want to run something by me. I love manufacturing and happy to talk anytime.

Reply by a searcher
from University of California, Berkeley in San Jose, CA, USA

As an engineer with manufacturing background, I’d say the most useful CNC shop metrics start with: Cutting cycle time – A single part can be machined 1,000+ different ways, so tracking cycle time (and continuously driving toward the most optimized toolpath) is critical metric. OpEx per job – Especially CNC tooling cost (consumption, breakage, inserts/end mills) and electricity/energy per job. These are biggest variables for cost drivers per part. Machines per programmer – A strong indicator of CAM/programming efficiency and how well you’re standardizing processes, reusing proven strategies, and minimizing programming bottlenecks. Machines per operator – Measures staffing efficiency and how well you’ve enabled lights-out tendencies: setup reduction, probing/automation, palletization, reliable workholding, and stable processes.

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