Making Machine Monitoring Matter

Pindel Global Precision is a Wisconsin-based company that specializes in high volumes of complex, precise turned parts for agriculture, electrical, hydraulic, and general industry. Its sister company, Liberty Precision, holds an AS certification to focus on aerospace and defense parts. Photos provided by Pindel Global Precision.

Machine monitoring is a powerful tool, but machine shops often struggle to move from simply gathering data to using that data to drive real improvements on the shop floor. This often happens when no one takes clear responsibility for the platform. Just as a shop wouldn't buy a machine tool without assigning someone to run it, machine monitoring also requires a dedicated champion on the shop floor. It may have taken high-volume turned-parts manufacturer Pindel Global Precision seven years to make this change, and it’s starting to results that are worth the wait.

Screw Machines and Swiss-Types

Anton S. Pindel founded Pindel Global Precision in 1947 in downtown Milwaukee. “All the machines were originally multi-spindle screw machines,” says Thomas Deslongchamps, director of training and continuous improvement. The company grew steadily, with Anton’s son Mark eventually relocating the business to New Berlin, Wisconsin. In 2012, current CEO Bill Berrien acquired the company and expanded its capabilities, adding 20 CNC mills and lathes along with 18 CNC Swiss-type machines. “We’ve been continuously growing our Swiss machining department,” Deslongchamps notes. “It’s become a key area of focus.”

Alongside this newer, advanced technology, Pindel continues to operate 28 multi-spindle screw machines. Although these machines use older technology, Pindel has found they complement the Swiss-types well. “They’re significantly less expensive than CNC machines,” Deslongchamps explains, “and with the right technology, tooling and creative setups, we can produce quality parts at high volumes with lower cycle times than CNC machines.” 

According to Deslongchamps, the shop’s specialty is “highly complex, highly precise turned parts at medium-to-high volume.” This means anywhere from a thousand parts to upwards of a million. Pindel serves industries such as agriculture, electrical, hydraulic, and industrial components, while its AS-certified sister company, Liberty Precision, focuses on aerospace and defense. 

High-volume production means that small improvements can have large effects. With that goal in mind, Pindel first implemented machine monitoring software from MachineMetrics seven years ago. 

After years of inconsistent use, Pindel committed to incorporating MachineMetrics into its daily operations. The company hired a director of training and continuous improvement to champion the tool on the shop floor, ensuring it’s part of the shopfloor culture and addressing concerns with machine operators.

Championing a Culture of Continuous Improvement

But Pindel struggled to use MachineMetrics consistently. According to Deslongchamps, enthusiasm would spike periodically, only to fade. “Because it wasn’t clearly owned, it effectively became no one's responsibility and fell into disuse,” he explains.

This pattern changed when Berrien recognized the need for accountability. In September 2024, he hired Deslongchamps as director of training and continuous improvement. “A significant part of my mandate from Bill was making MachineMetrics integral to how we work,” Deslongchamps says.

To ensure success, Deslongchamps quickly realized the implementation had to be ingrained into the company culture. He addressed potential employee concerns head-on, particularly fears that the system would feel like surveillance. “The goal was never to point fingers or cast blame,” he stresses. “Instead, the intention has always been to grow together, strengthen the business, and make our jobs easier.”

Deslongchamps credits Berrien with establishing a foundation of strong teamwork and continuous improvement even before his arrival. Building upon this, Deslongchamps spoke directly with machinists and supervisors about their past experiences and reservations regarding MachineMetrics. “Having someone explicitly responsible for MachineMetrics sent a clear message that this time, it’s here to stay,” he says.

Supervisors have access to live machine status information via dashboards on the shop floor, enabling them to respond quickly when issues arise. This data also helps machinists efficiently and safely handle more machines.

Setting Up For Success

Pindel connected MachineMetrics to all its Swiss-type and multi-spindle machines. Although screw machines provide less data than CNC equipment, monitoring them still brings benefits. “Even with less data than comes from the CNCs, we can still gain insights into capacity, downtime patterns, and reasons for stoppages,” Deslongchamps explains.

Critical to effectively driving improvements, Deslongchamps needed to ensure the shop had clean, accurate data. This meant reconnecting tablets on every machine and ensuring machinists consistently use the interface to provide a clear picture of machine runtime and downtime causes.

While cleaning up the data, Deslongchamps explored the full capabilities of MachineMetrics. “I invested considerable time learning to navigate the reports and leveraging the excellent support resources provided,” he says. The next step was to pick a single project, find a relevant metric, and focus on improving it. “You can drown in data,” he says. “The real benefit comes from selecting one clear metric, driving targeted improvements, and seeing tangible results.” He used an effort-versus-impact approach when choosing a project, tackling manageable but high-impact projects first to build momentum.

MachineMetrics data showed that first-piece inspection was a bottleneck to getting parts from setup into production. Improved communication between machine operators and the quality department via walkie-talkies has reduced first-part inspection times by 50%.

Machine Monitoring on the Shop Floor

One significant discovery in the data was that first-piece inspection times were substantially higher than expected. Confirming this issue with machinists, Deslongchamps brought the production and quality teams together to find a solution. The teams equipped themselves with walkie-talkies to communicate when parts were ready for inspection and implemented automated notifications within MachineMetrics to alert quality personnel immediately when inspections were needed. This simple solution reduced inspection time by around 50%, speeding the transition from setup to production.

Another important insight emerged from analyzing MachineMetrics’ timeline data: machines sat idle unnecessarily during lunch and breaks. “If we see machines run consistently in the morning, they're ideal candidates to keep running through breaks,” Deslongchamps explains. The production team identified machines that were cleared to run lights-out and began consistently running through breaks, adding hours of production time per day.

Dashboards displaying live machine status also improved responsiveness. Supervisors can quickly see which machines require attention, either from the dashboards on the floor or by accessing them from their offices. This data also benefits machinists. “Dashboards allowed machinists handling multiple machines to multitask efficiently and safely,” he says. Combined, these changes formed part of a comprehensive initiative that boosted Swiss machine utilization by 35% within three months.

Pindel is working to further integrate MachineMetrics into its operations by implementing new features such as Tool Anomaly Detection, which it’s testing on four machines. It promises to predict and prevent tool failures by using AI to analyze spindle load, torque and speed.

More Opportunities for Improvement

Pindel is working to evaluate and implement additional MachineMetrics features, including ERP integration, to create a fully integrated digital thread throughout the business. “The more automated our data transfer, the smarter our pricing and job analysis will become,” says Deslongchamps. ERP integration will also enable the shop to use MachineMetrics’ Production Schedule Intelligence, which provides real-time capacity insights to dynamically optimize work scheduling and ensure smoother throughput.

Additionally, Pindel is testing MachineMetrics’ Tool Anomaly Detection feature on four machines. This feature is designed to prevent costly machine crashes and help shops maximize tool life. It monitors the machine’s spindle load, torque and speed, then uses AI to analyze this data and predict when tools might fail. “It ensures we're neither wasting usable tool life nor pushing tools beyond their limits,” Deslongchamps notes, adding that this feature is especially valuable for higher-volume applications.

It may have taken seven years and several false starts, but Pindel has finally implemented machine monitoring in a sustainable, enduring way. By designating a champion, the shop was able to make the culture changes necessary to advance beyond just gathering data to driving improvements. Deslongchamps says the 35% utilization increase on its Swiss-type machines is just the beginning. Future expansions could connect MachineMetrics to more equipment such as CNC mills and lathes. However, Deslongchamps believes there’s still considerable untapped potential within existing applications. “We haven't maxed out improvements on our current Swiss-type and screw machines yet,” he says. “There's still a lot of juice left in the squeeze.”