Read Time: 3 Minutes
Word Count: 682 Words
Key Take Away: Customers who have added more robots are happier because life is easier.
Our Customers Look Back and Laugh
We've noticed something about our customer base that shouldn't be surprising. But to be honest, I was taken aback at the level and frequency with which we are seeing this.
Our customers are talking about how much better business is since they added our robots. Their comments are clearly heartfelt. Their happiness is authentic and genuine.
I suspect my surprise comes from always being so focused on the business side of robots that it can be easy to forget about the human side of robots. Adding robots to tend your CNC machines dramatically affects your machine shop. But it also has an even bigger effect on machine shop leaders.
Many of our customers have added multiple robots and seem even happier than those who have only added one.
Makes sense.
If one robot increases your control over production, reduces your costs, and helps you hedge against inflation, adding more robots multiples those effects.
With the ability to redeploy those former machine operators into new roles within the company, everyone is happier. The former machine operators are happier because they no longer have to do that awful job. No one grows up wanting to be a machine operator.
Those former machine operators help spread joy within the company. They are happier and others see that. And they feel it. Having the robots gives everyone a better sense of that machine shop being there for the long haul. The people can feel like there is a future. They won’t have to leave to find that future.
That makes recruiting easier. Candidates can tell what the company culture is like when they visit for an interview. They may not overtly think it, but they do get a sense of what it is like to work there. They see people smiling or frowning. Those candidates take that with them.
Not only are our customers happier, but they seem so much more at ease. What do mean by that?
They smile more.
The furrow lines in their forehead are gone.
They are more upbeat.
They laugh.
Some of them have commented that their production cells are much quieter. After digging deeper, I realized that his comments were tongue-in-cheek.
He said he missed some of the snappy banter in front of the CNC machines. But he also said he gets in the other parts of the company where the former machine operators are working.
He also pointed out that the lack of conversation wasn’t from "quiet quitting." You may have heard that term before. Quiet quitting is where employees do the minimal amount of required work to keep their job.
He said the quiet comes from "Wordless Working." The robots are busy all the time, and they never say a word. The robots do what they were built to do – tend the CNC machine. He said he loves hearing the sound of the robot and the CNC machine working together. That sound is music and money to his ears.
And he doesn’t have to listen to as many complaints. The robots don’t complain that the pizza the company bought for the employee lunch wasn't hot enough. Robots don't complain that they didn't get any pizza.
The robots don't complain that while the team was in the lunchroom relaxing, they were hard at work tending the CNC machine.
The robots do what they do best. Wordless Working.
These robots were built for the sole purpose of tending CNC machines. That makes them incredibly efficient at what they do. You aren’t trying to make a pitcher play third base. You aren’t struggling to teach the robot something new. Something for which it wasn’t designed. It was designed specifically to tend the CNC machine.
They don't cut or weld, and they don't make French Fries.
They only tend the CNC machine, but that is more than enough.
While that is important, they do one thing that is even more important.
They give you more time to smile and run your machine shop more profitably.