Large manufacturers employ teams of experienced engineers who can help the machine shop boost throughput, reduce scrap rates and shorten setup times. Small job shops and contract manufacturers? Not so much.

Here, the engineering role typically falls to the shop owner, a lead machinist or even the CNC operator—people who are often too busy getting parts out the door to worry about overly long setups or cutting tools that wear faster than they should.

The good news is that there are plenty of practical tools and techniques available to help these small shops achieve the same improvements enjoyed by the big ones. Examples include offline tool presetting, which can easily eliminate hours of CNC downtime each week, and a robust coolant management strategy that improves both tool life and part quality.

One of the best ways to standardize processes—and make them more efficient—is through quick-change workholding. At first glance, it’s expensive stuff, especially when implemented across the shop. Yet zero-point tooling like that discussed here makes setups both easier and faster—thereby raising overall equipment effectiveness—and simplifies programming besides.

Workholding Fundamentals: Fixturing Strategies Every Small Shop Should Know

Michael Gaunce, vice president of sales – tooling & workholding at SCHUNK in Morrisville, North Carolina, explains that workholding strategies are often overlooked, even though they can have the greatest impact on a shop’s spindle utilization time. There are standard products available that are modular and flexible, such as multi-clamping rail vises or direct workpiece clamping systems.

“These are great for vertical machines because they allow for clamping a range of workpieces from large plates to multiple smaller components,” Gaunce says. “However, this typically involves preparing the raw material for clamping pins and then using a matching device to clamp onto the pins, allowing access to all five sides of the workpiece in a single operation.”

Mathew Evans agrees. “Zero-point isn’t a luxury anymore—it’s a necessity,” says Evans, vice president of workholding products with 5th Axis in San Diego. He notes that every time a shop tears down a vise, indicates it, dials in the offsets and hopes everything is square, that’s dead spindle time they’re never getting back.

“A zero-point base gets installed and trued up once,” Evans says. “After that, any fixture, vise or tombstone in the shop that shares the same pull-stud pattern drops onto that same datum in seconds. So you’re not re-proving out your setup on every job—you’re reusing a setup you already trust.”

Evans is quick to point out that this doesn’t mean throwing away the shop’s machinists’ vises. That said, a manual vise that must be indicated in from scratch every time is the wrong tool when shops are running mixed lot sizes and quick turnarounds. “Self-centering, quick-change vises that key into a zero-point base give you the clamping you’re used to without surrendering the repeatability.”

Reducing Setup Time: Offline Programming and Standardized Tooling Systems

As noted earlier, standardized tooling makes the programming process easier and less prone to costly mistakes. Evans outlines some common mistakes in this arena and tips on how to prevent them:

Mistake: Programming offline against an assumed setup instead of a verified one

A program built against a fixture model that doesn’t match what's actually bolted to the table—wrong riser height, an old adapter that’s since been swapped—turns “saved setup time” into a floor-side scramble.
 Recommendation: Keep the CAD fixture library current as physical tooling changes, and validate fit and clearance directly against the model before committing a program—not from memory of how the fixture used to be configured.

Mistake: Standardizing the tooling but not the programming workflow around it

Some shops invest in a common fixture grid but still let each programmer rebuild setups from scratch in CAD, which means the hardware is standardized while the workflow isn’t—leaving most of the time savings on the table.
 Recommendation: Build and save a library of proven setups for the standardized fixtures, so new jobs start with a validated configuration rather than a blank file. Fixture and programming standardization have to happen together—one without the other leaves savings on the table.

Mistake: Underestimating the training curve for new operators

Shops sometimes assume a lock-and-go system is self-explanatory and skip formal training, then run into inconsistent results when a new hire doesn’t understand why the sequence matters.
 Recommendation: Document the standard changeover sequence—including torque values and inspection checks—as part of the onboarding process, not as tribal knowledge passed from operator to operator.

“Offline programming only pays off if your fixturing is predictable,” Evans says. “If every job needs a custom subplate or a hand-tapped adapter, you can’t program ahead of time—you’re guessing until the part’s actually on the table. Standardize the tooling interface and you can build, simulate and verify a program before the machine even finishes the last job. That’s where the real time savings live—not in the cut, in everything around it.”

Despite the obvious advantages, many shops are slow to adopt standardized workholding. Much of their reluctance comes down to upfront cost and inertia: standardized tooling means buying into a system—bases, pull studs, top tooling—which is real capital for a small shop.

“The shops that hesitate are usually comparing that cost against doing nothing, not against what they’re already losing in setup labor,” he states. “Once you tally the spindle-down hours from constant re-indicating, the math flips fast. The other honest barrier is legacy work: If you’ve got a shop full of custom fixtures built over 20 years, retrofitting them takes a real transition plan, not just a purchase order.”

Gaunce concurs. Invest in some kind of standardized quick-change system, he recommends, even if the tooling’s logo is different. “It’s super easy with a quick-change pallet system like VERO-S: It provides access to the complete SCHUNK portfolio of compatible workholding products like rail vises, centering vises, fixed-jaw vises, three-jaw chucks and so on,” he says. “Not only that, but it’s also incredibly simple to modify your existing workholding with our clamping pins to make them compatible with the VERO-S clamping station.”

When to Upgrade: Signs Your Shop Has Outgrown Its Current CNC Setup

If you’re wondering whether it’s time to upgrade, Gaunce’s answer is simple: as soon as possible. “What we hear most from contract manufacturers is that they find it easiest to work it into the budget of their next big job,” he says. “When taking on a new job, work it into the setup costs for some new workholding. Think about how you can invest in standardized workholding instead of building a special fixture that’s suited only for that job. If you’re not already invested in flexible workholding and enjoying quick-change setups on your CNC mill today, then you’re already behind.”