Flexxbotics Blog

Many of the concepts discussed in this post are drawn from techniques established in semiconductor fabrication for decades called advanced process control. Taking these foundational methods, applying them across manufacturing for all industries, and extending them to modern smart factory environments, whether using AI or not, is

As AI adoption continues to grow, the challenge shifts from experimentation to safe and consistent operationalization in production environments. Controls engineers and industrial technologists are increasingly under pressure. The issue is the factory automation architecture required to support AI in production.

As factories mature their automation installations, the challenge shifts from automating individual machines and cells to scaling the automation architecture for autonomy across lines, plants, and changing production requirements. Controls engineers, automation engineers, and manufacturing technologists are increasingly expected to:

As factories become data-rich, the challenge shifts to acting on that data in real time with consistency and control. Automation and controls engineers have spent years instrumenting factories with: Sensors and machine signals, SCADA, historians, and IIoT, ERP, MES, QMS, and other factory systems. The gap is not visibility, the gap is closed-loop execution in production.

Every modern factory connects machines, what engineers struggle with is coordinating them at scale. Automation and controls engineers are increasingly asked to deliver systems where factory machines and tools, automation, robots, test & inspection systems, and enterprise software operate as a cohesive production system, not isolated automation silos. Yet most factory

Modern manufacturing systems are not lacking control, they are lacking architectural clarity at scale. Most factories have all of these components. What they don’t have is a coherent architectural model that defines how they should work together. This post answers four critical questions such as How do I structure my overall manufacturing automation architecture,

Hidden scaling problems often emerge when factory automation expands beyond a single cell to multiple lines or plants. This article explores why automation that performs well at the machine level becomes increasingly complex at scale—highlighting challenges with system architecture, integration, standardization, and maintainability across the factory environment.

When people ask “what scales best,” they’re rarely asking about CPU clock rate or memory. In practice, “scale” breaks on integration cost, data consistency, change management, and lifecycle governance – not on whether the PLC line has a bigger chassis. Most major PLC families can scale in raw I/O count or distributed

Additive manufacturing (AM) has matured into a strategic production technology across defense, aerospace, medical devices, semiconductor packaging, and automotive. The engineering advantages are well established: complex geometries, lightweighting, part consolidation,

In the Flexxbotics automation ecosystem, a Transformer is a software component (connector driver) that enables bi-directional, interoperable communication between machine controllers, robotic controllers, PLCs, and diverse factory automation, inspection equipment, or enterprise IT systems. Transformers are central to the

After doing automation deployments for more than a decade, my frustration hit a breaking point. Not with automation itself – this industry is my life – but with how constrained, restricted, and outdated our tooling has become. Every deployment felt like fighting the same battles over and over again, even as factories demanded more

Recently I had the chance to sit down with Jack Hallewell from Humanoid Robotics Technology to talk about the role we see humanoids playing in manufacturing. At Flexxbotics, we’ve been exploring the role humanoids will play in factories, fabs, labs, and other production environments – and how our capabilities make that vision real.

While reshoring offers strategic benefits like shorter supply chains, improved IP protection, and reduced geopolitical risk, higher domestic labor costs and skills shortages remain major barriers. Automation, particularly advanced machine tending and

Autonomous Process Control creates closed-loop autonomy between your machines making products, your inspection & test systems reviewing their work, and your robots. APC makes real-time robotic production processing adjustments based

Wanted to explain something important that most people don’t understand or fully consider when implementing advanced robotic machine tending for production in regulated industries; the topic is Line Clearance and how it relates to Production Changeovers when

There are certain topics in advanced robotic machine tending that are critical to understand in order to achieve “lights out” manufacturing. In today’s post, I want to briefly cover one of the most critical for successful production robotic

I had the chance to sit down with Mike DeGrace from Universal Robots at the Automate 2025 show, and it was a great opportunity to talk about what we’re building at Flexxbotics and why it matters. At our core, Flexxbotics is focused on

In today’s post, I want to cover a topic we get asked about a lot, which is automating part and job changeover – is it possible and how do you do it? The following is a brief summary, for a deeper dive you’ll want to download our Complete Guide to Robotic Machine Tending

In this post I want to run through a quick overview video (~6 mins) of our Modular Applications and Industrial Console enabled as part of the Flexxbotics solution which we were showcasing at Automate 2025 last week in case you weren’t able to see it live.

The latest episode explains how “lights-out” manufacturing is highly autonomous production where robots and automated machinery perform work without human intervention. The approach utilizes robotic systems in combination with factory equipment and robotic

Sadly, most robot projects fail because they rely on custom, one-off software technology – especially in industries like medical devices, aerospace, and defense, where installations often become overly complex science projects.

Today, I’m going to briefly cover the most common pitfalls that can derail your projects. Avoiding these can be just as important as following the best practices because issues like undefined goals, inadequate preparation, and lack of

With today’s labor uncertainty more and more companies are deciding that now is the time to adopt robotic machine tending. However, there are a lot of considerations to ensure your project will achieve the desired outcomes. At Flexxbotics we believe that success starts with following best practices.

Robotic machine tending maximizes equipment utilization during existing shifts as well as nights, weekends, and holidays without human oversight, and can be especially beneficial when facing labor or skills challenges. Additionally, if keeping margins intact is important, robotic automation will be important to your strategy.

Automating machine tending with robots in your factory provides a wide range of benefits from longer unattended runs and greater capacity to increased profit per part. However, robotic automation presents certain challenges that are not always obvious. These include interfacing between the robots and CNCs and other machines, managing multi-machine operations, and

If you’re planning to introduce robotic automation for machine tending, you’re probably thinking about what different kinds of parts work best with robots?
The good news is that there has been real progress in robotic machine tending so these days robots and cobots are able to handle a wide range of part types from simple stock parts all the w

Safety and risk assessments are essential when implementing CNC robotic machine tending installations to protect both factory personnel and equipment as well as avoid the potential for damage, injury, and liability.
These assessments evaluate potential hazards associated with robotic operations, such as moving parts, high-speed equipment, and unexpected stops or starts.

Commonly automated processes include turning and machining, inspection & test, injection molding (such as insert molding and overmolding), additive manufacturing, assembly, kitting, and disassembly. Robots are also effective for production lines that require repetitive, precise handling of parts. Quality inspection and testing, in particular,

Industry 4.0 – the fourth industrial revolution – represents a significant shift in manufacturing through the use of smart factory technologies. Key components include robotic automation, industrial internet connectivity using open standards, and six sigma levels of process control for ‘lights out’ production. The overarching goal is

These tools are included in our recently published white paper – Complete Guide to Robotic Machine Tending Projects. Another resource that can be of assistance is the Request for Proposal (RFP) starter template example which provides sections and language to clearly outline project requirements and evaluate vendor responses including:

Wanted to share another useful resource today – the ROI Justification Starter Spreadsheet – which will help you plan business objectives and justify your robotic machine tending projects, particularly if they are for Advanced Robotic Machine Tending involving multiple machines, multiple operations, and multiple parts with

Autonomous Manufacturing is automated, self-governing smart factory operations, a key element of Industry 4.0, which uses robots and robotic production software digitalization along with existing systems to optimize production with minimal human involvement. Achieving autonomous manufacturing requires attaining autonomy in production process control and

Another useful resource is the Robot Machine Tending Project Checklist which provides more than 80 points to consider for a successful robotic machine tending project. In next gen manufacturing environments, advanced machine tending with robotics has become essential for improving throughput, efficiency, precision, and safety.

This time let’s take a look at “why” you would want to use robots – either industrial or collaborative – for machine tending in the first place. Robots enhance CNC machine tending by automating repetitive tasks like loading, unloading, material handling, inspection, and other operations. This improves efficiency, reduces human error, and enables machines to run continuously,

The paper provides comprehensive info on the different aspects of a machine tending initiative using either cobots or industrial robots to achieve greater unattended operation, higher yields, and better margins. Included in the paper are several practical tools that’ll help successfully guide you through your factory’s robotic automation projects.

Now it’s important to make the distinction between conventional CNC automation and using robots for machine tending with CNCs. The term “CNC automation” refers to CNC machines with specific add-on components like part feeders, pallet loaders, and CNCs with robot arms built into the machine itself. While these systems can be useful in certain cases they lack the flexibility

Today, I want to take look at the difference between basic CNC robot machine tending and Advanced Robotic Machine Tending. While there are a number of differences, the key distinction is that basic machine tending involves a single robot with one machine whereas advanced machine tending involves one or more robots

Autonomous Process Control (APC) is a solution using robots and automated inspection to achieve high-precision, repeatable manufacturing without human intervention. Key components include industrial and collaborative robotics, automated inspection technologies, and standardized robotic

Advanced robotic machine tending is a technology that uses standardized robotic production software to digitalize robots and automate complex tasks associated with multiple factory machines and other plant equipment. Basic robotic machine tending focuses on simple tasks like loading and

How to automate your CNCs with robots – When undertaking a robotic machine tending initiative there are numerous factory-dependent and project-specific considerations that must be taken into account. Identifying which requirements are relevant to an initiative and to what extent is

In this Flexxbotics | AI Explainer podcast, we step onto the floor of the smart factory, where robots are revolutionizing manufacturing. This audio summary breaks down the concept of robotic machine tending — an automation technology that’s transforming companies produce products. It explores how

Last week, we participated with Universal Robots and Machine Design in hosting our latest webcast, Transforming Production with Robotic Machine Tending. My presentation dove into how robotic automation is reshaping modern manufacturing.

During our recent event with FOBA, Universal Robots and Flexxbotics we did a Live Demonstration of an Advanced Robotic Machine Tending set-up with all this equipment plus a Hass PLC (CNC simulator) and a

We had great turnout with some people flying from across the country and others road tripping from all over the Northeast. It was great to see so many interested in this topic and in my opinion face-to-face is always best for

I’m looking forward to presenting our real-world experiences of running advanced robot machine tending with laser marking & etching at our upcoming event with FOBA and UR next week. The event is happening on Thursday 1 August from 8:30am

Recently I saw a really good post by Chase Fearing over at Sub-Zero where he shared his experience and lessons learned in implementing cobots on the manufacturing floor. They were all really good points and things not everyone thinks about when undertaking a cobot automation project for

Over the last couple of week’s, I’ve highlighted some of the new functionality added in the latest release of our Flexxbotics solution for robot-driven manufacturing including multi-factory power and in-line quality

Some of the other functionality that I’m excited about is the expansion of our in-line inspection capabilities, which use automated inspection results to drive real-time updates to off-sets in CNC machining programs which

Included in the release are several new and expanded capabilities that the team has been working on to further enhance our solution such as multi-factory power, expanded in-line inspection functionality, more IT business system

A recently released report by Verified Market Reports does an excellent job explaining the Top 5 challenges that manufacturers confront in adopting CNC Robotic Machine

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Kristian McCann at IoT Insider for a Q&A recently to discuss the role of robotics in Industry 4.0 and 5.0, applications of robots in factories and some of the challenges in

At Flexxbotics, we’re making the future real today with our breakthrough solution for robot-driven manufacturing. Check out this new video which explains how we empower the robots to analyze and adapt in real-time,

I’m looking forward to presenting our unique perspective on advanced robot machine tending at the Universal Robots Innovate to Elevate webinar event next week. The webcast is next

We’re pleased to announce that Scott Harris, co-founder of SOLIDWORKS and Onshape, has invested in Flexxbotics. Scott has been an advisor and mentor to me for a number of years as we’ve been scaling up Flexx. This investment marks

In this Partner Insights video, Jeff Foster, Business Development Manager at Hexagon covers CMM Dimensional Measurement…

We are excited to showcase our solutions for Robot-Driven Manufacturing at FABTECH 2023 on September 11-14, 2023…

In this distributor insights video, Tim Anderson, Sales Director at Automation Inc. covers the rising demand for…

In this partner insights video, Mike DeGrace, UR+ Ecosystem Manager at Universal Robots covers adopting flexible CNC…

In this partner insights video, Anthony Gillespie, Territory Sales Manager at Schunk covers how CNC automation can overcome…

Flexxbotics was pleased to sponsor three students from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) for their senior year…

In this customer spotlight video, Jackson Brining, Automation and Process Engineer at Machining Concepts talks about…

Flexxbotics will showcase its FlexxTend™ complete robotic machine tending solution at Automate 2023 on May 22-25 in…

Flexxbotics will exhibit at the upcoming Northwest Machine Tool Expo with our partner Olympus Controls on May…

Flexxbotics is excited to announce that we have expanded the functionality of our FlexxCNC™ cobot to CNC communications…

In today’s competitive job market, it is increasingly difficult to find skilled workers in certain industries. CNC machining is no….

We’re looking forward to attending the Precision Machining Technology Show on Apr 18-20, 2023 at the Huntington…

Flexxbotics announces the official launch of FlexxTend™, a turnkey automated machine tending solution for machine shops to…

Standardizing your CNC machine tending interfaces can have several benefits for your manufacturing process. From improving…

In this partner insights video, Karl Ericsson, Managing Director at Svenska Elektrod AB, talks all things CNC machine

Flexxbotics is excited to announce a new partnership with CIMTEC Automation, expanding our presence in VA, NC and…