4 signs your shop is ready to invest in a CNC router

By scribe

Keeping up with the demands of a growing business can be a major hurdle for a lot of shop owners. Whether you specialize in creating custom cabinetry, furniture, signage, or something else altogether, scaling up production brings with it a new series of tough questions and decisions.

Should I hire new employees? Should I invest in new technology? Can I afford to do either?

In many cases, investing in a CNC router is a decision that pays for itself exponentially over time for a lot of upstart shop owners. Here are some of the main telltale signs your shop is ready to invest in a CNC router.

You are falling behind production schedules

A key component of every growing business is an increase in demand, but because many small shops begin as one- or two-person operations, meeting this demand can be a challenge – especially without access to professional-grade equipment.

Using hand tools and table saws to complete projects makes it almost impossible to keep up with growing production schedules, especially when customers for things like cabinetry expect work to be done in just a few weeks – not months. This also makes it difficult to proactively plan projects ahead of time and can lead to you spending a lot of early mornings and late nights in the shop.

One of the biggest CNC advantages is that it allows you to ramp up production to a massive degree, completing projects in a fraction of the time and cost while leveraging automation to perform work so you can take care of other tasks around the shop. A CNC router makes it much easier to meet increased production demands without sacrificing quality or having to hire new employees.

You want to bring production in-house

It is also common for many small businesses to outsource production in order to keep up with demand, but this can compromise control over the process and can lead to a lower-quality result. With less control over turnaround times, outsourcing can also further delay projects as you wait for the third-party partner to complete their work.

CNC technology allows you to bring production in-house with ease and to make it more efficient, putting you in full control of your process and of the work you bring into the world.

You are considering hiring new employees

One of the most common dilemmas for growing business owners is the decision to either invest in new employees or in new technology. In most cases, a CNC router can surpass the productivity of one or multiple new hires for a fraction of the cost.

While the upfront cost of purchasing a CNC router may initially be greater than that of a new hire, the level of production and the ROI experienced soon make it more than worth it. In fact, many recent purchasers of CNC equipment speak of it as if it is a new employee, often saying they wish they’d taken the leap earlier to keep growing the business.

Unlike an employee, a CNC machine can work any schedule you need it to, produces consistent, high-quality results, and is never a threat to leave or to have a lazy, unproductive day. CNC technology is always there and ready to work to produce outstanding components for you.

Your production quality has taken a hit

As business ramps up and you begin to experiment with new ways to maintain production, it’s not uncommon for the quality of the parts you’re producing to take a hit. Whether that is the result of outsourcing, rushed work, increased stress, or any number of additional factors, it can be damaging to your reputation and to your customer loyalty.

Not only will a CNC router increase your efficiency and automation capability, but it will also produce extremely precise and repeatable cuts on every project, so you can get back to producing the type of work you want to be known for.

Take your shop to the next level with CNC technology from ShopSabre

ShopSabre’s industry-best CNC routers and plasmas are designed to help shop owners grow their production through unmatched precision, repeatability, and automation – all at an affordable price.

Our machines are easy to get up and running and to learn how to operate, even without any formal training. Our team of dedicated experts offers one-on-one support to help find the right machine for you and to make sure it works the way you and your business need it to.

Here are a few of the reasons ShopSabre is able to develop and produce such revolutionary CNC technology:

• Experienced in-house engineering talent
• The ability to totally fabricate and test designs onsite
• The ability to place the designs into production in-house

Shop our unmatched collection of CNC routers and CNC plasmas in Minneapolis today to experience CNC the way it was meant to be.