How to Automate Your Shop Without Overhauling Your Processes

Streamline Production. Boost Efficiency. Keep What Works.

Read Time: 2 Minutes

Are manual processes slowing down your shop, but the thought of a full automation overhaul sounds overwhelming?

If you’re in the sheet metal panel industry, you’re probably juggling tight deadlines, labour shortages, and rising material & labour costs. You need solutions that work right now—not a multi-year restructuring plan.

Good news: you don’t have to start from scratch to automate your workflow. In fact, you can implement targeted automation in key areas of your shop without uprooting your current processes.

Many shops hesitate to automate because they believe it requires:

• Expensive new technology 
• Upgrading their CNC machine or software
• Extensive retraining of their workforce
• Disruptions to existing production schedules
• Pain now for some possible gain later

But that’s not the case. The reality is, most inefficiencies come from small, manual steps—like process bottlenecks, hand measurements and calculations, or repetitive manual checks that eat up valuable hours.

By targeting specific parts of your existing process, you can get automation results fast while maintaining the systems you already trust.

Here’s How It Works:

1. Identify Bottlenecks – Focus on small, repetitive processes that cause delays, such as material setup, or CNC & Tiger Stop entry time.
2. Implement Automation Tools – Use automation solutions that integrate with your current machines (no full system replacements). These can cut out manual labour processes.
3. Optimize Without Disrupting – Introduce automation in phases so your team adjusts seamlessly while production continues uninterrupted.

For example:

• Smart Inventory tracking will keep you on top of ordering critical, long lead time items like extrusion.
• Auto-generated cut lists from your CNC will make it easy to cut your extrusions without worrying about manual calculations and errors.
• Seamless integration with your Tiger Stop makes information flow right through to the end to ensure your cuts are correct. No manual effort or risk of the math not adding up.
• Customized Alerting ensures you are dealing with issues before they cost you money.

The result? More panels out the door in less time—without chaos.

Imagine this:

✅ Inventory is always stocked without over-ordering.
✅ Cut lists are accurate and ready immediately—not whenever your shop foreman gets to it.
✅ TigerStop integration means faster cuts with no entry errors.
✅ You and your team get real-time Alerts—so projects stay on track, and you can focus on what matters.

These aren’t hypothetical results. Shops just like yours have used these tools to:

• Increase production efficiency by 20% or more.
• Eliminate costly errors from manual processes.
• Improve customer satisfaction with automated, clear communication.

Here’s what one shop owner said after using small steps to automate his shop:

“We cut days off our production times. No more scrambling to track inventory, and our customers love getting updates when orders are ready. These solutions made automation simple—and we didn’t have to overhaul anything.”