When Charlie Gagnon was hired by the owner of EMMPrecision nearly a decade ago, his job was to get the shop back on track. Company founder Robert McIntire told Charlie he wanted the programming in the hands of the non G-code machinists on the floor, not a programmer off in a separate room. Charlie’s first order of business was to convert the exclusively G-code shop to a more eff icient method. After weeks of research by Jesse Tennis (Charlie’s right handman, now President), the Hurco machines kept rising to the top of the list. Jesse believed this was the only machine thatwould truly fit EMMPrecision Inc. Once EMM Precision purchased their first Hurco, they tossed the G-code manuals and never looked back. Their competitive advantage is competence and determination. “We get it done no matter what it takes. Our customers know they can count on us and that keeps them coming back,” said Charlie. With three Hurco VM1 machining centers, a Hurco VMX60 machining center, one VM1 Productionmachining center, one 5-axis VM10U, two TMM8 multi-tasking lathes with live tooling and two olderHurco VMCs, EMMPrecision cranks out thousands of parts permonth. Charlie said the Hurcomachines do everything from prototype parts to dedicated, 24/7 production work. “We are a true job shop. No customer representsmore than 30%of our total revenue. We do a lot of military parts, but we also do parts for aerospace, medical, solar, robotics and automotive,” said Charlie. In addition to EMM Precision’s “get it done” attitude, the company’s pragmatic approach to determining the economics of each job has contributed to sustained efficiency. Because EMMPrecision has both aHurco VMX60machining center that they use as part of a manufacturing cell with their turning centers and two multitasking TMM8 slant-bed lathe turning centers with live tooling, they have more options to realize the greatest efficiency for each job. Instinctively, the EMM Precision team knows whether the Hurco TMM8 multi-tasking machine is the best fit or whether they can get the job done fas ter wi th the VMX60/turning center cell. All of the CNCmachinists at EMM Precision use Hurco conversational programming instead of G-code. Charlie said conversational programming eliminates the expense and the bottleneck of a CAD/CAMdepartment. The integrated Hurco control and intuitive software eliminate redundant steps and the tedious task of entering codes. Charlie said an additional advantage of Hurco’s shop floor programming is the ability to train employees quickly. “It’s like going from MS DOS to MS Windows. It’s that easy,” explains Charlie. The graphics and straightforward software screens make programming intuitive. In fact, Charlie said the two employees who run the Hurco Machines each day say they can’t believe it’s so easy and always have the feeling there should be “more to it than this.” Both of them say they would never go back to G-code now that they use the Hurco control. Because of Hurco’s track record of developing technology that increases productivity and manufacturing machines that last, EMM Precision recently purchased a Hurco 5-axis VM10U. Keith Dalpe, Vice President, said themachinewas purchased specifically for a newcontract that EMMPrecision won for a military part. “Everybody loves it. It’s just unbelievable what this machine does,” said Keith of the VM10U. “With the VM10U, we went from nine operations to two on this military part. We save 40 minutes per piece in cycle time alone and easily save an hour and 10 minutes total. Maybe even more important to our bottom line is the fact that the operator is running two other machines while the VM10U is making chips,” said Keith. The learning curve on the 5-axis VM10U proved to be just asminimal as the Hurco machines. “We had a job with multiple sides and our operator was already running the job on the VM10U when the trainer came for the training session. We do the entire job with conversational on the control Right at themachine,” said Keith. “Another advantage when you go from doing a part on a 3-axismachine to 5-axis is that you have less handling and you lessen the opportunity for error. The VM10U is right on the money. It was well worth the investment and the accuracy is phenomenal ,” said Kei th, adding tha t the Hur c o machine tools are built to withstand the stress EMM Precision puts on them with so many jobs to run. “We put these Hurcos through the paces. They’re tooled to the max and we don’ t baby them. We run the VM10U 24/7,” said Keith. Even during one of the worst downturns in recent memory, EMM Precision continues to grow and invest in their business with new machine tool technology fromHurco.As Charlie likes to say, “When it comes to EMM, blue + white = green.” More than 50 years after Mr. McIntire started EMM Precision in the rural town of Center Conway, NH, the new ownership group and its employees continue to foster their founder’s commitment to improve and fine-tune production methods for higher efficiency. Hurco andHurco’s distributor partner Brooks Associates are proud to be part of EMM Precision’s success in realizing process improvements that lead to greater productivity. For more information contact: Hurco Companies, Inc. One TechnologyWay P. O. Box 68180 Indianapolis, IN 46268 800-634-2416 317-298-2622 info@hurco.com www.hurco.com E. M.M. Precision Inc. 619 East Conway Rd. Center Conway, NH 03813 603-356-8892 www.emmprecision.com