But effort up front means savings downstream
hy dan yes, that is true ...

Anyway, this is starting to deviate too far from the theme of this thread
i know, i just wish to talk to you also, mr ElCidCampeador seems he took a vacation

Hermle 5-axis machines
please, what kind of atipical cnc machines have you seen ( actually working, not only sitting there ) ? a while ago, some products needed to quote, and they where suitable for 5 axis ( like 5th only for positioning ), and i proposed using a c axis lathe, because you may feed the material through the spindle ... and the client replied that they allready have a 5th axis mill, that is feeding the material through the table ... that was a nice 5th axis machine, in it's size being very robust, with an intergrated feed mechanism

The consistency (or lack of it) I'm talking about isn't due to quantity, it's due to human imperfection. People make mistakes, we all do. But with high volumes comes the need to not make things twice because of programming errors.
i always try to minimize the impact of human factor; there may still be crashes/situations, but not because of operators

from the programing perspective, i have no doubts, as i do whatever is needed to proof the program, but indeed, it may turn red quickly inside a big factory; maybe not red, but orange, you know, away from green

a nice way to put it, is that an error becomes a mistake if you don't admit it

many erorrs are caused by human factors, so it helps to eliminate them ( by minimizing the need for the human factor ), while the ones with most nasty effect may happen not because of human factor, like something got loose in automatic mode

statistically speaking, frequency of errors will reduce if human factor is not an input, while the effect of remaining ones may still be at it's heighest

We see trends where programmers do very well, then they get into a slump where their quality isn't the best.
if you wish, why does it happen ? what cycle/period ? do they recover or got replaced ? such things are related to many other things:
... may be only a few persons that will lead to rot to all the good apples
... maybe feedback is not existing, so why work for no achievemnt ?
things vary

Automation of CAM programming puts the toolpath generation into the hands of algorithms which produce the same results every time
1st time when i saw such a thing, it was revealed from a mastercam guy; then he simply loaded other file ( thus changed the input ), and the process was changed/updated automatically; then he turned to me, and said : that's from the 90s we talked a little about this/that, etc

It's not realistic to think absolutely everything can have automated programming
yes, absolutely everything is a bit ... hmm ... but don't look only into automated cam programing; for example, i can take shortcuts on an okuma machine, and they involve programing, but they are not related to a classical cnc program file, but to how the machine is being handled; it helps, as okuma runs on windows and has api


if an operation/real task is repetitive, you replace the human with a robot, so to speak

if keystrokes are repetitive, then you replace them with a 'shortcut' ... if possible, log the inputs, then scan them for repetitive sections: it help to identify fast some repetitive tasks, because such a data based aproach will bring up-front tasks that may have been overlooked ( maybe ignored, maybe considered to simple to automize while they are actually too much time consuming, or to complicated at 1st glance, while they may be simple );

thus purpose is shorter keystroke-chains

i log data if needed, seing loads/peeks, offset changes, timelines ... you may see things that are not reported, nor spotted by someone else; also, as a hoby, i develop a programing software, so far 2d; for example, during last night, i left the laptop opened to process offseting toolpahts 1 to 100, 0.01increments, and i got the 'out of memory' message ... it's ok, it is the 1st time it runs without code related errors

if i may ask, what do you do ? like things that you liked to do, or try to acomplish, or give up among the way from whatver reason, etc

about cam softwares : is it possible to have a single cam software, instead of many, or why are there so many ? like sometimes even inside a company is more than a single brand; is it possible to wave-down those differencies ? how much of their differences comes from protecting the market share, and/or too criptic interface , or is it the same thing ? i know you can automatize tasks, so some issues you no longer look over there as you can by pass them, but i ask why are those how they are ? once you reach the level of automation, you no longer struggle with basic tasks, at least not like a standard cam user, that has to learn the workflow for each cam / kindly

please excuse my long answer; now i have free time