What kinds of manufacturing lines do you work on?

Any of them. We work with manufacturers of any size and any industry — food, consumer products, industrial, you name it. If you've got a line, we can look at it.

Do you only do new automation, or do you support existing equipment?

Both. A lot of our work is fixing, maintaining, and getting more out of equipment that's already on your floor — not just selling you something new. If your current setup can be improved without a full overhaul, that's usually where we start.

What is your service area?

Northern Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Southern Maine.

How fast can you get to us in an emergency?

We handle emergency troubleshooting and repair — mechanical, electrical, pneumatic, and hydraulic — and we respond fast when a line is down. Reach out and we'll get you a real timeframe based on where you're located and what's going on.

How does pricing work — project-based, hourly, retainer?

Initial consults and sales calls are free. Engineering and design work is billed at $175/hr, troubleshooting and repair at $150/hr, and travel at $125/hr. Equipment, materials, and consumables are quoted separately based on the job.

Do you offer preventive maintenance programs?

We can, but it's not the core of what we do — we're primarily an on-call resource for when your in-house team is stuck or stretched thin. Scheduled maintenance is available in special cases if that's a better fit for your operation.

What consumables do you supply, and can you match what we currently use?

Labels, tapes, and shrink films, primarily through Decker Tape Products. That covers everything from basic box-sealing tape to hazard labels, pallet protection, and specialty security tape. We can match your current specs or help you source the right product for a new application. Reordering works either on-call or on a subscription schedule.

Can you work around our production schedule so we don't lose runtime?

Yes — that's part of what we plan for during the design phase. We work with you to figure out timing, floor space, and personnel needs before anything gets installed, and phase in bigger changes so you're not stuck shutting the whole line down at once.

What does a typical project look like from first call to running line?

It starts with a site visit — we walk the floor, look at your current process, production speeds, and where you're headed. From there we usually flag quick wins before getting into bigger design work. Once we agree on goals, we move into sourcing equipment, coordinating with vendors, and building anything custom that's needed. Then it's delivery, installation, commissioning, and training your team on the new setup.

Do you build custom machines, or only install off-the-shelf equipment?

Both. We'll always look for the simplest off-the-shelf solution first. But when nothing off-the-shelf solves the problem, we design and build custom equipment to fit.

How long does a custom build take?

It depends. Off-the-shelf integrations tend to move fast. Custom builds involve some R&D, and that part is genuinely variable — some go smoothly, others take a few iterations to get the process right. We'll be upfront with you about where a project stands and won't promise a fixed timeline we can't back up.

What if our product needs to stay "handmade" or keep a certain identity?

We build that into the design requirements from the start. If part of what makes your product special has to stay done by hand, we figure out exactly what that means — what has to stay manual and what can be automated — before we design anything.

Do you help with factory layout, not just individual machines?

Yes — we design the flow of product through your facility, from raw goods coming in to finished product ready to ship. That includes organizing maintenance tool rooms and repair part storage, not just the production line itself.

We're short-staffed and can't find enough help — can automation actually solve that?

Often, yes. A lot of our projects start exactly there — a client can't find enough people to run a manual process, and automating it frees up the staff they do have for higher-value work.

What if we just want to get more out of the equipment we already have?

That's a common starting point. Sometimes it's a simple flow fix — for example, moving product straight from where it's made into packaging instead of dropping it into a bin that then has to be re-sorted. Small changes like that can meaningfully increase throughput without buying new equipment.

Do you require a deposit or commitment before starting design work?

Yes — once we've done the initial site visit and identified quick wins and design goals, we need a financial commitment to move into detailed design, sourcing, and custom build work.

What size manufacturer do you typically work with?

Our sweet spot is 10 to 250 line employees, but we work with smaller shops that are growth-minded and larger operations too — even if they've got some in-house capability already.

Who typically reaches out to you — do we need to already know exactly what we need?

Not at all. We hear from CEOs, plant managers, operations managers, maintenance managers, and sometimes safety or HR staff dealing with an ergonomic or hazard issue. You don't need a fully scoped project — a lot of engagements start with 'something's not working right' or 'we think there's a better way to do this.'

Will bringing in automation mean cutting jobs?

Not necessarily — a lot of our projects are about freeing up staff for higher-value work, not replacing them, especially for manufacturers who are already struggling to find enough labor. Worth talking through your specific situation so we can be straight with you about what a project would actually mean for your team.

How do we know this will actually pay off?

Fair question, and not one we'll dodge. We can walk through the numbers with you — current costs, expected efficiency gains, and a realistic timeline — before you commit to anything. The initial consult is free specifically so you can get real answers before spending anything.

How Do Written Procedures Keep Your Line Running When Something Breaks? (Part 2 of 3)

Name: AutoIC LLC
Telephone: 603-748-6216
Price range: $$

Part 2 of a 3-part series: the five one-page documents that cut downtime, how to capture what your veteran techs know, and a 30-day plan to get your first machine covered.

Ken deAlmeida

10/15/20265 min read

a man riding a skateboard down the side of a ramp

Part 2 of 3. Part 1 covers why every machine needs written operating, setup, and maintenance procedures. This one is about putting them to work. Part 3 covers what they mean when you're preparing to sell or go public.

Short answer: put the right page at the right machine before the failure, not after. In practice that comes down to five short documents: a fault response sheet, a startup and shutdown checklist, a setup sheet, a maintenance checklist, and a line-down quick reference. None of them needs to be longer than a page or two, and together they're the difference between a 20-minute stop and a two-hour one.

Why does downtime keep getting longer even when your people are good?

Because the people who know how to fix things are getting harder to find and harder to replace. The average time to fix an unplanned failure has climbed from 49 minutes to 81 minutes, largely because of skills gaps and parts delays, and the average manufacturing facility now sees around 25 unplanned downtime incidents a month, adding up to more than 300 hours of lost production a year (MaintainX, 2024).

The labor picture explains part of it. Roughly 415,000 manufacturing jobs sit unfilled nationwide, and 65% of manufacturers call attracting and retaining people with the right skills a top challenge (Manufacturing.net , citing BLS and NAM). The same article offers an illustration worth keeping in mind: an experienced technician might clear a conveyor issue in 20 minutes where a replacement needs two hours. That's an example, not a measured figure, but anyone who has run a plant knows the gap is real. Written procedures are how you shrink it.

What are the five documents that actually keep a line running?

Keep each one to a page or two, written as actions for the person standing at the machine. The standard is simple: state what the operator checks, adjusts, confirms, and records, and skip phrases like "ensure proper setup" (DocuWriter).

Fault response sheet. List the five faults or stops that happen most on this machine. For each one: what it usually means, what to check first, what to do, and the point where the operator stops and calls maintenance. This is the single highest-value page in the set, because it's the one used at the worst moment.
Startup and shutdown checklist. The same steps in the same order every time, including the pre-run checks that catch problems before they become stops.
Setup and changeover sheet. Settings, positions, and sequence for each product or format, with annotated photos wherever position and orientation matter (Harmoni).
Daily and weekly maintenance checklist. Inspection steps written down so they stop living only in an experienced technician's memory (OxMaint). If you're building the parts side too, our post on tool room setup and parts inventory covers what to stock for each machine.
Line-down quick reference. Where the electrical drawings live, where the air, hydraulic, and electrical isolation points are, the lockout/tagout steps for the machine (lockout/tagout is OSHA-mandated, per Harmoni), where the critical spares are, and who to call, with phone numbers.

That fifth one gets skipped more than any other, and it's the one that matters most at 2 a.m. when whoever's on shift has never seen this failure before.

How do you capture what your most experienced tech already knows?

Don't wait for an exit interview. The more reliable approach is capturing knowledge as a byproduct of daily work, and starting well before retirements are close (OxMaint). The practices that source recommends are structured shift handovers, searchable work-order history with notes on what was done and which parts were used, standardized inspection steps, and pairing newer technicians with experienced ones on real jobs. Both that source and the Rockwell-authored Manufacturing.net article come from companies that sell software, so take their product pitches with a grain of salt. The practices themselves work fine with a clipboard and a phone.

Here's a low-tech version that works. Next time your best tech fixes something, have a newer person shadow the repair and write down each step as it happens. Take photos of the parts and positions. Then turn it into a one-page fault sheet that afternoon, while it's fresh, and have the veteran correct it. That's thirty minutes of work that captures twenty years of knowing where to look first.

Where should the paperwork actually live?

At the machine, not in the office. Procedures traditionally lived in binders in a manager's office (Fabrico), and that's the fastest way to make sure nobody reads them. Put the fault sheet and startup checklist in a sleeve or on a laminated card right at the machine, and keep one master copy somewhere controlled so everyone's working from the same version. If you go digital later, the rule stays the same: it has to be in front of the operator in a few seconds.

How do you keep procedures from going stale?

Any change to the machine is a change to the page. That's the whole rule. A setup changes, maintenance swaps a component, a guard gets modified, and suddenly the document disagrees with the machine. Once the plant changes faster than the paperwork, people stop trusting the paperwork and go back to tribal knowledge (DocuWriter).

Three habits keep it honest:

Name an owner for each machine's documents. Someone whose job it is to update them, not "whoever has time."
Update after every real repair. If a fix turned up something the fault sheet didn't cover, add it that day.
Review on a schedule. Quarterly is plenty for most machines. Have the newest operator walk through the sheet and flag anything that doesn't match what they see.

What's a realistic 30-day plan to get started?

Start with one machine and prove it works there, same as we recommend for automation projects.

Week 1: Pick your bottleneck machine. Pull the last ten stops or breakdowns and sort them into the top five causes.
Week 2: Write the fault response sheet and startup/shutdown checklist. Photos, not paragraphs, wherever position matters.
Week 3: Hand the pages to your newest operator and watch them use them. Fix every spot where they hesitate.
Week 4: Add the daily/weekly maintenance checklist and the line-down quick reference. Then pick the next machine.

By the end of the month you have one machine covered properly and a template for the rest.

How does AutoIC help with this?

This is where our troubleshooting and maintenance work meets our commissioning work. When we install a machine, operator training and handover documents are part of getting it running and keeping it running. When we're called in for an emergency, we see exactly which machines have a fault sheet on the wall and which ones depend on one person's memory, and the difference in how fast a line comes back is obvious. We can help you build these documents for existing equipment, starting with the machines that hurt most when they stop, and fold the same format into any new equipment we integrate.

What's AutoIC's take on this?

Most downtime isn't caused by exotic failures. It's caused by ordinary ones that take too long to diagnose because the knowledge isn't where the machine is. Five short pages per machine won't prevent every stop, but they'll make most of them shorter, and they make the plant a lot less dependent on any one person's phone being on at 2 a.m. Keep It Super Simple: if a page can't be used by someone half-awake at the machine, rewrite it.

Next up: Part 3 looks at what this documentation is worth when you're preparing to sell the business or go public.

If you want help getting your first machine covered, that's a good place to start a free consult. Check out our FAQ for more on how we support equipment after install, or get in touch and we'll come take a look.

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ken@autoicllc.com

603-748-6216