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 You Actually Get Started with Automation?

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

A practical, step-by-step approach for plant managers who know automation is worth exploring but don't know where to begin.

Ken deAlmeida

9/1/20264 min read

Short answer: you don't start by picking equipment. You start by understanding your own process, picking one low-risk pilot that solves a real problem, and building the case around real numbers before you spend a dollar on machinery. Getting started feels overwhelming mostly because people try to plan the whole transformation on day one. You don't need to. You need a first move.

Where do most plants actually get stuck?

Not on the technology — on the decision-making around it. Knowing where to begin can feel overwhelming, especially for small and mid-sized manufacturers who don't have a dedicated automation team or a Fortune 500 budget to test with (Tennessee MEP, 2025). The good news: the businesses that get this right don't have it more figured out than you do at the start. They just follow a consistent process instead of guessing.

Step 1 — What should you actually evaluate before picking any equipment?

Before any equipment gets specced, you need a clear picture of your own process, not a vendor's pitch. That means walking your line end to end and documenting where things actually slow down, break, or create rework — not where you assume the problem is (Wipfli, 2024). This is also where you get honest about your goals: are you trying to fix a bottleneck, reduce errors, free up skilled people for higher-value work, or all three? A plan driven by a specific outcome beats one driven by "we should probably automate something" (Tennessee MEP, 2025).

Step 2 — How do you pick the right first project?

Don't try to automate everything at once. Pick one line, one task, or one pain point, and prove it works there first (Locaxion, 2025). The best first candidates share a few traits:

Repetitive and frequent — not a one-off task
A real bottleneck — something actually limiting your output, not just an annoyance
Hard to staff or high turnover — the jobs nobody wants tend to have the clearest case
Error-prone or paper-based — where mistakes are costly and easy to measure
Low-disruption to implement — a contained trial you can run without shutting down the whole line (Wipfli, 2024; Vention, 2026)

Starting small isn't a compromise — it's the strategy. Proving the concept before scaling up saves money, avoids unnecessary disruption, and helps win over the skeptics on your own floor before you ever ask them to trust a bigger project (Wipfli, 2024).

Step 3 — How do you build the case, not just pick the equipment?

This is where a lot of first projects go sideways — someone falls in love with a machine before the numbers are actually run. A real case looks at labor savings (fully burdened, not just the wage), turnover cost, injury and safety risk, and quality improvement, not just the sticker price of the equipment versus the labor it replaces. Set clear, achievable goals with an expected return up front, so you can point to a real win — not a vague sense that things "seem better" (Industrial Products, 2026). Smaller, realistic goals with a measurable payback tend to build more momentum than one big ambitious pitch that's hard to prove either way.

Step 4 — Who actually needs to be involved?

More people than just whoever's championing the project. Gathering key stakeholders — operators, maintenance, supervisors — gives you insight from every part of the business and builds champions who'll help the project land with the rest of the floor, instead of technology getting dropped on people without warning (Industrial Products, 2026). The people doing the job every day usually know exactly where the real pain is — and they're the ones whose buy-in determines whether a new system actually gets used well or gets quietly worked around.

Step 5 — What happens after the first project works?

You don't stop and declare victory, but you also don't have to have the next five moves planned out on day one. Once you see real, measurable results — fewer defects, less downtime, a task that used to eat two people's time now needing none — expand step by step, building on what you learned instead of starting from scratch each time (Locaxion, 2025). This is also the point where it's worth zooming out to a longer-range view: does this first win point toward a broader 5- or 10-year plan for the plant, or was it genuinely a standalone fix? Either answer is fine — but it's worth asking once you have real data instead of guessing up front.

What's AutoIC's process for getting a plant started?

This maps almost exactly onto how we run every project, first or fifth:

Site visit — we watch your actual process, production speeds, and where things really back up.
Identify quick wins — off-the-shelf improvements that resolve a bottleneck or free up labor without a massive project.
Define the requirements together — line speed, floor space, personnel, and anything that has to stay hands-on.
Build the real case before committing capital — labor, turnover, safety, and quality, not just a machine's price tag.
Source or build to that spec — off-the-shelf where it fits cleanly, custom where nothing off-the-shelf solves it without overkill.
Install, commission, and train — so the people running it actually trust it.

The initial consult is free precisely because this is where "getting started" actually happens — not in a proposal, but in a conversation about your real floor.

What's AutoIC's take on this?

The plants that get automation right aren't the ones with the biggest budget or the most ambitious first project. They're the ones that start with one real problem, prove it out with real numbers, and let that first win inform the next move instead of trying to plan a five-year transformation before they've automated a single task. If you've got a pain point on your floor everyone already agrees is the worst job in the building, that's usually exactly where to start.

If you're not sure where your first move should be, that's exactly what the free consult call is for. Check out our FAQ for more on how we scope projects, or get in touch and we'll come walk your floor.

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ken@autoicllc.com

603-748-6216