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.

Preventive Maintenance vs. Run-to-Failure: What It Means for a Small Plant

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

Ken deAlmeida

7/14/20263 min read

worm's-eye view photography of concrete building

Every plant runs somewhere on a spectrum between two extremes: fix things on a schedule before they break, or fix things when they actually break. Most small manufacturers land closer to the second end than they'd like to admit — not because it's the smart choice, but because it's the default. Nobody decides to run-to-failure on purpose. It just happens when there's no time, no budget, and no formal program to prevent it.

Here's what the real tradeoff looks like, and how to think about where your plant should sit on that spectrum.

What "run-to-failure" actually means

Run-to-failure is exactly what it sounds like: equipment runs until it breaks, then gets fixed or replaced. For some equipment, this is genuinely the right call — a cheap, easily replaceable part with no safety risk and no major downstream impact might not be worth a maintenance program at all. Let it run, replace it when it dies, move on.

The problem is when run-to-failure becomes the plan by default for everything, including equipment where a failure is expensive, dangerous, or disruptive. That's usually not a decision anyone made on purpose — it's just what happens when maintenance keeps losing to the next production priority.

What preventive maintenance actually means

Preventive maintenance means servicing, inspecting, or replacing components on a schedule — before they fail, based on expected wear, not after something goes wrong. Done well, it turns unpredictable emergency repairs into predictable, scheduled work you can plan around instead of react to.

It's not free, and it's not always necessary for every piece of equipment on your floor. The goal isn't "preventive maintenance on everything" — it's preventive maintenance on the equipment where a failure would actually hurt.

How to tell which approach fits which equipment

Not every machine deserves the same treatment. A few questions help sort it out:

What does failure actually cost you? Go back to the downtime math — lost production, labor paid for zero output, and the ripple effect of delayed orders. If a piece of equipment failing would take down your whole line, the cost of failure is high, and preventive maintenance almost always pays for itself. If it's a standalone piece of equipment with a backup or an easy workaround, the math might not favor preventive spending.

How predictable is the failure? Some components wear out on a fairly predictable schedule — belts, seals, bearings. That predictability is exactly what makes preventive maintenance effective; you're not guessing when to service it, you're following a known pattern. Equipment that fails more randomly is harder to justify a fixed schedule for, and might be better served by condition monitoring instead of blind scheduled replacement.

Is there a safety or ergonomic dimension? Equipment where failure could hurt someone — not just cost you production — should generally lean preventive regardless of the cost math. That's not really a cost-benefit conversation; it's closer to a floor you don't go below.

Do you have the staff bandwidth to actually do it? Preventive maintenance programs fail more often from lack of follow-through than from bad planning. If there's no realistic way your team is going to execute a full PM schedule, a smaller, more focused program on your highest-risk equipment beats an ambitious plan that quietly falls apart after two months.

The honest tradeoff

Preventive maintenance costs you time and money on a predictable schedule. Run-to-failure costs you nothing until it costs you everything, all at once, usually at the worst possible time — a Friday afternoon, the week of a big order, the day a key operator is out sick.

That's the real tradeoff: predictable, planned cost versus unpredictable, often larger cost. For equipment where failure is expensive or dangerous, preventive maintenance almost always wins that comparison once you actually run the numbers. For low-stakes equipment, run-to-failure can be a perfectly rational choice — not a failure of planning, just an appropriate one.

What this looks like in practice

Most small plants don't need — and can't sustain — an all-encompassing preventive maintenance program from day one. A more realistic starting point:

Identify the handful of machines where failure would actually hurt (line-critical, expensive to repair, or safety-relevant)
Build a simple, realistic maintenance schedule for just those
Let lower-stakes equipment run to failure on purpose, not by accident
Revisit the list periodically as your operation changes

This gets you most of the benefit of a full PM program without the overhead of trying to maintain everything on a schedule.

Where outside help fits in

Not every plant has the in-house maintenance bandwidth to build and run this kind of program, and that's a normal place to bring in outside support — whether that's help building the initial plan, or being the on-call resource when something on the "let it run" list eventually does fail.

Not sure where your equipment falls on this spectrum? Check out our FAQ page for quick answers, or get in touch for a free consult.

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ken@autoicllc.com

603-748-6216