The Challenge: Making every production hour count

A&D Precision is a contract manufacturer serving the medical device, semiconductor, and aerospace industries. With growing production demands, the company needed to increase CNC machine utilization without relying on additional manual labor.

Previously, operators manually loaded each part into the Haas UMC-750, opening the machine door, securing the part, and starting each cycle. This repetitive process required regular intervention and limited the machine’s ability to continue producing when operators were occupied elsewhere.

As Jesus Casillas, Production Manager at A&D Precision, explains:

“We're only set so many hours a day, and in those hours we need to produce. And in this industry, who produces the most and at the quickest with the best quality usually wins.”

A&D needed a way to increase productive machine time without continually adding manual labor. But introducing a robot was only part of the challenge. The company also needed automation that its existing operators could learn, manage, and adapt without extensive robotics expertise.

The Solution: Simplifying robotic machine tending with Acteris

A&D Precision partnered with Trener Robotics to deploy its first robotic machine tending cell, integrating a Universal Robots UR12e with its Haas UMC-750 CNC machine and Acteris.

Our system integrator, Automate West, installed the robot, and Trener’s engineers set up Acteris and calibrated the positions the robot needs to work the machine helping A&D introduce robotic automation into its existing production workflow.

Acteris is Trener’s Physical AI platform for industrial robots, and the robot intelligence behind A&D’s cell. At A&D, its AI agent works as a production co-pilot for the operators: they describe what they want to do in plain language, and the agent guides them through it. Operators can create a new job, check production metrics and find out what’s wrong, all through the same interface.

It is an agentic approach to automation. Instead of programming each step, the operator tells Acteris the goal, and the agent asks what they want to do and walks them through the task. That is what keeps ease of use high for people who aren’t robot programmers.

As Anh Minh, Setup Programmer at A&D Precision, puts it:

“Just talk to Acteris, the AI agent. They ask you what you want to do. That’s it.”

The Impact: More productive machine time and greater operator independence

The deployment has transformed how A&D manages its CNC machine tending process.

Instead of manually loading individual parts throughout the production run, operators can prepare batches for the robot to process, reducing repetitive interventions and allowing them to focus on other production responsibilities.

At the time of filming, A&D reported increasing daily output from 17 to 19 parts while eliminating four hours of overtime from the production schedule discussed in the interview.

Acteris-enabled benefits

• AI-assisted job management: Operators configure jobs, monitor production, and troubleshoot through the Acteris AI agent.

• Ease of use: A conversational interface makes robotic automation accessible to operators without extensive robotics experience.

• Operator independence: Teams manage everyday automation tasks with less dependence on specialized robot programming expertise.

• Operator upskilling: Existing employees develop the skills and confidence to operate AI-powered robotic systems.

The benefits extend beyond productivity. A&D’s team can now operate robotic automation without extensive prior robotics experience.

As Anh Minh, Setup Programmer at A&D Precision, describes:

“Before we have robots, we have to load the parts every hour. Now we don't need to do that anymore. We load the parts 19 pieces at a time and we come back 19 hours later to finish the job.”

By making automation easier to use, Acteris helps operators take greater ownership of daily production while developing valuable robotics skills.

Building a foundation for future automation

A&D Precision's first robotic deployment demonstrates how automation can improve productivity while helping existing employees develop new capabilities.

With Acteris, the team has moved from manually tending individual CNC cycles to managing a robotic machine tending workflow. This gives A&D a foundation for exploring additional automation opportunities as production demands grow.

For the company, choosing the right technology was only part of the decision. Finding a partner that could support deployment, training, and long-term growth was equally important.

“So we chose Trener as a partner to help with the training and the deployment of automation and the robots to make it an easy and seamless transition. Partnership is really important for us, especially as we grow. We like longevity in our partnerships, and Trener was who we chose.”

— Caprice Dreifort, Director of Operations, A&D Precision

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