Forward from The FABRICATOR

By Tim Heston

FMA’s consumption report reveals shops’ top needs

Twice a year the Fabricators and Manufacturers Association publishes its “Forming and Fabricating Job Shop Consumption Report,” and recently the survey started asking for granular information about equipment and software investments. One particular question might hint at where metal fabrication technology is headed: What is your greatest automation need? The top five areas in need reveal a good deal about the state of technology on the typical fab shop floor.

Of course, defining what “typical” really means isn’t easy in this business. The customer mix defines the custom or contract fabricator. The specific work between and even within each operation can vary tremendously. Some produce simple parts; others focus on large, complex assemblies. Some ship a quantity of one, dozens, or hundreds; others ship hundreds of thousands, delivered in large quantities or drip-fed in small quantities throughout the year. Amid all this mind-boggling variety, though, is a common thread: the need to streamline the overarching quote-to-cash cycle. That fact puts the following top five automation needs, as reported by FMA’s consumption report, in context.

Another factor gives more context: the need for consistency and predictability. The world outside the shop floor has plenty of unpredictability, from pandemics and trade wars to geopolitical conflict. All this makes predictability inside the shop more important than ever.

Several years ago, a shop manager made this point to me while we were standing by part sorting automation next to a punch/laser combo machine. Yes, a group of people could sort those parts faster, but their sorting speed (not to mention their availability) could vary tremendously. The automation, on the other hand, moved steadily and predictably throughout the day. That need for predictability makes the following “top five” automation needs seem not so surprising.

Several years ago, a shop manager made this point to me while we were standing by part sorting automation next to a punch/laser combo machine. Yes, a group of people could sort those parts faster, but their sorting speed (not to mention their availability) could vary tremendously. The automation, on the other hand, moved steadily and predictably throughout the day. That need for predictability makes the following “top five" automation needs seem not so surprising.

Nos. 5 and 4 in the latest report, released in summer 2025, were a tie: material handling and cutting, with just over 17% of respondents saying these areas were their greatest automation need. The two are arguably related, since “automated” cutting—especially punching and laser cutting—usually involves some type of material handling, from simple load/unload to full-blown tower systems as well as part picking and stacking.

Why exactly is cutting so low on the list? One reason might be that so many fabricators have already invested in some kind of cutting automation, especially since fiber lasers came on the scene. General material handling automation might be low on the list simply because there are more pressing needs (as we’ll soon see). Technology like autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) have gotten a lot of press, and they’ve seen significant adoption at OEMs and other large operations, but they have yet to see widespread use among smaller fab shops.

Moreover, basic lean manufacturing implementations often incorporate material handling improvements. Different machines might be moved closer together to create a dedicated value stream. Batch size reduction, made possible by quick changeover technology (more on this later) also can simplify material movement. Instead of a fork truck driver picking up a pallet of parts, a worker can simply push a cart to the next station. AMRs certainly have their place, but when it comes to efficient material handling, many operations might be concentrating on the lower-hanging fruit.

Nos. 3 and 2 on the list are welding (25.30%) and bending (28.51%), respectively. The fact that slightly more respondents said bending was their greatest automation need is significant.

Welding automation has gained significant presence, especially for the higher-quantity jobs in contract fab shops. New AI-driven technology, including “self-programming” robots that don’t require sophisticated workpiece fixturing, has allowed welding automation to tackle the highest-mix work. Bending automation, however, isn’t quite so common—and yet there it is, No. 2 on the list.

Part of this likely has to do with the timing of technology adoption: Progressive fab shops have already automated both cutting and welding; bending is now the bottleneck and so the greatest automation need. Some of it might have to do with the skills gap; in some markets, it’s next to impossible to find an experienced press brake operator.

Another reason is the additional kinds of bending automation now on the market. Automated tool changes, like those found on some press brakes, now make automated bending well suited for high-product-mix work—which, of course, represents the vast majority of metal fabrication in the U.S.

No. 1 on the list is software, which the survey also defines as “automated information processing.” This has held the lead for two surveys in a row, with more than 30% saying software automation is their greatest need. This includes quoting, nesting, enterprise resource planning, manufacturing execution systems, IIoT applications, and more. It’s a broad swath of technologies, and all of them are evolving extremely rapidly.

Think about the time engineers, CAD technicians, quality assurance personnel, and project managers spend keying in bills of material, correcting splines on flat patterns before nesting, keying in measurement data, maybe fat-fingering a few numbers or missing a part revision, which snowballs into a larger problem on the floor. Better information processing also makes shop floor automation better. A machine is only as good as the information it’s fed.

Note that 18% of respondents said that they had no current need for automation. That’s not a small number and points to the enormous variety of fabricators in the U.S.—many of them very small companies. Others might have recently invested in automation and have no immediate need to automate further. That said, more than 80% of fabricators in the survey are looking to automate more, and I don’t see that number going down any time soon.