Mazatrol Programmer for Hire: A Former Mazak Applications Engineer, by the Day or Week

Most shops that call me don't have a machine problem. They have a programming problem. The lathes are fine, the work is there, and the parts aren't shipping because the programs aren't written, aren't proven, or aren't running as fast as they should. Hiring another full-time programmer is one answer, eventually. I'm the answer for this month.

I'm Tom Herzog. I spent 19 years at Mazak Corporation as an Applications Engineer — the person Mazak sent into shops to set up machines, prove out processes, and train customers on their own equipment. I've done the same work independently through Added Performance Machining in Linden, Michigan ever since. When you hire me, you're hiring that applications engineer directly. No agency, no dispatcher, no junior sent out to learn on your spindle time.

What a contract Mazatrol programmer actually does

There's a difference between a contract CAM programmer and what I do, and it's worth being clear about it because they solve different problems.

A CAM programmer works offline, in Mastercam or a similar package, and posts code for whatever brand of machine you run. Mazatrol is one post in a list. That's fine work when the problem is raw code production.

I program at the control, in Mazatrol, on your machine. That matters because Mazatrol's advantage is exactly what an offline post throws away: the operator can see the process, edit the unit, adjust the tool data, and keep the job running at the machine. A program written in Mazatrol on your lathe belongs to your shop in a way a posted file never does. Your people can read it, change it, and rerun it after I'm gone.

What an engagement usually produces:

• Backlog cleared. The stack of prints waiting on programs gets written, proven, and run — not just written.
• First-article success. New part, new machine, or a part nobody has made money on yet: I take it from print to a good first piece, with the process documented.
• Turnkey process prove-out. Tooling, workholding, speeds and feeds, and the program, worked out as one process instead of four separate arguments.
• Programs your shop owns. Everything is left on your control, in your format, with the setup documented — not on my laptop.

How engagements are shaped

Shops hire me in whatever size the problem actually is:

• A day — one stubborn part, one process that won't behave, one machine that needs an experienced set of eyes before a big run.
• A week — a programming backlog, a new machine coming online, or a part family that needs to go from print to production.
• A part family or a launch — the recurring work: a product line moving in-house, a transfer from another shop, a cell that has to be running before a contract start date.

I'm not the right answer for everything, and I'd rather say so on the first call. If your problem is high-volume offline code production across five different machine brands, a CAM contractor is the better tool. If your problem is that the same part has run at a cycle time nobody has questioned in six years, that's a different conversation too — that's a cycle time audit, and I've taken 66% out of a single operation doing exactly that work. And if the real problem is that nobody in your building can run Mazatrol at all, programming help alone won't fix it; you need training, which is the other half of what I do.

Who has hired me

The shops on my client list — Dana, U.S. Manufacturing, Anderson Cook, Hillsdale Tool, Metaldyne, GM Powertrain, American Gear, Classic Turning, BorgWarner, Lomar — didn't hire a consultant to write a report. They hired a programmer who would stand at the machine until the parts were right, and who would answer for the process afterward. That is still the whole offer, and it's the only version I've ever sold.

If your lathes are waiting on programs

Send me the part, the machine, and the control version. I'll tell you what's possible.

Thank you, Tom Herzog