Mazatrol Training in Michigan: On-Site, on Your Machine, on Your Parts

If you run Mazak lathes in Michigan and you've looked into Mazatrol training, you already know the shape of the problem. The factory courses are good, but they're built around new-machine purchases, taught in a classroom on current controls, and scheduled on Mazak's calendar, not yours. Dealer courses are classroom-and-simulator too. And if your machines are older — T-32, T-Plus, Fusion 640 iron, which is a lot of Michigan's installed base — the factory largely doesn't teach those controls anymore at all.

There's another option, and it's the one shops actually ask me for: training that comes to you.

What on-site training looks like

I'm Tom Herzog. I spent 19 years at Mazak Corporation as an Applications Engineer — the person Mazak sent in to set up machines, prove out processes, and train customers — and I've done the same work independently through Added Performance Machining, based in Linden, Michigan, ever since.

On-site training means:

• Your machine. Your operator learns on the lathe they will actually run, with its control generation, its turret, its quirks.
• Your parts. We program your work, not classroom exercises. Trainees leave with finished, proven programs for parts your shop sells.
• Your people, together. The operator, the setup person, and your lead can all be in the same training, hearing the same answers.
• Your schedule. Training fits around production instead of competing with it — no travel, no lodging, no week away in another state.

Typical engagements run two to five days depending on how many people and how deep we go, from a new operator's first Mazatrol program to advanced work (sub-spindle transfers, tool data discipline, cycle-time reduction) for experienced machinists moving up.

Who this is for

• Shops that bought a used Mazak and discovered the training that comes with a new machine doesn't come with a used one. Hemco Gage in Holland, Michigan booked me for exactly this: training two operators on an older Mazak. The job extended four to five extra days because the training kept turning into production improvements. (Chris Wysong's words are on this site.)
• Shops whose one Mazatrol person left. A classroom seat six weeks out doesn't solve next week's schedule. On-site, we get your remaining people productive and document the know-how in your building this time.
• Experienced machinists new to Mazatrol. A Haas or Fanuc hand doesn't need a semester of CNC basics. They need focused days on Mazatrol's logic — units, tool data, WPC — on their own control.
• Owners of older controls. T-2/T-3, T-32, T-Plus, Fusion 640, Matrix: I teach the control on your machine, including the generations the factory catalog has moved past.

Michigan is home base

APM is in Linden, and most of my work is Michigan shops — metro Detroit, Flint, Grand Rapids and the lakeshore, the Bay City / Saginaw corridor, and everywhere in between. Being local matters for more than the drive: when a trained operator hits a wall two weeks after training, a follow-up visit is a day trip, not an expedition. More on where I work is on the Michigan service area page, and my honest take on all the training options, including when the factory course really is the right answer, is in the Mazatrol training roundup.

Straight talk on fit

If you just bought a new SmoothAi machine and the dealer bundled factory training into the deal, take it — it's good training and you've already paid for it. If your situation is an older machine, a used machine, a person who needs to be productive this month, or a team that learns best making real parts, on-site training is usually the faster and cheaper path to the same place. I'll tell you on the first call which one you actually need.

When something on a Mazak lathe isn't working

I do this for a living. If you have a Mazak lathe in Michigan and people who need to run it better than they do today, send me the part, the machine, and the control version. I'll tell you what's possible.

Thank you, Tom Herzog