Stay on top of those software upgrades

As wild as this sounds, this is a scenario I hear about quite a bit ...

Imagine a metal fabricator operating a multimillion-dollar piece of capital equipment with a PC that has programming software that hasn’t been upgraded in several years. The machine tool company has issued several new versions of the software over the years, but the fabricator hasn’t stayed on top of the updates. The version in place works just fine, and the one license is all that’s needed.

All is fine until it isn’t. One morning the fabricator comes in and starts up the laser cutting machine, only to find out that he can’t program any new jobs. The PC that has been used to program the laser for the last 10 years has died. Hopefully, his data has been backed up, but he can’t program any new jobs until he gets a new PC. The problem is made worse because the only new PC available runs Windows 7, and his programming software version is not compatible.

A call to the machine tool developer reveals that it hasn’t supported that software version for a couple of years, as several upgrades have been issued since then. The fabricator has no recourse other than to upgrade the software, which can prove tricky and costly if he is using a much older version of the software. That’s not to mention the additional training that may be necessary to optimize all of the new software features.

In the meantime, the laser cutting machine is down. Software!

Most metal fabricators know that their job is to produce metal parts and really have no desire to be involved in the information technology business. They don’t realize that the two almost go hand-in-hand in today’s business world.

Machinery needs to run. Software needs to be updated. That’s the reality of modern metal fabricating.