D'Andrea achieves 50% programming time reduction with NX

D'Andrea, an Italian manufacturer of high-precision CNC tooling founded in 1951, built its reputation on craftsmanship and manual processes. As the company scaled to export 70 percent of its products worldwide, those legacy workflows became a competitive liability. Programming new parts for CNC machining was a time-intensive manual process, and production cycles stretched to a full week per job — a pace increasingly difficult to sustain against global competitors. Without a unified digital environment, engineers lacked visibility across design and manufacturing, creating bottlenecks that threatened both delivery timelines and the company's ability to take on complex, high-precision work at volume.

D'Andrea partnered with ATS Global, a certified Siemens implementation partner, to digitalize its end-to-end manufacturing operations using Siemens NX — an integrated CAD/CAM platform that incorporates digital twin capabilities. The implementation connected design and machining workflows within a single software environment, enabling engineers to validate toolpaths and simulate machining operations virtually before any cutting began. This digital twin approach allowed D'Andrea to detect errors and optimize programs upstream, eliminating costly physical trials. The rollout covered their CNC programming workflows and production planning processes, replacing fragmented legacy tools with a cohesive system that gave engineers consistent, repeatable methods for handling complex precision components.

The impact of the Siemens NX implementation was measurable and immediate across D'Andrea's CNC programming and production operations:

• 50% reduction in CNC programming time — engineers now complete programs in half the time previously required
• Production cycles cut from one week to 48 hours — a 75%+ reduction in time-to-machine for new parts
• Improved program consistency across jobs, reducing rework and manual correction cycles
• Engineering teams gained confidence in toolpath accuracy through virtual simulation before committing to physical runs

Together, these gains allowed D'Andrea to handle more orders without adding headcount, directly strengthening its global competitiveness.

• Digital twin simulation eliminates physical trial runs — validating toolpaths virtually before machining is where the largest time savings are recovered in CNC environments.
• Integrated CAD/CAM matters more than point tools — connecting design and manufacturing in one platform removes the handoff friction that inflates cycle times.
• Implementation partners accelerate adoption — ATS Global's role shows that vendor-certified partners reduce the risk of a slow or incomplete rollout.
• Legacy manufacturers can modernize incrementally — D'Andrea's 70-year history demonstrates that digital transformation doesn't require abandoning existing expertise, only augmenting it.
• Measure cycle time, not just output quality — the most compelling ROI came from speed gains, not defect reduction alone.