See how Trinity Precision eliminated wasted time, cut costly errors, and gained real-time visibility across the shop floor with Harmoni’s factory orchestration platform.

Executive Summary

Trinity Precision, a growing aerospace manufacturer, struggled to maintain operational visibility as the company scaled—leaving managers disconnected from real-time shop floor data and grappling with inaccurate job clocking. By implementing Harmoni’s factory orchestration platform, Trinity achieved a 22% improvement in clocking accuracy within the first month and streamlined operations across every CNC machine on the floor. The result? A more engaged workforce, better decision-making, and a solution that’s become an easy investment to justify each and every month.

Introduction

Founded in 2014 by a team with a clear mission—to make a difference in their community and in the lives of their employees—Trinity Precision has grown into a well-established aerospace manufacturer based in the United States. The company specializes in three, four, and five-axis CNC machining, producing primarily aluminum structural components for a wide range of aerospace applications, including commercial aircraft, satellites, and rockets.

Over the past decade, Trinity has expanded significantly, adding machines, introducing a second shift, and even launching a separate automation company to handle external robotics and manufacturing projects. With that growth came new operational challenges—challenges that required more than just ambition to solve.

The Problem

As Trinity Precision scaled, the systems and habits that worked well in the early days simply couldn’t keep pace. Chris Van Over, General Manager at Trinity, describes the disconnect clearly:

“As we’ve grown over the last 11, 12 years, we’ve added so many new machines and then added on to our second shift. We’ve just grown beyond where we can really understand and keep our hands around everything, every single day.”

The operational gaps this created were significant. Managers were forced to wait until the following morning—or until a shift supervisor arrived—to learn what had happened on the floor the night before. Real-time visibility was essentially nonexistent.

Job Clocking Inaccuracy
Perhaps the most pressing issue was the accuracy of job clocking. In precision manufacturing, knowing the true cost of a job is critical for quoting, profitability analysis, and financial reporting. But getting operators to clock correctly and consistently is0o an industry-wide challenge.

Adding further complexity, Trinity ran automated cell systems with palletized setups where multiple jobs ran simultaneously across several machines. Tracking time for these cells required supervisors to manually log each job—a time-consuming, error-prone process that consumed hours each week.

Maintenance Requests Falling Through the Cracks
Non-critical maintenance issues were another pain point. If a machine wasn’t fully down, repair requests often got lost. Operators had no formal channel to escalate minor but important issues, leaving problems to fester until they became serious.

A History of Disappointment with Machine Monitoring
Trinity had used machine monitoring software before—and walked away from it. Their previous tool lacked meaningful integration with their MRP system, and employees viewed it as surveillance rather than support. Adoption was poor, and the ROI simply wasn’t there. Chris was, by his own admission, “pretty jaded” when it came to machine monitoring.

The Solution

The turning point came at a trade show, where Chris walked past the Harmoni booth and was drawn in by what he saw. Unlike the monitoring tools he’d experienced before, Harmoni was designed to go well beyond simply tracking machine status. It was a comprehensive factory orchestration platform—and it aligned perfectly with Trinity’s automation-first culture.

From the outset, Trinity set two non-negotiables: day-one integration with their existing MRP system, and automated clocking for their complex cell systems. Harmoni committed to both.

Seamless MRP Integration

What Chris expected to be a lengthy, complicated integration process turned out to be surprisingly smooth. Within a few weeks of the Harmoni team connecting with Trinity’s MRP system, the back-end integration was built and live. On day one of go-live, operators were clocking to jobs with everything fully tied together.

“On day one we were clocking jobs and it was all tied together, and it really wasn’t very bumpy. It was a pretty smooth transition.”

Automated Cell System Clocking

Harmoni’s team custom-built a solution to automate clocking for Trinity’s palletized cell systems—eliminating the manual, supervisor-led process that had been eating up hours every week. What was once a daily administrative burden is now handled automatically.

Real-Time Dashboard Visibility

Both plant managers now have access to a live shop floor dashboard, visible from their offices at any time of day or night. The system updates every few minutes, giving leadership a clear snapshot of machine status, job progress, and any issues as they arise—not hours or days later.

A Platform Operators Actually Wanted to Use

Unlike the previous tool, Harmoni gave operators something back. Time clocking is now handled directly at the machine, eliminating the need to visit a separate time clock and reducing missed or delayed clock-ins. Maintenance requests can be submitted directly from the Harmoni device, logged in the system, and tracked by management until resolved.

“The number one thing that employees surprisingly loved and bought into Harmony was the fact that they could make maintenance requests.”

With hundreds of maintenance requests logged since implementation, operators feel heard—and the result has been strong, company-wide buy-in with zero complaints about monitoring.

Results

22% Improvement in Clocking Accuracy — In Month One

The most immediate and measurable outcome was a dramatic improvement in job clocking accuracy.

“The first month we implemented Harmony, our clocking accuracy increased by 22% in the very first month.”

This was driven by two factors: the convenience of clocking at the machine (reducing forgotten clock-ins), and a daily automated report that flagged any employee clocked for less than 90% of their paid hours—allowing supervisors to address discrepancies immediately rather than at the end of a pay period.

More Reliable Job Costing

With accurate, real-time clocking data flowing into their MRP system, Trinity’s estimators can now trust the numbers they’re working with. Historical job data is readily accessible, and leadership can cross-reference machine hours with financial reports at any time.

“There’s been numerous times where something’s come up on the P&L that we’ve had to look into, and I instantly go to Harmoni, pull the hours for the month out of the machine. And I’m like, it’s right.”

Hours Saved on Manual Clocking for Cell Systems

Supervisors who previously spent hours each week manually logging cell system activity have been fully relieved of that burden. That time is now redirected to higher-value work.

A Clear ROI—And an Easy Check to Write

When asked how he justifies Harmoni as a budget line item, Chris is direct:

“That piece alone—knowing what your job costing is—honestly justifies Harmoni in itself. But it’s so much more than that. It’s an easy check to write every month. It really is.”

Conclusion

Trinity Precision’s experience with Harmoni is a compelling example of what happens when the right technology meets the right cultural fit. By prioritizing integration, automation, and genuine employee value, Harmoni addressed not just the symptoms of Trinity’s operational challenges—but the root causes.

What began as a cautious re-engagement with machine monitoring has evolved into a cornerstone of how Trinity runs its business. Every CNC machine on the floor now runs on Harmoni, and the company is already planning its next phase: RFID implementation across key production queues, and potential expansion to coordinate measuring machines and assembly areas.

As Trinity continues to grow, Harmoni will grow with it—providing the real-time data, operational accuracy, and workforce alignment that modern aerospace manufacturing demands.