This episode of Making Chips features Shawn Thelen and Jörg Deller from Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division, who unveil MAESTRO, a next-generation coordinate measuring machine (CMM) system. MAESTRO is designed to transform quality control from a production bottleneck into a competitive advantage for modern CNC and job shop environments. Addressing key industry challenges such as labor shortages, complex CMM programming, disconnected systems, and inspection delays, Hexagon developed MAESTRO by focusing on five distinct CMM user personas. The system boasts features like an all-digital architecture, a no-code programming interface facilitated by digital twins, smart connectivity with automatic component recognition, and seamless real-time MES integration. These innovations aim to significantly improve throughput, Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), and in-process quality, paving the way for increased automation and lights-out manufacturing.
Meet MAESTRO: Revolutionizing Quality Control with Hexagon's Next-Gen CMM
0:00 - Introduction to MAESTRO and Hexagon's Vision: The episode sets the stage by introducing "Maestro" as a term for mastery in manufacturing and announces Hexagon's significant new offering. Hexagon is presented as a leader in manufacturing intelligence, integrating hardware and software to go beyond traditional metrology.
2:18 - Identifying the Quality Bottleneck: The hosts and guests highlight a common industry challenge: quality control, particularly CMMs, often acts as a significant bottleneck in manufacturing processes, hindering the goal of delivering "quality parts on time, every time."
6:25 - The Need for CMM Evolution: Jörg Deller explains that traditional CMMs have remained fundamentally unchanged for decades. Hexagon initiated MAESTRO's development from "ground zero," questioning how a CMM would be designed today if it didn't already exist, to address current customer pain points.
Expertise Gap: A global shortage of highly skilled metrology experts.
Adaptability: The inability of current CMMs to easily adapt to rapidly changing part designs and production needs.
Productivity: CMMs are often too slow and isolated, slowing down overall production.
Autonomy: The need for systems to reduce operator influence, increase speed, and connect seamlessly with the overall production workflow.
10:02 - User-Centric Development with Five Personas: MAESTRO was built around five real-world user archetypes identified through extensive customer interviews: the expert metrologist, the shop supervisor, the CMM operator, the "all-rounder" (common in small-to-medium enterprises), and automation/production engineers. This approach ensures the system serves diverse user needs.
15:15 - CMMs as a "Necessary Evil": Shawn Thelen discusses prevalent customer feedback viewing CMMs as a "necessary evil" due to their perceived complexity and the specialized skills required. Mike, from Hill, corroborates this, explaining their internal push to integrate CMMs more proactively, rather than only for mandated first article inspections, noting that a 19-year-old employee is currently embracing CMM programming.
20:43 - MAESTRO's All-Digital, CNC-Like Approach: MAESTRO is introduced as an all-digital CMM solution designed to bring metrology closer to the machine shop environment. It aims to bridge the gap between CMM controllers and CNC machine tool controls, enabling more similar workflows.
22:06 - Digital Twin and No-Code Programming: MAESTRO utilizes a digital twin of the CMM system. Users can load CAD files containing Product Manufacturing Information (PMI), and the system automatically generates inspection programs tailored to the specific machine's capabilities. This "no-code" environment significantly simplifies programming.
27:07 - Smart Component Recognition: The system features automatic recognition of active components (e.g., sensors, racks) via a "USB of metrology" concept. Components self-identify their serial numbers and run times, allowing the environment builder to automatically configure the CMM, streamlining setup.
27:08 - Seamless MES Integration for OEE: MAESTRO is built for bi-directional communication with Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), providing real-time data on uptime, availability, and plannability. This integration helps optimize resource allocation, allows for centralized planning across multiple CMMs and sites, and is crucial for calculating Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE).
On-Machine Display: Provides immediate status updates to the operator.
"Smart Machine Eye": An integrated camera records machine operations, automatically triggering video capture during errors (e.g., collisions). This acts as a "dash cam" for the CMM, aiding diagnostics and remote service.
Significant Speed Increase: MAESTRO is touted as the fastest CMM in the world, showing 25-30% throughput improvement over previous models due to optimized motion, synchronized 5-axis movements (eliminating "handbrakes" like thinking time between points), and overall system redesign.
36:36 - Paving the Way for Lights-Out Manufacturing:
Standard Protocols: MAESTRO uses industry-standard communication protocols like MQTT, making integration with other automation systems (robots, machine tools) much simpler for automation engineers, who no longer need to learn a "third language" (CMM programming).
In-Process Feedback: The system moves closer to enabling automated in-process inspection with direct feedback loops to machine tools for adaptive corrections, a critical step for achieving fully lights-out production.
39:50 - Availability and Rollout: MAESTRO was officially revealed at the Control Show in Germany on May 6th, 2025. Orders will be accepted starting mid to late June at Hexagon Live in Las Vegas, with deliveries commencing a few weeks thereafter, initially from Germany.
44:49 - Key Takeaway: Integration is Power: The hosts conclude that MAESTRO's core strength lies in its deep integration capabilities. By making quality control more connected, user-friendly, and efficient, it helps remove the inspection bottleneck, ultimately enabling shops to produce more quality parts more efficiently.