Modern Machine Shop conducts an annual survey of American machine shops. Of the 356 respondents, the top 20 percent were designated as “top shops” based on their scores for sales per employee, sales per machine, and utilization rates.Surprisingly, the top shops were not larger shops on average, and did not operate newer equipment than average shops. So even with similarly sized shops and equipment of comparable age, top shops were able to generate $247,000 greater sales per machine and $60,000 greater sales per employee. This is mainly due to top shops delivering 4-5% higher machine utilization.