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62 SMT007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2022 Feature Article by Jennifer Davis ARCH SYSTEMS Buy new or make do? It's an age-old debate for manufacturers who are trying to decide how best to manage machine assets inside their manufacturing facilities. New machines are expensive, but so is operating existing machines at a comparative deficit. It's important to recognize that increased demand for machines is a good thing. e global economy demands more products at an ever-increasing rate, and that can cer- tainly mean increasing the number of physi- cal assets needed to produce those products. At the same time, manufacturers need to be much more flexible with current assets to deal with shortages. But most manufacturers don't have nearly enough visibility into the gran- ular machine data from those existing assets to be as nimble as they need to be—and they know it. So, they're rightly asking if their cur- rent assets are enough to get them through or if they need to pivot now and buy new machines to keep up. Are Your Existing Machines Enough to Keep Up?