How TFI Used Sense to Bring Visibility to an Old-School Machine Shop

How a Pennsylvania machine shop used Sense to gain visibility into machine utilization and uncover early productivity opportunities.

A New Chapter for a 30-Year-Old Machine Shop

When Aashay Kumar purchased Tri-Form, Inc. (TFI) in August of 2024, he stepped into a business with nearly three decades of manufacturing history and a shop floor that ran largely on experience and intuition.

Founded in 1995 in the Pittsburgh region, TFI built its reputation on quality work, reliable delivery, and customer-focused service. Over time, the company expanded its machining capabilities while maintaining the practical, hands-on approach that defined it from the beginning.

Kumar arrived with a different professional background. Before acquiring TFI, he worked in technology and operations, first as a software engineer and later as a Senior Manager of Strategy and Operations at McMaster-Carr, an industrial distributor known for its operational discipline.

As he began learning the flow of the shop, Kumar saw an opportunity to complement the team’s manufacturing expertise with better operational visibility. The goal was not to replace the experience already present on the shop floor, but to give the team clearer information about how machines were being used so they could make decisions with more context.

That vision of combining technology with shop floor experience would soon shape how TFI approached new tools and systems in the business.

The Challenge

“We were an old-school shop and didn’t have much visibility into what was happening on the shop floor unless we were physically there. Sense has changed that by giving us real-time machine visibility, allowing us to understand utilization and performance without having to constantly walk the floor.”

– Aashay Kumar, Owner and President, TFI

The team relied primarily on observation and experience to understand how machines were performing. While this approach worked, it made it difficult to answer simple operational questions with confidence:

• How long were machines actually running each day?

• Were machines being underutilized?

• Were there hidden inefficiencies during shifts?

The concept of machine monitoring wasn’t new to TFI. But many available systems came with significant barriers to entry.

Some required large upfront investments in hardware and installation. Others required long-term contracts or minimum device deployments across the shop. In many cases, the systems were complex enough that deploying them meant disrupting production or dedicating internal resources to implementation.

For a shop focused on keeping machines running, those hurdles made adoption difficult. TFI wanted operational insight but only if the solution was simple, affordable, and easy to try.

The Turning Point

TFI first encountered Sense during a visit from the Sense team while visiting machine shops in the region. During the walk-through, it became clear that the shop had an opportunity to gain deeper visibility into machine performance.

What stood out to Kumar was how different Sense felt compared to traditional monitoring systems.

Instead of requiring a major rollout, long-term commitment, or expensive infrastructure, the system could be deployed quickly on just a few machines.

“This felt like an economical solution and a low barrier to entry.”

– Aashay Kumar, Owner and President, TFI 

Rather than rushing into a full deployment immediately, TFI started with a pilot. Four machines were equipped with sensors to test the platform and see what insights the data might reveal.

Installation was fast and scheduled intentionally to avoid disrupting production. Within a few hours of installation, all four machines were up and running on the Sense platform.

After installation, the Sense team walked the TFI staff through the platform and reporting tools. Within a few weeks, the shop had its first objective look at how machines were actually being used.

The Response

Introducing monitoring technology into a shop environment can sometimes create hesitation, and Tri-Form experienced a bit of that early on.

Some employees initially wondered whether the system might be used to track individual performance. Kumar addressed those concerns directly by explaining the real goal: gaining better visibility into shop operations.

“We were transparent about it. This isn’t about tracking people — it’s about helping us tell better stories about how our days and weeks actually go in the shop.”

– Aashay Kumar, Owner and President, TFI

As the team began reviewing the data during weekly production meetings, the system quickly became part of their workflow.

The uptime reports gave the team a new way to evaluate how machines were actually being used and investigate situations where expectations didn’t match reality.

“If the data doesn’t match what we expected, we dig into it. It’s helping us identify opportunities and act on it.”

– Aashay Kumar, Owner and President, TFI

A few early questions came up around machine calibration and data interpretation as the team spent more time with the data. Each time, the Sense team worked closely with the shop to investigate the data and quickly resolve the issue.

That combination of responsiveness and transparency strengthened TFI’s confidence that they had chosen the right solution.

The Result

Today, Sense has become part of TFI’s operational rhythm.

Each week, the owner, production manager, and shop foreman review machine uptime reports as part of their production planning discussions. The data provides a clear view of how machines were used throughout the week and highlights situations where expectations and reality don’t match.

After just three months of monitoring four machines, the data has already begun highlighting opportunities to improve machine utilization.

“We’re about two to three months in right now, but we’re starting to see data that we can actually act on. As we’re drilling into off-hours, we’re seeing that machines may have been left on too long or aren’t running as efficiently as they should be.”

– Aashay Kumar, Owner and President, TFI

Looking ahead, Tri-Form plans to use Sense to establish machine utilization benchmarks as more data accumulates. By defining how long machines should run during production periods, the team hopes to identify inefficiencies faster and improve overall shop performance.

The impact has been strong enough that Kumar now recommends the same approach to other manufacturers.

“I would recommend it to another shop 100%. Start with a few sensors across a few machines first so you get good data and control your variables.”

– Aashay Kumar, Owner and President, TFI

TFI is already planning to expand beyond the initial pilot deployment and for Kumar, the biggest benefit has been simple but powerful: visibility.

Where the shop once relied primarily on observation, it now has real data guiding conversations about machine utilization and productivity.

Sense didn’t replace the experience of the shop floor for TFI, it simply added the data needed to make better decisions.