How to reduce CNC setup time when every job is a short run

Short-run machining is where setup time quietly eats the whole day. The machine may only cut for twenty minutes, but the job still needs material checked, fixture cleaned, tools touched off, offsets confirmed, first piece measured, and the next job staged. When the schedule is full of small batches, the setup becomes the real bottleneck. I have seen shops try to speed this up by pushing operators…