CNC Machine Monitoring Software

Know which machines are cutting, which are waiting, and why — without clipboards, without an MES project, and without sending your shop data to someone else's cloud.

By Ryan Lenhart · Updated Oct 5, 2026

CNC machine monitoring software connects to your machines, records what they do minute by minute, and turns that record into answers: which machines actually cut parts today, how long each one sat waiting, which stops keep coming back, and how much capacity you have before you need another machine.

That is the whole job. Everything else — dashboards, OEE, alerts, reports — is a different view of the same timeline. If the timeline is accurate and the people running the shop look at it, monitoring pays for itself in found hours. If nobody looks at it, the best software in the world is a screensaver.

What you see in the first week

Shops that turn on monitoring usually go through the same three surprises.

1. Utilization is lower than the whiteboard says. A machine that "ran all day" often shows 45–60% in-cycle time across a staffed shift once warm-up, first-article checks, waiting for material, tool changes, breaks, and end-of-shift wind-down are counted. Nobody was lying. Manual logs simply cannot capture ten-minute gaps.

2. Idle beats broken. Hard faults and alarms feel like the big problem because they are loud. On most timelines the larger loss is quiet: a healthy machine with the door open, waiting on a program, a tool, an inspector, a forklift, or an operator who is running two other machines.

3. The same stops repeat. Once stops are on a timeline you can see patterns — the first hour after shift change, the setup that always runs long on one part family, the machine that waits every afternoon for the CMM. Patterns are fixable. Anecdotes are not.

What FEAI Machine Monitor does

FEAI Machine Monitor is a Windows desktop application from Ryan Lenhart LLC built for job shops and contract manufacturers that want facts about their machines without buying an enterprise system.

It connects through MTConnect, the open, read-only standard many CNC builders support. The app talks to an MTConnect Agent on your network using plain HTTP requests (/probe, /current, /sample) and stores the history in a local database on the PC. It never writes to the control.

Why local-first matters for a CNC shop

Most monitoring products are cloud platforms: a gateway in your shop pushes data to the vendor's servers and you look at it in a browser. That works, but it has costs that matter more to a 10-machine shop than to a Fortune 500 plant.

• Your network stays simple. No outbound tunnel from the shop floor to a third-party cloud for monitoring to work. Many shops and many of their customers — especially defense and medical work — would rather not open that door.
• It keeps working when the internet doesn't. The dashboard runs on the PC next to the machines.
• Your data stays yours. Machine history lives in a database on your own computer.
• No hardware project. If the machines already expose MTConnect, there is no box to mount on each control.

The trade-off is honest: a local Windows app is not a multi-plant corporate dashboard. If you need that, you will outgrow it and should look at enterprise platforms. If you need to know what your machines did yesterday and why, local is faster and cheaper.

Will it connect to my machines?

This is the right first question, and it has a straightforward answer: FEAI Machine Monitor connects to supported CNC machines that provide accessible MTConnect data.

In practice shops fall into three groups:

1. MTConnect is already there. Many current controls from builders such as Haas, Mazak, Okuma, DMG MORI, and others offer MTConnect as a standard or optional feature, and some shops already run an MTConnect Agent for another system. You enter the endpoint's IP, port (5000 is common), and path, and data starts flowing.
2. The control can do it but it is switched off. The option may need enabling, licensing, or network setup on the machine side. That is a configuration step with your dealer or controls person, not a software purchase.
3. Older or proprietary controls. These usually need an MTConnect adapter that translates the control's native data into MTConnect. Plan for this machine by machine.

The free plan exists precisely so you can answer "will it work here?" on your own machines before spending anything. See Already Have MTConnect? for the exact steps and How to Test an MTConnect Connection if a machine does not respond.

How shops actually use it

Morning meeting (10 minutes). Open yesterday's shift summary. Which machines fell below their normal utilization? What were the three longest stops? Assign one owner per stop. That single habit produces most of the value.

Live floor view. Supervisors keep the status board open on a shop-floor screen. An idle machine that stays idle shows up right away, not at the end of the shift.

Weekly review. Compare this week's OEE and downtime by machine against last week. Did the fix from Monday actually move the number?

Capacity and quoting. Before buying a machine or taking a big job, check real utilization. Many shops find a shift's worth of hidden capacity on the machines they already own. Our machine utilization calculator shows how to put a dollar figure on it.

What it costs

You pay by machine, not by user. Everyone in the shop can look.

There is no installation fee and no hardware to buy when your machines already provide MTConnect. Annual plans include two months free. For a broader look at what monitoring costs across the market, including hidden costs, read How Much Does CNC Machine Monitoring Cost?

How to choose CNC machine monitoring software

Whether you choose FEAI or someone else, these are the questions that separate tools that get used from tools that get ignored:

1. Can it read my machines today? Ask which protocol it uses and test on your real controls, not a demo machine.
2. Who will open it every day? If supervisors will not look at it during a shift, nothing changes.
3. Does it separate idle from down? Lumping waiting time in with breakdowns sends maintenance after problems that belong to scheduling.
4. Can I see the timeline, not just a percentage? OEE without the underlying stops is a grade without a lesson.
5. What happens to my data? Where is it stored, who can access it, and can you keep it if you leave?
6. What does it cost at 2, 10, and 30 machines? Per-machine pricing should stay predictable as you grow.
7. Can I start small? A two-machine pilot on your busiest cell teaches more than any sales presentation.

We compare the main options — MachineMetrics, Datanomix, MEMEX MERLIN, Predator MDC, and others — in CNC Machine Monitoring Alternatives.

Monitoring vs MES vs ERP

Monitoring answers "what did the machines do?" An MES manages work orders, routings, quality records, and labor on the floor. An ERP runs quoting, purchasing, inventory, and accounting. They overlap at the edges, but most small and mid-size shops get faster payback by starting with monitoring and adding systems later. The full comparison is in CNC Machine Monitoring vs MES and ERP.

Start with two machines

Pick your two most important machines — the bottleneck, or the one everyone argues about. Install the Windows app, connect them, and watch a full week. If the timeline teaches you nothing, you have lost nothing. Most shops find their first fix in the first few days.

Start free — 2 machines or download the Windows installer.