Edmund Michael Dorsz, known as Ed to family, friends, and coworkers, is a CNC Programmer and Manufacturing Engineer based in Newnan, Georgia. His interest in engineering began long before it became his profession.
Growing up in Detroit, Ed was always building something. He assembled Heathkit radios, made cars with Erector sets, and built balsa wood model airplanes. Those early projects gave him a lasting interest in mechanics, design, and understanding how things work.
He later studied at Macomb Community College, Oakland Community College, and Cal Poly Pomona. Over the course of his career, he developed experience in CNC programming, CAD/CAM design, precision tooling, and manufacturing engineering. His strongest area is Siemens NX, formerly known as Unigraphics. He has also worked with AutoCAD, Autodesk, SolidWorks, Mastercam, and CATIA V5.
Ed previously owned Accelerated Precision Tooling Company in California. Running his own business gave him a wider view of engineering, including the importance of deadlines, communication, problem-solving, and adapting when plans change. Since January 2025, he has worked as a CNC Programmer with Clayton International Inc.
His interest in making things has never been limited to his career. Ed enjoys watchmaking, 3D printing, cycling, and developing new ideas. He previously held a patent and continues to enjoy taking ideas from concept to physical form.
He also values staying active, helping coworkers, learning new systems, and maintaining the patience required to solve difficult technical problems.
What is your typical day, and how do you make it productive?
My workday usually revolves around solving problems and keeping projects moving. I spend time reviewing models, programming CNC operations, checking toolpaths, and making sure what looks right on a screen will also work in the real world.
I try to stay focused on one problem at a time. Manufacturing can become complicated very quickly if you jump ahead without understanding the details. After work, I exercise every day. That routine helps me clear my head and separate work from the rest of my evening.
How do you bring ideas to life?
I usually start by thinking about the function before worrying about how something looks. I ask what the part needs to do, what could go wrong, and how it could realistically be made.
CAD software lets me work through those ideas digitally, and 3D printing gives me another way to test them physically. I have always liked that process. Even as a kid building model airplanes, the interesting part was seeing whether the thing you imagined actually worked.
What’s one trend that excites you?
I am interested in how digital manufacturing tools keep becoming more connected. CAD, CAM, CNC programming, simulation, and 3D printing are increasingly part of the same process.
I like anything that helps an engineer find a problem before material is cut or time is wasted on the shop floor.
What is one habit that helps you be productive?
Exercise. I exercise after work every day.
It gives me a clear break between work and home life. Some technical problems also become easier after you stop staring at them for a while. I have had plenty of situations where the solution seemed much clearer after getting away from the computer.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Do not assume that the software, machine, or process you know today will be the one you use forever.
I have worked with Siemens NX, AutoCAD, SolidWorks, Mastercam, CATIA V5, and other systems. The important skill is not memorizing where every button is. It is understanding manufacturing well enough that you can transfer that knowledge to a new system.
Tell us something you believe almost nobody agrees with you on?
I think patience is underrated in technical work.
People often associate productivity with speed. Sometimes moving more slowly at the beginning saves a lot of time later. Five extra minutes checking a setup, dimension, or toolpath can prevent hours of fixing a mistake.
What is the one thing you repeatedly do and recommend everyone else do?
Keep learning things that are slightly outside your normal area.
Watchmaking, for example, is very different from programming a CNC machine, but both teach you to respect small tolerances, mechanical relationships, and attention to detail. Learning something unrelated can sometimes improve how you approach your regular work.
When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?
I simplify the problem. I write down what actually needs to be solved and remove everything that does not matter at that moment. In engineering, a complicated problem is often several smaller problems stacked together. Once you separate them, the situation becomes much easier to manage.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business or advance in your career?
Being willing to adapt has probably helped me the most.
When you work in manufacturing for a long time, you see software change, equipment change, companies change, and customer expectations change. I have learned several CAD and CAM systems over the years instead of relying on one platform.
Owning Accelerated Precision Tooling Company also taught me that technical ability alone is not enough. You need to communicate clearly, meet commitments, and solve problems without creating unnecessary drama.
What is one failure in your career, how did you overcome it, and what lessons did you take away from it?
Earlier in my career, I sometimes spent too much time trying to perfect a solution before getting enough feedback from the people who would actually use it.
I learned to ask questions earlier. A programmer, machinist, engineer, or customer may all look at the same part differently. Getting those perspectives sooner usually produces a better result.
The lesson was simple: do not become so attached to the first solution that you stop listening.
What is one business idea you’re willing to give away to our readers?
A small manufacturing company focused on creating replacement parts for older equipment using a combination of reverse engineering, 3D scanning, CAD, CNC machining, and 3D printing.
A lot of perfectly useful machines become difficult to maintain because one small component is no longer manufactured. There is an opportunity to help companies reproduce those hard-to-find parts economically.
What is one piece of software that helps you be productive? How do you use it?
Siemens NX. It is the CAD/CAM system I know best. I use it to work with geometry, develop machining strategies, create toolpaths, and think through how a part can move from a digital model to an actual manufactured component.
What I like about a strong CAD/CAM system is that it lets you solve many problems before the machine ever starts cutting.
Do you have a favorite book or podcast you’ve gotten a ton of value from and why?
One author I have always enjoyed is P.J. O’Rourke, particularly All the Trouble in the World.
I like writers who are willing to question assumptions and look at institutions from unusual angles. Even when you do not agree with every conclusion, that kind of writing encourages you to think critically rather than simply accept whatever explanation is presented first.
What’s a movie or series you recently enjoyed and why?
I tend to enjoy documentaries and programs about engineering, machinery, aviation, or how things are made.
I like seeing the decisions behind a finished product. Whether it is an aircraft, a machine, or a mechanical object, there are usually hundreds of small decisions that most people never see. That process is often more interesting to me than the finished object itself.
Key learnings
- Learn the principles behind a skill rather than relying too heavily on one tool or software platform.
- Break complicated problems into smaller parts before trying to solve everything at once.
- Ask for feedback early instead of becoming too attached to the first solution.
- Patience and careful preparation can prevent costly mistakes later.
- Learning skills outside of your main profession can introduce new ways of thinking about familiar problems.