Well it had 3 bits from different directions that each moved in 4 axis(in/out, up/down, left right, spin) which could be used simultaneously and controlled independently.

Yeah it's not something you program repeatedly though. You basically program once and hit a button and walk away and it will make hundreds to thousands of whatever.

My understanding was you basically programmed it in steps. So like on step 1 operation on one bit, on other bit at same time run this operation and on third bit run this operation at same time. Now when all of those operations are complete move to step 2 and repeat.

To make it more difficult there was also an automatic bar loader and a automatic bucket changer(it dumped the parts into buckets).

Also to make it run fast you tried to balance each axis operations in a each step so no axis was ever stopped waiting for the other operations but you also had to stop them periodically to control heat and not break the bits since due to the products we were not allowed to use coolant.

It took 3 senior engineers and 2 junior engineers 2 years to set it up to make 3 different products reliably. It was awesome when it eventually ran properly though.