I'm guessing a decision was made somewhere to use CNC routering for all sheet stock cutting.
A vertical panel saw would leave a cleaner edge and cut faster. They are available fully automated but then the cut pieces would have to be fed back to the router anyway for cutting holes and chamfering edges....
Guess the bean counters figured out the math.
Also I guess most electronics are still done on 1 sided boards so they are still using a wave solder for the most part
Sure would like to have seen a video from the peavey woodshop from when it was in full production 20-25 years ago
Which wood shop? The cabinet area in the middle of plant 3 used huge panel saws(?) and was hopping, but not extremely automated AFAIK. OTOH Hartley pioneered using CNC machinery in the guitar plant to accurately cut repeatable guitar necks.
The automation of the huge sheet metal machines were pretty impressive, where the fork lift would load in 4x8' stacks of sheet metal and it would slice and dice them down into piles of perfect parts.
JR
PS: I know a little about DIY, I used to run a kit business back in the '70s