David,
Going back just to the 60's and 50's, some of the aerospace machining I've seen, made with only manual controlled machines, was simply astounding. Complex cuts, angles and radii, transitions, etc., all done manually. Some of that stuff took a long time to make. Lots of setups.
About 20 yrs ago, I took a mfg engrg curriculum at UCLA, one instructor stated that CNC had not changed overall mfg capabilities much if at all. I think there's some truth to that in most areas. It has changed how long some operations take, especially for short runs or single items. But nearly all items produced today could be produced on manual machinery.
