a closer view of the part holding and positioning system 170 180 190 located beneath a processing station 120 or 140 in the case of fig2 b the processing station contains two measurement devices 128 a confocal measurement sensor and 126 an optical camera measurement sensor fig2 b also shows a motion stage 124 fig3 is an example part picking unit for use with the disclosed apparatuses as displayed in fig3 the part picking unit 150 is positioned over a part holding and positioning system 170 180 190 as in the case when a raw part is being transferred from 150 to 170 180 190 the part picking unit may be used with the disclosed apparatuses to move various piece parts throughout the disclosed system one example method of operating for processing an individual piece part is as follows it should be noted that this is only one example of a method that can be used within the context of the present disclosure first a piece part is loaded into the in flow out flow system a robot such as a robotic arm then may take the material and transport it to one of the part holding and positioning systems such as part holding and positioning system 170 in other embodiments a piece part may be directly loaded to a positioning system once the material is loaded into the part holding and positioning system either directly or through the use of robotics the part holding and positioning system now containing the piece part is moved to a first station such as station 120 the first station may include one of or both a measurement station or step hole creating station the first station then processes the.