A system and method are provided for manufacturing workpieces, such as metal articles like sputtering target, the system comprising: comparing one or more physical or chemical values of a respective one of a plurality of metal target blanks to one or more comparable values of at least one desired criterion; selecting one of the metal target blanks from a plurality of metal target blanks as a work-in-progress; assigning a serial route for the work-in-progress; processing the work-in-progress by translating the work-in-progress from note to node with an automated transport, after completion of the events at each node; rejecting or accepting the work-in-progress as a metal target by evaluating a result of at least one event of the one or more respective events to be completed at, at least one of the plurality of nodes.