The pallet is the moveable platform in a milling machine to which the fixture and workpiece are attached. A pallet changer allows another pallet to be loaded with a workpiece and then automatically changed with the pallet supporting a finished part. The pallet change time describes the complete time between the end of a machining cycle and start of the next cycle. Because workpieces are loaded while others are being machined, the workpiece load time need not be included in the machining cycle.