Application of linear electric motors to automation of manufacturing processes, gantry robots, machining processes, machining centers, additive manufacturing and laser scribing has been discussed. The paper focuses on replacement of ball lead screw mechanisms with linear electric motors, linear motor driven positioning stages, linear motor driven gantries, machining centers, machining of large objects and industrial lasers. The best linear electric motors for application to machining processes are permanent magnet (PM) linear synchronous motors (LSMs), especially those without PMs in the reaction tail, e.g., high thrust density linear (HDL) LSMs and PM flux switching (FS) LSMs.