Those little Burgies, I think they are model #00 had a two groove sheave. 9000 rpm for a .011 drill is far better than 3600 in a Bridgeport. A carefully organized process, in a proper fixture can still give CNC's a good race.
1st off nothing moves 18 inches for a tool change. Like process streamlining mentioned, with a rail, the operator's positioning in concert with indexing turret.
Time was, such workers enjoyed intense production work. I enjoyed designing tooling they could do that with.