The manufacturers of NC machine-tools pay little attention to the analysis of consumer requests that is to production and technological conditions typical to the majority of equipment customers. The work purpose consists in the optimization of NC lathe (NCL) technological potentialities based on the analysis of machinery and device characteristics. The scientific novelty of the work consists in a new approach to the substantiation of NC lathes parameters based on their interconnection with machinery characteristics, formation of original data bank on parts of the Uliyanovsk region companies (200,000 of items) presenting different branches of industry: aircraft manufacturing, shipbuilding, machine tool construction, automotive industry, instrument making et al. stage-by-stage parts grouping on the basis of ESKD classifier and the application of a cluster analysis. As a result of investigations there are revealed eight parts groups of revolution solids, design-technological characteristics which should be used as a technological basis for designing and choice of NC lathes (NCL). For all groups of parts there are developed complex parts (CP) generalizing all design-technological characteristics of group parts and group technological operations (GTO) for their production. The substantiation of GTO formation scheme was carried out according to shown costs Cmanuf. for machining a complex part. The design-technological characteristics and schemes of GTO formation are initial data for the definition of basic technological parameters of a new range of NCLs or the choice of the most suitable existing NCL. As a result there are substantiated NCL basic parameters for machining eight groups of parts. The design and production of all eight NCLs should be organized according to block-modular principle that is on a single common element base. To realize this principle there is substantiated a unified structure of functional units of the machine for the creation of all NCLs with different technological potentialities.