Years ago...
I worked at a place that stuffed its own through-hole boards. There was a machine at each workstation with a red laser pointer. The pointer would show the location for the next part to be inserted. I think it also lit an LED on the associated parts bin, but I'm not sure.
What is this machine called, and do they still make them?
Or better yet, what might be involved to replicate one? We have a few dozen boards we hand-assemble. Potentially, a machine like this could save us some time. It could be "upgraded" to bring it into the 21st century (i.e., instead of LED's on a parts bin, a monitor could display the whole Digikey parts label, etc.. or equiv.)
I'd Google it, if I knew the machine name or manufacturer. I got the impression (back then) this was pretty standard stuff for production manufacturing.