When they are playing well the machine moves through its gears in frictionless harmony and the information systems remain clear and uninterrupted – New Zealand is this machine at the moment.
It is tempting, when a series is as one-sided as this one, to write off the opposition as substandard but it increasingly feels like a disservice to the Black Caps. They have been a juggernaut that has relentlessly and remorselessly crushed any ambition the West Indies – who won a test in England this winter – might have harboured.
They have done it by building big first-innings totals on green pitches by building partnerships around one big innings.
They have done it by bowling in partnerships, by swinging the ball when it's there to be swung and by hitting the pitch in the right areas at the right pace when it's not.
They have done it, apart from a one bad session in Hamilton, by holding on to most things that fly through the air.
The West Indies look thoroughly dispirited now. They're far from a well-oiled machine but even if they were it's unlikely they'd be able to keep pace with a side that is not just happier, but more talented.
And how exactly do you counter a 2.03m bowler who can swing it at pace both ways on a wicket still offering plenty of encouragement?
They haven't come close to finding the answer, slumping to 124-8 at stumps on day, a deficit of 328, thanks mainly to Kyle Jamieson's 5-34.
His 13 overs were mostly extraordinary, but none more so than his first where he took back-to-back wickets and every other ball involved an appeal, two of which were reviewed, one which was found to be hitting, but not quite flush enough to overturn the decision.
The lucky man on that occasion was Jermaine Blackwood, who responded by clubbing 69, the only thing standing between his side and humiliation.
Tim Southee came as advertised, taking the first two wickets to fall and coming back to get Blackwood.
Trent Boult and Neil Wagner might have gone wicketless but they never bearing down on the batsmen. On another day they could have had three each.
Tom Latham will be faced with a decision tomorrow morning as to whether to enforce the follow on. It feels almost academic; the result, barring an unforeseen miracle, will be the same either way.
New Zealand would have been the happier side after day one but the West Indies were, technically, still in the match and the series.
They needed a strong start with the second new ball. Instead they reverted to Hamilton type, mixing bad luck with unconscionably bad fielding.
Shannon Gabriel was gifted a run out opportunity when Jamieson was eight and John Campbell continued the trend of woeful slips catching by shelling a sitter off the same batsman on 15.
Nicholls inside-edged past the keeper to go from 122 to 126 and flashed through the gully soon after but by drinks score had advanced to 335-6 and with it, you thought, the last chance for an upset.
That feeling only intensified with the dismissal of Jamieson (20) and Southee (11). Out to the crease strode Wagner with the sort of pep in his step you'd associate with a teenager who's just been rung by his girlfriend with news that her parents are out for the evening.
Forty-two balls later he was leaving the field with 66 not out next to his name having cleared the ropes four times and, somehow, overshadowed the test high score of Nicholls who left to warm applause after being caught for 174.
The Cantabrian rode his luck on day one but good players capitalise and a big ton will ward off any claims on his place at No 5 this summer.
He's re-established himself as another vital cog in this machine.
