A machine for inserting a tongue in an insertion groove in a panel. An operation of the machine involves displacing a first tongue to an end position of a tongue queue, which includes tongues under compression, in a tongue queue device, compressing the first tongue, displacing the tongues in the tongue queue by compression forces from the tongues under compression, displacing a second tongue, which is at a front position of the tongue queue, to an inserting device, displacing the second tongue into an insertion groove in a panel by the inserting device.