Calibrated measurement tools on shop floor discussion

[Golfman25]

I'm not talking running a CMM or air gauging within a ten-thousandth. But if your "machinists are untrained" and they can't make accurate basic measurements with calipers and mics, I don't wanna buy anything from you. (They're also not machinists IMO.) I've worked dozens of years in various companies with machine shops and never was this the case in any of them.

That’s certainly your choice. What about the “robot” tended machine? The key to success with labor shortages and such is to de-skill the actual operation.

Now we don’t do a ton of production machining, but when we do we generally have a pro set it up and an operator run it. They place, push the button, remove, and repeat. Maybe they have a go/no go gage. Our inspection department is responsible for monitoring And taking measurements.

 

[Mike S.]

A "machinist" is not a robot, nor is a "machinist" the same as an "operator".

Admittedly, sometimes an "operator" is someone who does very simple, low-skill work like manual labor i.e. stick the part in the machine and push the button. Sometimes these positions are even held by developmentally disabled folks. They are not "machinists".

 

[Michael_M]

I would never trust our operators to measure parts. Their work areas and skill levels aren't up to it. Thus, we use supervisors and independent inspectors to do the heavy lifting for measurements. It works for us.

This goes back to the idea that you can inspect quality into a part. In my experience, as both a (real) Machinist and a Quality Manager, the operator should know the basics of inspecting a part. Maybe not how to 'fix' if the measurement has an issue, but how to 'find' an issue.

As an additional note, I have never been part of a mass production facility, i.e. runs 10,000 of the same parts in a day. Most of the places I have worked, the material is worth too much to scrap too many parts (in one case, the material was worth more than my monthly pay).

 

[Golfman25]

This goes back to the idea that you can inspect quality into a part. In my experience, as both a (real) Machinist and a Quality Manager, the operator should know the basics of inspecting a part. Maybe not how to 'fix' if the measurement has an issue, but how to 'find' an issue.

As an additional note, I have never been part of a mass production facility, i.e. runs 10,000 of the same parts in a day. Most of the places I have worked, the material is worth too much to scrap too many parts (in one case, the material was worth more than my monthly pay).

If you have a good setup and a stable process, it shouldn't be a problem. And certain parts require different levels of ability, that's for sure.

 

[Golfman25]

A "machinist" is not a robot, nor is a "machinist" the same as an "operator".

Admittedly, sometimes an "operator" is someone who does very simple, low-skill work like manual labor i.e. stick the part in the machine and push the button. Sometimes these positions are even held by developmentally disabled folks. They are not "machinists".

Agreed, but by definition "machinists" are trained. A true trained machinist should be able to do a whole lot of stuff. We don't know what kind of "machinists" or operators the OP is using.

 

[Rich Shippy]

If QA is doing the final measurements of the parts, you could almost have the machine operators just do visual checks. You will need to have calibration for the QA equipment being used. The company is taking on some risk with this, if someone runs a few hours of out-of-tolerance production, you have incurred some scrap costs. The other danger of this is if something is intermittently going wrong in the process and QA doesn't detect it, your customers may start rejecting whole lots of your product, and the costs for expedited replacement parts and sorting gets expensive.