As I promised earlier and got sidetracked:
When I ran a high tech contract machining shop, we made a corporate decision and gutted our entire building, sold off all the machines, and designed from scratch what we wanted.
Facilities:
We put power lines in the floor where we planned to place machine "cells" and in trays in the ceiling where we could drop down new wires in the future as occasion might demand. We put in all new, low power, high lumen lighting and air conditioning. New concrete floor was laid to hold ANY load, finished with a practically impervious epoxy finish.
We had pertinent inspection equipment at every cell. Specialized equipment like CMM and optical comparators were kept in a soundproofed, climate controlled lab along with our special scales and weight and dimension standards for calibrating instruments. Every operator was trained in using all equipment (if we could trust him with a half-million dollar machine tool, we could sure trust him with a $20,000 CMM)
We built a soundproof office and conference area with phones, computers, copiers, printers, plotters, tv, vcr, DVD, PowerPoint projector, private desk for each machine operator.
Vending machine area and break room had "kitchenette" facilities. Bathrooms for each gender were like country club locker rooms (private toilets, showers, dressing rooms, lockers, etc.)
New computer-controlled machines were brought in, arranged in "cells" run by one operator. Operator could program at machine or at his desk.
Operation:
Operators were all on MRB (material review board) in addition to Quality Manager, Finance/Purchasing, Marketing. MRB meetings were held in their [the operators'] conference rooms. If customers or suppliers were invited to MRB, they met there, too.
All training (in-house, machine tool suppliers, outside experts, cutting tool suppliers, heat treaters, platers, etc.) could be conducted on-site. Customers were encouraged to come and meet with operators running their jobs.
We had no quality inspectors (we did have quality trainers and guys who acted as "court of last resort" when a question would arise.) Operators did own first article inspections, based on control plan/inspection plan agreed with customer as part of contract review. Another operator would perform a redundant first article inspection with different inspection instruments. Marked sample with BOTH inspection reports was sent to customer for confirmation before production began.
In-process inspection, SPC, etc. was performed by operator in real time. If nonconformance was discovered, production would halt - all operators would collaborate on finding and curing cause, only calling in outside help if solution eluded them. Inspection records, charts, etc. went right to computer where they were available in real time to in-house folk and customers.
Operators had autonomy to bring in experts from our suppliers of material, capital equipment, and expendable tooling to stay up to date on industry innovation. Sometimes, we shut the whole shop down and chartered a bus to take us to the International Machine Tool Show to spend the day.
If an operator wanted to see a customer's operation and how his product was used, we made it happen. Similarly for a supplier's operation.
Bottom line:
We treated our operators as true partners. We made sure our suppliers and customers understood the power and authority we gave them. In ten years, they never disappointed us. I hope we never disappointed them.