I understand your point of view completly. But in order to be competative and get the work process as streamlined as possible, you have to use all tools avalible. 1)CAM verification may come out perfect in the computer, but what happens when your machinist installs the tool 1" shorter than the cam programmer had planned? Maybe the holder hits a feature, maybe it doesnt. My guys are way to highly compenstated to stand there and watch a multi hour program run, when they can be doing other jobs that keep the business moving forward. 2) If everyone is one the same page, and the cam programmer prints the tool list, then at a glance the machinist can see that everything is correct and all he has to do is load the tools, set the work offsets, press go, and walk away. 3) Every shop is different and i feel that this is what is best for mine. There is 100 different ways to do things, and i wont tell anyone that their way is wrong.
That said, back to the original question. What system are you folks using to set and control the tools in the crib?is the go/no go shelf 'good enough'?
1) That is what set-up sheets are for.
2) You just answered #1 yourself.
3) Every shop,
and every lead man, is different.
I agree with dstryr. It seems you have a couple different ways you could go.
The thing that makes me lean the way I do is that you stated that your guys are already confused.
Are they confused because they don't understand how tool offsets work? (I doubt it since you said they are compensated well).
Or, are they confused because nobody knows what the hell the other is doing? (I am assuming this is the case).
How big is this shop? How many CNCs? How many machinists?
Maybe a better question would be, how big does a shop need to be to warrant paying a guy to man the tool-crib?
I see what you are trying to do. And, you have good intentions. I just don't see you getting the results you are looking for, from the places you are looking to get them.
What do you do when you have 3 guys on big set-ups, all with lots of special tools, lets say 60 tools to build across the 3 jobs. And, you only have one guy in the crib? Then you have 3 guys standing around waiting on their cart full of tools. It sounds like a blame-game disaster in the making to me.
If it were up to me I would get after the CAM guys to put ALL the needed details on the set-up sheets. And let the guys build their own tools.
The only benefit I personally see from having a dedicated tool-crib attendant, is accountability of tooling, and an organized crib.
I don't know man. Its a tough call without being there.