TurningHead
Cast Iron
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2006
- Location
- S.E. Ohio
Question:
How do you handle Quality Control?
Background:
We are a medium size Machining and Manufacturing Shop, (about 20 full-time employees). Pay is by the hour (no piece -work) and competitive for our location, plus we still pick-up 100% of employee health insurance.
Our part quantities are generally small (1 to 10 pieces), but we do have a couple of repeat parts that we make all year long.
About 20% of our production runs are on CNC Chuckers and/or CNC Mills.
Balance of machining production is manual.
We also can shear, roll, brake, punch and weld low-carbon plate up to 1/4" thick, and manage to keep these machines busy full-time also. Works out to about 20% of our gross.
In today's market we are very fortunate to be as busy as we are, and about 25% of our guys are working 8 hours a week of overtime.
The Problem:
We make too much scrap.
Some of our employees do not seem to understand the financial impact of a scrap piece. This business is so competitive that I have found that a 10% scrap allowance is unrealistic or impossible to build into an estimate. Plus the scheduling impact can be terrible. And I guess it is obvious that if we are making one-offs, then getting replacement stock material can add delay and thus add more scheduling problems. Some of our guys are young and inexperienced, but most have enough time on-board to know better, so what do you do with them? Is this scenario common? How do I encourage our people to "take the next step" and be more responsible / careful with their work?
John
How do you handle Quality Control?
Background:
We are a medium size Machining and Manufacturing Shop, (about 20 full-time employees). Pay is by the hour (no piece -work) and competitive for our location, plus we still pick-up 100% of employee health insurance.
Our part quantities are generally small (1 to 10 pieces), but we do have a couple of repeat parts that we make all year long.
About 20% of our production runs are on CNC Chuckers and/or CNC Mills.
Balance of machining production is manual.
We also can shear, roll, brake, punch and weld low-carbon plate up to 1/4" thick, and manage to keep these machines busy full-time also. Works out to about 20% of our gross.
In today's market we are very fortunate to be as busy as we are, and about 25% of our guys are working 8 hours a week of overtime.
The Problem:
We make too much scrap.
Some of our employees do not seem to understand the financial impact of a scrap piece. This business is so competitive that I have found that a 10% scrap allowance is unrealistic or impossible to build into an estimate. Plus the scheduling impact can be terrible. And I guess it is obvious that if we are making one-offs, then getting replacement stock material can add delay and thus add more scheduling problems. Some of our guys are young and inexperienced, but most have enough time on-board to know better, so what do you do with them? Is this scenario common? How do I encourage our people to "take the next step" and be more responsible / careful with their work?
John