Suggestions for improving work habits

Hey guys,

So over the years I've developed excellent work habits. I boast a positive attitude (i never complain), I am always on time, I bust my ass, I communicate effectively, I accept feedback, I work to improve based on said feedback, I am never idle, I get along with coworkers. My work is of a high quality; I do a good job and take pride in what I do. I put effort into learning as quickly and as efficiently as possible. I consider myself a well-rounded, valuable employee.

One issue: I'm not very fast. I've worked production and can usually keep up, especially if I have a machine or production line setting the pace for me. But when I set my own pace, I have trouble.

I worked as a painter for some time. Painting was okay (not something I see myself doing long-term), but I was ultimately let go because I couldn't keep up with the pace required. This shattered me. I tried so hard and it wasn't enough. I gave it my all and failed. I'm still painting part time for a guy who says he doesn't give a shit how fast I am as long as I do a good job, but I feel I should establish an efficient pace anyway.

In school I am going to work on my pace as best I can, ideally being above average by the time I graduate. Do any of you have tips on how I can accomplish that, even if it's just a certain attitude or way of thinking? I would like to work on my speed while I do this part time gig as well.

This isn't a game to me. I WILL be successful. This is just one of my roadblocks.

Keep doing what you are doing. Quality should always come first. You painter guy understands that. The speed thing happens naturally.

My experience is hand eye coordination is some what genetic based some how. Some people just are naturally a lot faster than others. Yep practice helps but thers still some built in limits.

It also pays to learn to match needed quality levels to the job, weather that be wiping your bum or painting a royal stately home. To be efficiency in the work place quality very much needs to be good enough but perfection soon takes too much time and you end up no longer turning a profit. Some times that’s a pretty thin line. Its also something you only kinda learn with some serious work place experience too.

No one is perfect, learn to accept who you are and if you feel it matters enough try and work towards small improvements rather than beating yourself up.

As has been said, there is a balance to what is "good enough", but if you find yourself doing good quality but low volume work, think of careers than match that type of approach better so you don't constantly feel under pressure.

My eldest son is a self employed joiner. He doesn't " pull any trees " up either, I know because I've worked with him on some jobs. He takes his time and never rushes. On the other hand he normally does the job once and does it right. He doesn't cut any corners. He's neat and tidy and always respectful of his customers and their property. All his work is repeat work or word of mouth. He's always as busy as he wants to be.

I've stopped employing house painters because none of them can do the job as well as I can. They can do a relatively decent job in half the time it takes me, but when I've finished painting the job is as good as it can be got.

Regards Tyrone.

My first mentor in my apprenticeship was the fastest in the shop. I really couldn't figure out what he was doing since he never walked fast or looked hurried. He was a steady worker but I noticed that he made one trip to his tool box. I was always needing something I forgot or had to stop what I was doing to bring another part of the job up to the correct stage. Old bob never backtracked. He had the job planned in detail before he started.

Everybody is good at something different. Maybe the work you're doing isn't what you're wired to do. Speed isn't the only trait that matters. Employers like speed but there are lots of jobs where speed isn't the most important quality.

Look around and explore. The trick is to find something that meets three conditions: You're passionate about it, it can support your life style, you're good at it. Keep looking until you find something that meets all three conditions. Most people settle for 2 of the 3.

I agree with Adama, if you do one thing long enough it becomes first nature which will make you faster/better at it. It's going to take time schooling will educate your mind and maybe give you some tricks and shortcuts but experience is what's going to make you work at a faster pace.

Once you're comfortable doing what you're doing, time yourself. Make it a game. Lets say last time it took you 6 min to throw in a vise and indicate it in. Next time, try and do it in 5 min. Or you're running a bunch of production. Say the part to part time is typically 2 min. Try and shoot for 1min 50sec by changing the way you load the part(have next part in hand when machine stops for faster loading) or move quicker.

Ask people that you work with to watch what you're doing and see if they can see ways to improve your efficiency. They may see something that you don't.

If you give yourself small achievable goals, this will help you see what you need to do in order to speed yourself up.

Efficient is better than fast. Pay attention to what you are doing and eliminate or refine wasteful activities.

Sm412 said:

Hey guys,

So over the years I've developed excellent work habits. I boast a positive attitude (i never complain), I am always on time, I bust my ass, I communicate effectively, I accept feedback, I work to improve based on said feedback, I am never idle, I get along with coworkers. My work is of a high quality; I do a good job and take pride in what I do. I put effort into learning as quickly and as efficiently as possible. I consider myself a well-rounded, valuable employee.

One issue: I'm not very fast. I've worked production and can usually keep up, especially if I have a machine or production line setting the pace for me. But when I set my own pace, I have trouble.

I worked as a painter for some time. Painting was okay (not something I see myself doing long-term), but I was ultimately let go because I couldn't keep up with the pace required. This shattered me. I tried so hard and it wasn't enough. I gave it my all and failed. I'm still painting part time for a guy who says he doesn't give a shit how fast I am as long as I do a good job, but I feel I should establish an efficient pace anyway.

In school I am going to work on my pace as best I can, ideally being above average by the time I graduate. Do any of you have tips on how I can accomplish that, even if it's just a certain attitude or way of thinking? I would like to work on my speed while I do this part time gig as well.

This isn't a game to me. I WILL be successful. This is just one of my roadblocks.

Click to expand...

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1) you need to log time it is taking to do job. you cannot know average time if you dont record it.
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2) i use a checklist to help confirm setup and not forget stuff and to not do stuff out of order. all of which can waste time without using a checklist.
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3) bigger jobs i use a log checklist to record more like measurements and things i did. i usually record any problems that took extra time. by knowing whats wasting time you can try to improve to not waste time in the future. what is on checklist or log is anything that caused a problem before
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4) holding tolerances sometimes takes time and some who take short cuts often are faster because they are not fully doing what they are suppose to do.

Fast is fine, but accuracy is final. Keep kicking ass, they wont remember how fast you made the part but they will remember how nice it looked and if it was in spec.

If you're comparatively slow, AND also screw up on the last cut, well, that's pretty bad. Experience should help lessen the screw ups over time as you become familiar with equipment and processes.

You can basically only 'make time' when roughing in machining, finishing takes whatever time it takes, the tool and machine are barely making an effort, but the paths must be fully traversed to obtain size and finish. So strive to improve roughing time by increasing feed rate and running the spindles near optimum speed for the tool/work at hand.

Tom's idea of a checklist is not bad if you can make some sort of a standard setup sheet that basically covers setting up something on one machine. Setup can be a time waster if you have to invent it every time, and/or cannot recall how it was done before.

i have a different setup checklist sheet for each machine type.
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i have important things on it specific to that machine so if i havent used that machine in a year it helps for remembering the important stuff. some call it a cheat sheet. some a checklist.
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many a cnc i come back to do rush job and if i havent used that cnc in years it can be 10x more difficult to operate it cause remembering operation and programming details gets fuzzy after years. how would it look if boss says drop what your doing and do this rush job and then you scrap the part doing the emergency rush job cause you forgot to do something very basic
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if rush job is cause the normal operator is not at work (vacation, sick, etc) then there is often nobody to ask questions thats around. literally a checklist can be difference in getting a pay raise or getting laid off the job cause of poor performance

Speed comes as skill builds... you will just find yourself going through tasks faster as you get more and more comfortable with each individual task and you start to click through them with less and less thought. Practice does help with speed at specific tasks. What are you specifically trying to get faster at? Are you wanting to be a production guy? Moldmaker? Job Shopper? Repair Guy? All of those jobs require slightly different skills to be "fast". Production is all about efficient work flow and seeing the bigger picture of going from raw stock to finished parts, cycle time isn't everything if you spend 2x as long deburring or make scrap. If you are making a mold and after working on it the parts it makes are shit well then it really doesn't matter how fast you made it the first time... Job shopping and repair work is a different ball game, a lot of times the key there is to be able to stop, assess what is going on and make a plan before you spend all day going down the wrong road.

If you are young and in school don't worry about fast yet... worry about making good habits that will lead to being fast in the future. Stay clean and organized, be thinking of the big picture, and be mindful of efficiency. I think that last part is a big part of getting faster, always staying mindful and pushing yourself that little bit to keep moving.

And here I am on PM not making any money and definitely not efficiently

the most dangerous time is a new operator after working with another operator for a month or 2 is on his own operating a machine with nobody looking over his shoulder catching mistakes.
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often thats the time to slow down and double check stuff using a checklist even more so.
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i remember setting Z on a mill and i pressed -2.0 but i did not look at screen to confirm Z-2.0 and instead it was Z2.0. facemill full rapid ran into vise jaws blowing overloads and obviously leaving mark on the vise and damaging facemill.
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when your first on you own nobody looking over your shoulder catching your mistakes thats the time to be even more carefully, slow down and confirm things are correct. usually faster to do it correct the first time rather than scrap part and making a another part

First you get good, then you get fast. Fast comes from doing only what needs to be done. Wasted movements, wasted trips to a toolbox, wasted setups, wasted tool changes, wasted keystrokes and mouse clicks, etc. In order to get rid of the wasted stuff that doesn't need to be done, you need to know what you need to be doing. Before you do it.

If there are 5 ways of doing something, try all five. Pay attention to what worked better, how it worked better, and WHY it worked better. Make a mental note, or keep a journal (I never have, but know lots of toolmakers who have). Watch other people work. Pay attention to how they do stuff, and WHY they do stuff (see a pattern developing here). Learn to recognize patterns... You could be making two completely different parts, but the operations are essentially the same, but you approach them different ways because the parts themselves are different. Why?

Never stop thinking about different ways of doing stuff. One of those different ways might be faster. Might not be faster for that job, but a different technique might be faster on another job.

Never turn down an opportunity to learn something new. There's a reason cross training helps athletes so much. It also applies to the trades as well. It helps you get a broader picture of the job as well. And might help you cut out some things you're doing, that are wasted operations.

Learn from mistakes. Everybody screws up. The person who never made a mistake, never made anything. Just try not to make that SAME mistake again. Nothing worse than that deja vu feeling of cocking up a job, the same way you did the last time.

And back to number one, first you get good. The single quickest way to do something is to do it once, and do it right. I've never seen a job go faster because I did it twice.

edit: Also there's something to be learned from everybody. Sometimes it's the way NOT to do things lol. Even the new hire might do something a different way, because he's never done it before and doesn't know "that's the way we've always done it" (one of my most hated sayings). His way might be faster and better.

some machinist never make a setup sheet on how to setup a job to make a particular part. then years later they are making same mistakes figuring out how to do same job often scrapping a few parts til they figure things out.
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cnc machinist usually make setup sheets as they need consistent repeatability. manual machinist often never get into the habit of making setup sheets for jobs. it takes a certain amount of discipline to plan and organize and operate efficiently. some people are more organized and better at planning than others.
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its like a cook who never write a recipe down and everything he cooks he adds different amounts and tasting a lot and its never quite exactly the same batch to batch

For me it's always been concentration, ...no matter what I'm doing, if I let my mind wander, quality and pace fall away.

I have to be ''in the groove'' and not allow myself to be distracted.

DMF_TomB said:

some machinist never make a setup sheet on how to setup a job to make a particular part. then years later they are making same mistakes figuring out how to do same job often scrapping a few parts til they figure things out.

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And some don't use a set up sheet and do it just fine 5 years later, without scrapping parts or wasting time.

DMF_TomB said:

like a cook who never write a recipe down and everything he cooks he adds different amounts and tasting a lot and its never quite exactly the same batch to batch

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Unless he knows what it supposed to taste like. Ya know how a hamburger tastes right, well I don't need a set up sheet for that, or to write down a recipe.

300 years ago, my Grandpa barked at me to go faster, faster, faster and I tried, I really tried to make him happy. Then one day I went really fast and finished a job, he looked at it and said "you went too fast and now this is junk". First comes quality thats all, learn to make quality product, and keep on doing that, then one day you will realize that you are fast.

Funny Vin Diesel snip from a movie;