What is your Machine shop policy on food and drink on the shop floor?

SwissPR0 · Dec 16, 2016

Hi Everyone,
This could be a touchy subject to some and a no brainer for others...
I work in a shop that machines parts for mostly medical and aerospace industry. I would like to know what is the current industry standard for manufacturing on having any food or beverage in the shop?

El Mustachio · Dec 16, 2016

I handle our employee handbook, training, safety etc. That being said, I can't say I've ever known this issue to come up. I guess I'd say it falls under common sense. You can't work and eat at the same time, being a machinist isn't a desk job. Likewise, who even wants to risk getting the kind of debris / chemicals we all work around anywhere near their food? I'll admit to occasionally having a dixie cup of shop coffee perched on the headstock of a lathe, but it's also just asking for chips or coolant to land in it.

If it's a problem in your shop, there should be no issue with stating no food on the shop floor. I assume you have a lunch room / break room. I wouldn't worry about dancing around the subject, make a rule, announce it, and enforce it; problem should soon be over.

deljr15 · Dec 16, 2016

Around here I have been one to eat at a machine. Long cycles that require someone to be present the whole time tend to be opportune times to work thru lunch take the extra pay and eat at the machine. That said it comes down to general shop cleanliness. However being a medical manufacturer I'm sure they dont want jelly coated heart valves.

yardbird · Dec 16, 2016

We pour hot aluminum and that don't mix well with other liquids. No cans bottles on the floor. Styrofoam cups is it. Food is OK but you don't want to sit it down. It's nasty out there.

Brent

wrustle · Dec 16, 2016

[h=2]What is your Machine shop policy on food and drink on the shop floor?[/h]
Pick it up, throw it in the trash, and mop up the mess on the floor when you're done!

Yup.....that about sums it up!

LockNut · Dec 16, 2016

I have worked in two shops that made medical parts and food and drink were strictly forbidden. Only closed containers of water were allowed in the cell or near machines. Coffee was allowed in a closed container but had to be kept in a specified area away from where parts were handled. The FDA frowns on parts that would come in contact with the human body to be anywhere near food and drink. Other than that, on general principal, why not? If you want to risk getting crap in your food, who cares. One other aspect is shop tidiness. In other shops where food and drink were allowed, it was a pig sty if some rules were not enforced.

Paul

sean9c · Dec 16, 2016

Man, it use to be if you told the guys in the shop no cigarettes or coffee when they were working 3/4 of the shop would walk out.
We never had any formal rules just asked everyone to use some common sense and to clean up after themselves. Then you find some idiot standing around the coffee pot jacking his jaws and you get to be the bad guy for telling him to get back to work.

SwissPR0 · Dec 16, 2016

Some of the machined parts in the shop aren't finished or in a "sterile" state, and/or they are cleaned in a later operation.
To be devil's advocate - They get cleaned anyways, why can't I have food or drink in my area?

LockNut · Dec 16, 2016

SwissPR0 said:
Some of the machined parts in the shop aren't finished or in a "sterile" state, and/or they are cleaned in a later operation.
To be devil's advocate - They get cleaned anyways, why can't I have food or drink in my area?

You sound as if someone is coming down on you and your co-workers on this subject. I always thought it was stupid and thought they used the FDA excuse to do what they didn't have the balls to do themselves, be the bad guy. But I didn't make the rules, just abided by them. I did see instances where certain people simply would not clean up after themselves which forced a showdown. Personally, I hated working in cells or departments that were filthy and had a dozen coffee cups or soda cans lying around and grew to like the idea of no food. But, like I said, we were allowed to have covered cups of coffee, which is my life blood while at work.

Sean the Dog · Dec 16, 2016

No food at all and drinks must be covered at all times.

Nothing to do with what we make, strictly Health Canada code for the safety of the worker. Worried about contamination making people sick apparently.

cg285 · Dec 16, 2016

sean9c said:
Man, it use to be if you told the guys in the shop no cigarettes or coffee when they were working 3/4 of the shop would walk out.
We never had any formal rules just asked everyone to use some common sense and to clean up after themselves. Then you find some idiot standing around the coffee pot jacking his jaws and you get to be the bad guy for telling him to get back to work.

i hear ya. now it's cell phones!

Modelman · Dec 16, 2016

You mean I can't set my coffee cup by the grinder and use it to quench tool bits?

Dennis

deljr15 · Dec 16, 2016

Modelman said:
You mean I can't set my coffee cup by the grinder and use it to quench tool bits?

Dennis

Well what else would you use?

TPMachining · Dec 16, 2016

Food in box, drinks in box, just don't eat your whole lunch while you're working. No beer until machines are shut down and brooms are out on Fridays...

sean9c · Dec 16, 2016

cg285 said:
i hear ya. now it's cell phones!

No shit it's cell phones. Every time I'd be in the shop it'd drive me crazy seeing people glancing down at their cellphones. Even running the place my personal cellphone stayed in my truck. But try and tell them no cellphones, you'd think you'd asked them to sell a kid.

ewlsey · Dec 16, 2016

sean9c said:
No shit it's cell phones. Every time I'd be in the shop it'd drive me crazy seeing people glancing down at their cellphones. Even running the place my personal cellphone stayed in my truck. But try and tell them no cellphones, you'd think you'd asked them to sell a kid.

Eh. I remember at my internship in college, the company tried to ban newspapers in the plant. It damn near caused a riot.

New technology, same problem.

IronReb · Dec 16, 2016

Seems to me a worker has four chances to eat and drink.
Arrive early and have your morning coffee.
First morning break, snack and more coffee.
Lunch time, drink and eat.
After noon break, more drink and eat.
All done in a break room.
Bottled water don't count when its a 100 degrees in the shop, drink up.

Letting a worker or two work on they lunch break is not always a good idea seeing as most everyone else is out of the shop leaving them unsupervised, are they actually working or are they fucking off on their phone.

I have never wanted to eat while machining, the thought of a #9 slipping into my drink or food and coming out my ass side ways isn't a pleasant thought.

Tonytn36 · Dec 16, 2016

In our corporate world, same as Sean,

No food on the production floor, drinks must be covered at all times. Same reason, but not a law. Health and Safety issue.

A.Delaney · Dec 16, 2016

Always ate and drank at my tool box. Everybody did at the shop I worked for. They made the coffee right there with all the machines along with donuts every Friday.

Oldwrench · Dec 17, 2016

No food restrictions here apart from daily cleanliness. Coffee is free, hot and cold water likewise. Nobody works thru lunch, it's like enforced break time. There's a nice quiet lunchroom that some use but most will go eat in their cars so they can use their cell phones.

What is your Machine shop policy on food and drink on the shop floor?

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