Class A, B, C machinist?

[Boris]

I'm a class X machinist..... X for unknown...

Actually thinking about it I'm in a class of my own..... mainly because no one else is crazy enough to work with me

/Joke mode off

I did one work for a company that decided to get involved with different class ratings think it was 1 for labourers,2 for the basic button pushers, 3 for the semi-literate, 4 for the skilled guys and a,b, or c to rate people inside those classes.
The management introduced the new grades based on looking around the factory at what people did.
So the brown nose guy who always got the simple stuff on a lathe got rated top (4a) while us CNC guys got rated 3c because all we did was load a machine and press a few buttons.

Needless to say, you can imagine the consequences....

Was quite entertaining watching the works manager explain to the plant owner exactly why $2000 aerospace and $1500 nuclear parts were sitting on the floor not going anywhere....

2 hours later we all got-re rated to 4a

But most of the places I've worked have paid by pure skills.... either you've got what it takes to earn the money or you are looking for a new job

Boris

[David Carlisi]

Originally Posted by Boris

most of the places I've worked have paid by pure skills.... either you've got what it takes to earn the money or you are looking for a new job

Boris

When I lived in Houston, the ads in the newspaper always called for "first class" machinist.

If you said that you were one, you had better be able to walk in the door and prove it right away, or you were out on the street. Not only that, but the "word" would go out on you, and you would have lots of trouble finding anything after that.

FWIW, I have never heard of class A,B, or C.

[AmericanPump]

I worked for a local union shop years ago. It has since been closed down, gone bankrupt or whatever.
The union was voted in by the employees of the company.
The union came in and set up Classifications for the machine shop, weld shop, and all of the other departments within the company.

Machinists Class A,B and C

These classifications had nothing to do with the skill level of the machinist, it was based on years served with the company.

So we ended up with de-burr hands that had been with the company for 15 years listed as an A class machinist, making the same money as a highly skilled machinist with the same amount of time.

Good for de-burr hand, bad for the machinist and bad for the company.

[PHDesigns]

Originally Posted by bluerider

I have never worked in a union shop in 33 years of working in machine shops{mainly oilfield related ] and have never placed too much emphasis on titles because ive had them all from worm to mgr and they dont mean anything.Ive run a lot of shops and worked a lot of crews and my most qualified man is not always my best hand. Ive always felt that a good hand is 50% ability and 50 % attitude. Unfortunately today it is getting harder to find an employee with either. From 18 to 55 it doesnt seem to matter. There doesnt seem to be any pride in a job well done anymore. Sorry , just had to get that off my chest . Be safe everyone.

I hear ya there. Been running into that lately myself. BTW, what part of Oklahoma are you in?

[gorrilla]

Can't say what a union shop does or don't classify as A,B, or C. But I do know that the closest I ever came to up and quitin on the spot was when a manufacturing engineer told me I was an operator, while I was making thread gages and reworking the production shop's parts that didn't fit the gages they DID have, but were to dense to use.

[The real Leigh]

Originally Posted by huntinguy

A: Point them at the job and machine. They also train, troubleshot setups and processes. (nc world, they push all the buttons)

Sorry but I beg to differ regarding the Class A Machinist, to wit:

Give him the job. (period)

He'll know what machine(s) to use and how to most efficiently produce the parts.

- Leigh

[mt02294]

These in my opinion only matter to the company as they are only used in most casses to keep wages lower than they should be. Where I work we were all grade level 3 with the one that had the most time with the company being grade level 4. Then the company said that due to all the complaints out on the floor that a comity would be formed to review the grade levels and mind you it was the inspectors that were complaining that being a grade level 2 was not fair because they bought off on all parts going to the costumer. You would think they were making it as well. But the new deal was to make all grades 4, 3 and 2 into one grade level 2. Well duh! We all saw this coming and some even mentioned that they didn't much care because they were still getting payed. But here is whre the kicker is, when you are getting payed top of curent level and the yearly review comes by they cannot give you much because you are already top pay of grade level 2. Ha Ha this was a rude wake up call for all involved and then you can only imagine what happened. Long story short the company finaly promoted us all then to a grade level 3. So now we were all equal didn't matter if you made the part or inpected it you were all the same. Would have loved to see the inspectors try to run the machines, boy that would have made my day. Now I work in the tool room and make grade level 4 wich is the same as maintenance. I guess as far as the company sees it turning a wrench and making fixturing/tooling is one and the same. Oh well whats a guy to do but grin and bear it despite the fact that the results are expected by the company to be different with the pay the same. Somewhere along the way we machinists/tool makers must have pissed off a lot of people to get to this level of appreciation in the industry, how else can one explain that a plumber makes far mor than an experienced tool maker.

[MachinistChest]

The A`s teach the B`s how to work for the C`s. The C`s got ticked off, quit their jobs and started their own companies...MC

WWW.MACHINISTCHEST.COM

[grymster]

We have four classifications for machinists. They're ranked by:
Knowledge and skills
Independence of action
Working relationships
Supervision of others
Education and work experience
Overall impact

For example in the Overall impact category the language reads;

Level 1:
Limited due to supervisory oversight.

Level 2:
Moderate. Delays in delivery of
finished product or problems with
quality of output can cause disrup-
tion to research or operational
objectives.

Level 3:
High. Delays in delivery of finished
product or problems with quality of
output can cause major disruption to
research or operational objectives.

Level 4:
Very high. Delays in delivery of
finished product or problems with
quality of output would typically
result in major disruption to re-
search or operational objectives
and considerable expenditure of
resources.

Mostly written by HR, but the system helps us to at least broadly lump the folks by their relative value to the organization.

[coyotekid]

As explained to me by the best machinist I know personally:

Class A Machinist: most excellent at hiding mistakes.

Class B Machinist: mediocre at hiding mistakes.

Class C Machinist: in trouble all the time for making mistakes.

[mt02294]

coyotekid,

Now that is funny. Though if one thinks about it, it's fairly true some times for all of us. Like making nice looking inserts to mask the fact that you went oversize on dowel pin holes, and claiming that it was in case you ever wanted to remove them. Oh well one old timer once remarked after i asked him if there was a shure fire way of doing things in an orderly fashion in the tool room that some times you just wing it and hope all falls into place. I remarked back here's to growing wings. Most people would like to believe that what we do, can be thaught in a matter of days or weeks but the ones that actually know what they are doing know better just the same. Here's to what it is we do and get hardly any credit for.

Matei Toc.

[Spinit]

They rated employees at our shop in catagories of skill on cnc's ect ect. People were offended if they thought they should be ranked higher. One place I was at based pay on some industry study and guess what we were all overpaid and did not merit any raises. Go figure.

[MikeJB]

Is there a similar system of grading for employers?

Regards,

Mike.

[Spinit]

We had this the shop boss lead men (2) and programmer got together and rated everyone in the shop including themselves. They were mostly A's of course. It made people mad in the shop because many were under rated in their opinion. I was rated a "High" B or a "Low" A. There was nothing that came of this as far as pay scales or anything. I guess it was a reminder of the structure of the shop. They decided to just forget about all that ratings stuff.

[MetaRinka]

sometimes the ratings are formal or informal.

I haven't seen ABC too much but many shops I've been in go by rating I II III IV etc. usually have a description of skills or something like minimum number of years in the company or work experience to make the grade.

In the welding world you are required by code to take a qualification test before your first production weld can be made and that seperates the wannabe's and hacks right there. Usually if you fail inspection you have to be retested as well.

Also in the engineering world there's usually level 1-4 roughly relating to skill and education where level 1 positions are fresh graduates and low level work and level 4-5 is managers or PHD types. usually level 3 and above requires a professional license.