Will I be asking too much from my employee's

So this week was a disaster, I'll be working the entire weekend to make my Monday deliveries and stay on track. My problem.


What I would like to find out is what accountability do you guys have, whether you are employee's or employers. For the most part I am talking about machine operators and production helpers with a good amount of time on the job.

1st event- One guy takes it upon himself to debur parts we have made for years in such a manner they are unusable...500 bucks lost in materail, plus I have to work all weekend remaking parts and of course pay for the additional materail. Do I can him? Do I make him pay for materail? Is it my fault for not checking what he was doing...he's only done the job for a couple years now. Maybe I should can myself...

2nd event- Parts come out wrong because his Verneer took a crap, mind you I bought it for him so he could measure parts.
One- should I expect even the production help to have their own verneer that they pay for?
Two- even a production guy should be able to measure within a few thousands if shown how...correct? Am I off base here?

3rd- I keep a good amount of deburing tools around but they constantly disappear. I wind up giving out my tools so they can get parts deburred, then of course when I need I can't locate my tools. Would it be wrong to expect each person to have their own deburring tools. If they loose, give to someone else, throw away, break, forget home they buy a new one. I'd probly buy the first set for them...again... but they would buy the rest unless they turn in a dull tool or something like that.

Thanks for any insite, I have a pretty good idea of what I'd like to do... but some different points of view would be helpfull.

SIM said:

So this week was a disaster, I'll be working the entire weekend to make my Monday deliveries and stay on track. My problem.


What I would like to find out is what accountability do you guys have, whether you are employee's or employers. For the most part I am talking about machine operators and production helpers with a good amount of time on the job.

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I am an employee, but production manager, hence I look at things as if I own the place. I wasn't hired at this position, and have plenty of experience from the other p.o.v.

SIM said:

1st event- One guy takes it upon himself to debur parts we have made for years in such a manner they are unusable...500 bucks lost in materail, plus I have to work all weekend remaking parts and of course pay for the additional materail. Do I make him pay for materail? Is it my fault for not checking what he was doing...he's only done the job for a couple years now. Maybe I should can myself...

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I hope he is in there with you! You can't make him volunteer te work, but I have charged out scrapped materials, depending on the level of stupidity involved in the scrapped parts! This would probably make up for most of the o.t.

SIM said:

Do I can him? ...

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Depends on his track record, and if you sould consider this instance as "Lesson Taught!"

SIM said:

Maybe I should can myself...

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Good to see you take partial responsibility....keep that in mind when considering canning employee!

SIM said:

2nd event- Parts come out wrong because his Verneer took a crap, mind you I bought it for him so he could measure parts.
One- should I expect even the production help to have their own verneer that they pay for?

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Depends on what rate you pay. As production manager, I sometimes give tools as a sort of bonus. Theirs while working for me, theirs if they leave. Replacement and maintenance is on them. I do use company credit for replacements, or personal purchases, and they sign a waiver allowing me to deduct purchase price from their pay, and I even break it out small fr them, e.g....$50.00/check. YES machinists should own and maintain their own tools. However it is on you to see to it that someone has double checked production work, as errors can often be costly!

SIM said:

Two- even a production guy should be able to measure within a few thousands if shown how...correct? Am I off base here?

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You are right on base, but as mentioned above, more than one party should check and verify measurements on first off part at least, then leave first off part sitting there as a reference for operator to double check his/her instruments. That's what I do, and have been 5 years running with little scrap.

SIM said:

3rd- I keep a good amount of deburing tools around but they constantly disappear. I wind up giving out my tools so they can get parts deburred, then of course when I need I can't locate my tools. Would it be wrong to expect each person to have their own deburring tools. If they loose, give to someone else, throw away, break, forget home they buy a new one. I'd probly buy the first set for them...again... but they would buy the rest unless they turn in a dull tool or something like that.

Thanks for any insite, I have a pretty good idea of what I'd like to do... but some different points of view would be helpfull.

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I believe I have respondes to this up there somewhere....buy the first one, it's up to them to keep up with, and you provide consumables i.e inserts...

sorry you ruined your weekend....as a machinist, it probably aint the first, and it definately won't be the last.

In our place, if a tech or operator runs more than 5% scrap (It's a set number of parts based on standard shift production, but I shouldn't give those numbers out.) Because of something they did, or did not do (such as gaging parts, or bad adjustment, or failure to follow procedures, set up a machine wrong, etc). It results in disciplinary action. Typical first offense is a written warning, second offense is 3 days at home with no pay, third offense is termination (within a 12 month rolling period). However, it doesn't have to follow that route. If it is deemed appropriate, immediate termination can (and has) occur(ed).
Since there are multiple, separate infractions within a few days time, I think you know what you need to do here.
As for the deburr tools, make a painted board for them. Nobody goes home until all the tools are back on the board at the end of the day. Might cost you an hour of OT once or twice, but you won't have to talk to the slacker, his/her co-workers will take care of that for you when they can't go home.

Sim, is it the same guy that made the bad parts and scrapped them on deburr?

Like BlueChipper, I used to run a shop for somebody else, and before that was a supervisor for many years in a completely unrelated field. Sometimes good employees just go to shit, you need to figure out why, or was this guy always useless and getting away with it for years?

First thing, is figure out if its something you did, has he not had a raise in 3 years? Did you hire on somebody that is making more than him<--- some people get really butt-hurt about this even though the new employee has much more knowledge and experience. Did you promote somebody over him? Did you take away benefits or holidays? Is he just flat out sick of his job and is trying to get out with an unemployment check?

I've seen people go to hell when a family member dies, some people take it really hard, and it effects their work. Divorce? Some other personal stuff can screw people up. You can usually talk to them and work through it if they WERE a good employee.

Most of the time I've found it usually boils down to drugs, or heavy drinking. I've seen it a bunch of times, in that case never ever say anything about it, and can them on performance.

As for tools, you really can't expect an $8 an hour employee to have their own. I did the same as Bluechipper, bought them tools based on performance, also everybody at least had their own calipers. I also used tools as an incentive, "get this job out the door by Monday and you can buy $100 in tools for yourself" "get 300 parts a day off of this machine for the next 4 days and I'll buy you a tool box". Worked pretty well, for the right people.

For deburring tools, just buy a case and stick a few out, keep the extras in your box or office. Its pretty small fi$h in a big pond, but it sure is annoying when you can't find one.

As for his "active" errors, that's a tough one. Everyone has bad weeks, the smart ones can recognize this and take the rest of the day off when things go to pot. If there is no good reason for him screwing things up, then he needs to be busted down to crapper duty.

I find that sometimes people get to a point where they just stop wanting to learn, if this guy isn't learning from his mistakes, he needs to be given less demanding work, or needs to go work somewhere his level of care is acceptable.

Anyone doing gaging should check their tools periodically. The first rule of caliper use is to zero the jaws, that's without debate.

The deburring operation could be an honest error. You didn't post any specifics, but perhaps he was trying to be more efficient or was trying a new tool. In this case you need to provide a drawing with the callout, so he knows how much deburring is acceptable. If you have shown and reminded him of how much to deburr, and specified that you can deburr too much, then he's at fault.

I think 3 lost work errors within a month definitely warrants discipline.

As for tools. Deburring tools should be provided by the shop, but it needs to be made clear that these are *shop* tools and get checked out and checked in, whether that's a simple peg board or something more official, is up to you.

Any employee should have the appropriate tools for doing their work, and that includes inspecting parts. You should supply the appropriate gages to ensure they are making accurate measurements. This could either be a known accurate article to compare measurements off of, a calibrated gage, or gage blocks for calibrating their measuring tool. It is their responsibility to ensure their measuring tools are in good working order, failure to maintain and replace them is unacceptable.

We don't have a machine related business, but we do have employees.

For us, we feel that if we hired an employee, then short of devious or malicious intent, we are responsible for their work and actions.

What this boils down to is that we might fire someone for repeated mistakes, but financially charging them for them is out of the question.
It is not the responsibility of the employee to make up for our mistakes....even if that mistake was hiring them in the first place.

Just Us
Sean

Wow, some really good points. Thanks to all of you !

Bluechip-
As far as him being here with me, that would have been a bad idea this weekend. Besides the CNC makes the parts, he does the secondary ops, deburring and packing which goes fast, he will do Monday morning.

I have purchased Calipers and deburring tools for the guys but when I purchase they could give a turd less about them. They get put down in chips, coolant, left hanging off machines, banged around etc. I have had my caliper for almost 12 years, theirs lasted...well lets say not very long.

Monday the guys who I bought he tools for will be buying new ones, I'll give the rest a caliper with if you break it your buying a new one.


Deburring tools, I like the paint board idea... I just have to figure out how to work it with 2 shifts that overlap.

Trying to keep a bunch of files and tools on hand is ridiculus, nobody looks for the ones that are out, it's just easier to ask for a new one. If I say No Go find one they will walk around looking at the ceiling.

Well again thanks, I'll think about it more before Monday...and no it was not just one person that screwed up, it was several over the course of the week. Most of the time the guys are good and hard working, but then other times...

SIM said:

............. but then other times...

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I hear that one loud and clear. I constantly am trying to make excuses for them....It's a Monday...It's been a long month...the heat???a divorece???
It is hard to keep them motivated sometimes. I have found that monetary or some other sort of reward helps the best! Actually...what works the best, and when I know it will not hinder the following job, if I have planned a little conservative on a particular bid, and we crank it out a day or two early, I'll give them an early off Friday, or even a Monday all day! This really boosts morral, (and giving them a paid day is straight time, they lose ot. Which works great, unless they figure it out!)

Sean S said:

What this boils down to is that we might fire someone for repeated mistakes, but financially charging them for them is out of the question.
It is not the responsibility of the employee to make up for our mistakes....even if that mistake was hiring them in the first place.

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Lots of good advice here, but charging an employee for material or scrap is kinda like saying, "You're gonna work for me for a weekly paycheck so you can live, but if you make a mistake more than once, I will take it out of your hide." or "Nobody is perfect and people make mistakes, but you have to be more perfect and mistakeless than I." or "To err is human, but you have to be uber-human, or you won't be able to eat for a week." Make an employee pay $ for a screw-up will have a negative effect on the other employees. If they make a mistake after that, you may find yourself out of more than just deburring tools.

The issue with the employee needs to be addressed, though. Talk to him, find out why the deburr/scrap happened. Was it laziness, was he trying to save money, did he not care, does he not know what he's doing, does he have a palsy?

Any tools (not measurement) should be supplied by you. If they are stealing or abusing them, that's another story. Any machinist worth a bit of salt will take care of the mics and calipers. If they have their own, the company should make sure they are calibrated right at least 1x a year. Stress and teach calibration as a daily deal. Mics can change with temp and humidity. If you buy a set of verneers for a guy, let him know that if they get screwed up, he's gotta buy the next set. Take a bit out of each weeks pay to help, and they are only his after they are totally paid for.

There's much responsibility and risk to being an employer. You can either chew thru people or train and help. If you keep him, don't let him forget the time you had to put in to get his job done. If he's any good, you won't have a problem.

metlhed said:

Lots of good advice here, but charging an employee for material or scrap is kinda like saying, "You're gonna work for me for a weekly paycheck so you can live, but if you make a mistake more than once, I will take it out of your hide." or "Nobody is perfect and people make mistakes, but you have to be more perfect and mistakeless than I." or "To err is human, but you have to be uber-human, or you won't be able to eat for a week." Make an employee pay $ for a screw-up will have a negative effect on the other employees. If they make a mistake after that, you may find yourself out of more than just deburring tools.

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I agree in a sense, however it's like I said depending on the stupidity involved with making the mistake, and no, I've never charged a guy for a production mistake, since usually there is more than 1 man responsible, and costs could be great, but sometimes complete" headupyer@$$" syndrome can be fixed by making a guy buy a $30 piece of material...It'll make them either pay more attention or quit! Which would save me from having to pay them unemployment. I have only had one hand I've ever done this to. He (at first) had his head up his arse all the time. I was tempted to just let him go. After the instance that he got charged for, he slowed down and thought about everything. In fact, he is one of my best hands!

SIM-----What is a "Verneer"?

harrytm said:

SIM-----What is a "Verneer"?

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I'm not SIM, but it is a big caliper...not sure, but anyting longer than 8-10-12"? Big slide and usually a dial? Just know that it is a big caliper, just don't know how big before it is no longer a caliper. Much harder to calibrate, too. That I know for sure.

metlhed said:

I'm not SIM, but it is a big caliper...not sure, but anyting longer than 8-10-12"? Big slide and usually a dial? Just know that it is a big caliper, just don't know how big before it is no longer a caliper. Much harder to calibrate, too. That I know for sure.

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Thanks

Seeing as I've had experience with this, it time for my 2 cents

I'm a machine programmer/setter usually I got 4 machines(or more) and at least 2 operators (of varying skills) to look after

Take this week, I get chewed out over making 4 fixtures for a job and taking too long doing it... however I get all the problems, the broken tools, the stuff out of limit and the more urgent stuff that needs to be setup now which stopped me from working on the aforementioned fixtures leading to 1 getting scrapped because I was called away while programming and missed a bit out when i got back.

If someone says to me 'you are paying for the scrap" 5 mins later I'll be gone.
Do you really think if someone scraps $5000 of material(as I have in the past) they are going to pay you, their employer, for it and work for free for x number of weeks?

Mistakes happen even when us poor shop floor saps are being careful and checking everything, especially on CNC stuff where a misplaced minus sign can make the difference between having a decent part made and a big hole in the bed and the cutter jammed in the ballscrew.

Of course you get the idiots who should never be allowed near a machine, but then its your job as supervisor/manager/owner to keep an eye on whats going on and correct the mistakes before they become critical ones

Boris

<<<is usually the man in the middle... kicked by management AND the shop floor guys

I would be careful about charging an employee for material or scrap. It's illegal here and may very well be in your state too.

Whatever happened to tool purchasing programs? Doesn't anybody do that anymore? Back when I started you were expected to have certain tools. The company would pay for them and you would pay the company back through payroll deductions.

In the case of parts being wrecked from the deburring, it sounds like you might be to the point where you need to have written work instructions (routers, travelers, or work orders) for repeat jobs when they hit the floor. If the job is done wrong then it's easy to take disciplinary action. You also need to sit down and create an employee manual. From a legal standpoint you need it to CYA.

You also hit one of my pet peeves; I consider verniers, dial calipers, and digital calipers the last choice for inspection. They sure are handy but they are also very unreliable and error prone. In my opinion the first sign of a hack is that they choose convenience over accuracy.

You probably understand the pitfalls and take steps to insure that your calipers, verniers, whatever are clean, calibrated, and used with just the right amount of pressure. Don't count on everybody being like you. If they were they would all have mad skills and would be running their own place.

If you must use them in process, use them as a comparitive device. IOW's have a gage block stack that the calipers can be checked against at the machine and require the operator to check against it at some set interval. Do a gage R&R with three operators, a fixed set of parts to measure and the same pair of calipers and you'll see what I mean. Also require housekeeping standards to be kept. If you find gages dirty and covered in chips then the employee isn't meeting the standard.

You can get them to work to standards through reviews and raises. When you sit down and say we are giving a 5% raise to everyone who met all the standards, then review each employee in areas like scrap, attendance, tardiness, housekeeping, attitude, rate, etc. And then you nick them where they fell short. Scrap might cost them 2%, tardiness 1/2%, housekeeping 1%, etc. They will either shape up or move on.

All this stuff is a PITA but it becomes necessary with employees and growth. In the long run it will be easier than spending your weekends running parts at a loss.

It's also not a bad idea to gather the troops for a meeting at this point. Buy pizza and hold it during lunch. Explain your losses on these two jobs to them. Tell them what percentage of the shop's income is derived from the customer(s) that the jobs were for, and show them how you won't be needing nearly as many employees if you lose those customers due to scrap and late deliveries or lose money on every job you do and go under.

SIM said:

So this week was a disaster, I'll be working the entire weekend to make my Monday deliveries and stay on track. My problem.


What I would like to find out is what accountability do you guys have, whether you are employee's or employers. For the most part I am talking about machine operators and production helpers with a good amount of time on the job.

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Every single one of our guys in the machine department is what someone would call a machinist, I believe. Each and every one can at least tool around on a manual machine, can program, et cetera. They run their own machines. We occasionally pull guys from other departments to be operators when we're in a crunch. I am the new kid, at a year and a half in both this place and machining in general. Just giving you an idea of where I work.

SIM said:

1st event- One guy takes it upon himself to debur parts we have made for years in such a manner they are unusable...500 bucks lost in materail, plus I have to work all weekend remaking parts and of course pay for the additional materail. Do I can him? Do I make him pay for materail? Is it my fault for not checking what he was doing...he's only done the job for a couple years now. Maybe I should can myself...

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A guy who did that where I am would get canned. My boss lends a lot of responsibility and leeway to the guys in making their own decisions on how things get done. If they're even the slightest bit unsure, Matt (the boss) is always willing to come over and either answer straight away, or go get answers.

I don't think there's any good excuse for ruining a bunch of parts like that, especially when you've made them before and have the print in front of you. If this was truly a "blue moon" event, channeling my boss here for a second, he'd let it slide. People do dumb stuff, especially myself.

If there was even the slightest hint that it was anything but a blue moon/honest mistake type thing, they'd be gone that afternoon.

SIM said:

2nd event- Parts come out wrong because his Verneer took a crap, mind you I bought it for him so he could measure parts.
One- should I expect even the production help to have their own verneer that they pay for?
Two- even a production guy should be able to measure within a few thousands if shown how...correct? Am I off base here?

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The first thing I did was buy a 6" Mitutoyo digital. Very first thing.

We also have a set of inspection tools, so if a guy doesn't have something or wants a "second opinion" tool, they can go grab another mic or whatever. But there aren't any verniers. That's something everyone who is going to touch a machine needs to buy for themselves. It's part of the initiation, I think. To be trusted with a very expensive machine tool, and the very expensive stuff you put in it and that comes back out, you need to be able to show you're interested enough in this to pay a couple bucks to get started.

Again, the responsibility for the machine and the parts that come out is on whoever is in front of it. Obviously some leeway is given to guys who come over from assembly to help out, but they're still told they're responsible for that machine while they're in front of it. By stepping in front of the machine and saying "Yeah, I can do this" they're also saying they have the ability to measure properly and keep the offsets adjusted in tolerance. And there's a bunch of guys sitting around doing crossword puzzles, waiting for machines to finish. You have questions, there's always at least one guy doing nothing just waiting to share knowledge. The shop mantra is quality instead of quantity, so if it takes three guys standing around a machine to get it right while machines sit idle, so be it if that's what it takes. All of these policies lend to responsibility on the machinist or operator - every possible oppertunity is given to make sure each and every person has the knowledge they need, or access to that knowledge and time to absorb it.

However, again in the "mistakes I've made" department, Matt, for some unholy reason, is teaching me how to be a machinist on the expensive jobs in the shop - not exactly a low stress time for me. I've damaged my calipers and not realized it (one of the ID prongs was bent slightly), and scrapped several expensive blocks of material. Aside from the immediate nausea, I'm told it's part of the job. If it was incompetence, that's one thing. A legitimate mistake is another.

With parts that expensive, I would have very little money left over for the year even after one mistake. Charging guys for repairs, scrap, and whatnot is unacceptable. It's part of the business risk, and should be planned accordingly. If you have someone operating outside what you have defined as "acceptable risk," you need to either talk to them and see what's up, preform a lateral arabesque and place them in less expensive work, or can them.

We have guys who cannot, cannot, cannot, bring themselves to hit the little green button of death on any job over a certain dollar amount. They are incredible at small production type work where if they scrap a part, over the shoulder it goes and on with life. When you aren't supposed to scrap any parts, the setup part included, they don't fare as well. Make sure you've got your guys in the right roles, I suppose is what I'm rambling about.

SIM said:

3rd- I keep a good amount of deburing tools around but they constantly disappear. I wind up giving out my tools so they can get parts deburred, then of course when I need I can't locate my tools. Would it be wrong to expect each person to have their own deburring tools. If they loose, give to someone else, throw away, break, forget home they buy a new one. I'd probly buy the first set for them...again... but they would buy the rest unless they turn in a dull tool or something like that.

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I think it's reasonable for the shop to be expected to supply deburring tools and files, since they're big wear items. However, it's also reasonable for the shop to expect employees to treat the tools they're given with respect, even a 4.95 deburring tool from MSC.

Our deburring tools are always left freely hanging about, so whenever the urge to deburr strikes, one is never far. That you're buying them and they're truly vanishing is suspicious to me.

Do I can him?

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Naw, tell him you're gonna take him outside, tack his b*lls to a tree, and push him over sideways. Works every time.
Seriously, you need some type of written reprimand policy for stuff like this. Everyone make mistakes, but continuous problems must be eliminated. Allowing someone to walk away from a mistake makes other employees lax also. I always make myself wait until the next day to write the guy up. I find I think more clearly if I force myself to wait a while.

One guy takes it upon himself

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No standardized work instructions on a repeat job? Employee is free to make this decision??
I feel for ya, but isn't this kinda asking for trouble?

I really like SwissPro's response.
Bob

1ST Piece Inspection at every level is a MUST.

SIM said:

So this week was a disaster, I'll be working the entire weekend to make my Monday deliveries and stay on track. My problem.


What I would like to find out is what accountability do you guys have, whether you are employee's or employers. For the most part I am talking about machine operators and production helpers with a good amount of time on the job.

1st event- One guy takes it upon himself to debur parts we have made for years in such a manner they are unusable...500 bucks lost in materail, plus I have to work all weekend remaking parts and of course pay for the additional materail. Do I can him? Do I make him pay for materail? Is it my fault for not checking what he was doing...he's only done the job for a couple years now. Maybe I should can myself...

2nd event- Parts come out wrong because his Verneer took a crap, mind you I bought it for him so he could measure parts.
One- should I expect even the production help to have their own verneer that they pay for?
Two- even a production guy should be able to measure within a few thousands if shown how...correct? Am I off base here?

3rd- I keep a good amount of deburing tools around but they constantly disappear. I wind up giving out my tools so they can get parts deburred, then of course when I need I can't locate my tools. Would it be wrong to expect each person to have their own deburring tools. If they loose, give to someone else, throw away, break, forget home they buy a new one. I'd probly buy the first set for them...again... but they would buy the rest unless they turn in a dull tool or something like that.

Thanks for any insite, I have a pretty good idea of what I'd like to do... but some different points of view would be helpfull.

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Sim,

I feel the first two problems are the easiest solved. I ran into that very problem a few times this year myself......exactly as you described......parts scrapped from deburring, and parts rejected at final inspection due to operator misreading measuring tool. My solution......simple.......EVERY single first piece of EVERY single operation of a part MUST be inspected by someone other than the operator, and NOT with the operators measuring tools...NO EXCEPTIONS!! We had a meeting with everyone involved and it has been set in stone. Operator sawcuts the first blank in the saw......first piece inspection....NO EXCEPTION......they bring the print and the piece to be inspected and nothing else. The inspector inspects the part, initials and dates the drawing.....the operator returns to the saw and makes parts to print. This is done at every level of the part manufacture.....including deburring. Part is deburred, brought to inspection, and signed off. Ever had your employee deburr every sharp edge even though the print clearly states, "LEAVE SHARP".....been there done that......every piece scrap. Regardless of lot size, there is a 100% inspection on every dimension less than .005" on the drawing by the operator. We have a few customers whose three place decimals are all plus or minus .002"......that caused some scrap as you can well imagine. I also make random inspections of parts in progress to ensure quality, not just dimensionally either surface finish is critical on a lot of the parts we make. Since implementing this policy in our shop our scrap rate is virtually nothing, and though it may take a few more minutes to get a job up and running, ultimately our production has increased due to errors being caught immediately and rework a rare occurance. After having stuck with this policy for so long now, I often look back and wonder how the hell I ever managed before without it, and how many headaches I could have prevented by having errors caught on the first piece and not at the final inspection.

With regard to deburring tools, I supply all the deburring tools and we have them at almost every machine......including left handed ones for those dang lefties!

Now.....after having stated all that I also must mention that there are only four of us working in my shop. But believe me.....the first piece inspection has truly been a savior!

Best Regards,
Russ

On parts that you make all the time why not make a set of go/no-go's for the part. Then no worries about a messed up caliper.

"You also hit one of my pet peeves; I consider verniers, dial calipers, and digital calipers the last choice for inspection. They sure are handy but they are also very unreliable and error prone. In my opinion the first sign of a hack is that they choose convenience over accuracy. "

Guessing sticks we call them, a handy tool for providing the scrap guy with a renewable income.

Charging employees for their screw ups can be a tricky thing, and likely illegal as mentioned above, especially if you are using an unreliable device for a standard.

You can however rather than give raises, give hourly an bonus, and when they are in the wrong, you do not have to give the bonus, when it gets to be a few dollars an hour they miss it when they screw the pooch.

You do need a system in placeand more appropriate tools( you can require them to have and maintain a certain amount of them ) to check the first part and an ocasional one after that, here we require each operator to check another operators once every other hour, this makes them learn to watch each other and learn to check parts they don't normally run. we are a small shop and don't really have a need for a full time Q.C. person at this time.