"Its Hard to Find a Good CNC Machinist" - Part 2

9 May 08

This is the second of a series of articles discussing some of the problems buyers most often nominate as the reason they struggle to find a good CNC machinist. Of course, the themes being discussed here apply to any custom manufacturer, but CNC machining is the manufacturing process that buyers seem to be most frustrated with. The first article discussed the issues with scheduling problems that result in poor quality CNC machining work and late deliveries. The first article can be viewed by clicking here.

In this edition we will look at an area for which buyers often complain your average CNC machinists just doesn’t get it – process control. The final article in this series will look at basic customer relations and the common mistakes many CNC machinists are making.

What is Process Control in a Machine Shop?

Process control refers to just that – having comprehensive control over ALL of your processes from an initial sales lead right through to dispatch of the finished components. Process control means definitively knowing the status of a job at any stage of production as it moves through your machine shop, and can guarantee the accuracy of any data or specifications related to every operation, at any time.

A common misconception is that process control only refers to the actual manufacturing processes when in fact it encompasses all of your business operations. Every activity your business performs in its day-to-day operations has an effect on your workshop floor’s production and more importantly, controls the inputs to the actual chip production processes.

So for a CNC machine shop to be able to say you have good process controls, you must be considered to have control over your entire business operations.

“They just Don’t Get it”

If questioned, nearly every CNC machine shop will tell you that they have excellent control over their processes and will often point to the quality assurance certificate on the wall as proof. But we hear over and over again from buyers of CNC machined components that they conducted an audit of a machine shop they were considering using and ended up walking away shaking their head and saying “they just don’t get it”.

So just what sorts of things cause a buyer to become disappointed with what they see when auditing a machine shop?

Generally speaking, buyers these days want to see world’s best practice in place for any machine shop. But what is considered ‘world’s best practice’ is in fact standard practice for any CNC machine shop looking to effectively compete in the globalised market. No longer are you as a machine shop only competing against the CNC machinists down the road or in the next state, you are directly competing against a machine shop in Guangzhou, a remote province in India or a state-of-the-art facility in Germany or the US. So when a buyer conducts an audit, they expect to see that you ‘get’ what it means to have good process controls and are at least on par with the machine shops on offer elsewhere.

Some of the common feedback we have heard from buyers are things like, “we asked to see their metrology department and were shown a shoe box of micrometers stashed in a store room.” Or, “the machine setter was asked how he knew which cutting tools to use and which program to call up. His response was that he asked the CNC programmer to make sure he had the right ones.” Or, “when we looked at their maintenance practices we found no evidence of any scheduled maintenance but instead we found a culture of simply fixing whatever had broken.”

These are just some examples of areas where a typical CNC machine shop often fails to meet a buyer’s expectations. Failure to meet basic process control requirements such as in the previous examples instantly tells a buyer that the machine shop in question simple just ‘doesn’t get it’ and the ability of the machine shop to consistently produce quality work will rely on luck more than good management.

Meeting a CNC Machined Component Buyer’s Process Control Expectations

For a CNC machine shop to be able to compete in the globalised market, they must treat EVERY customer as if they were a Lockheed Martin, a Boeing, Rolls Royce, Toyota or any other international customer with a reputation for demanding top shelf quality and who you know is looking at machine shops all over the world. You need to treat every customer as if you are trying to get them to choose your machine shop over the one they are looking at in the USA or Germany. The demands are high, but this is the nature of our globalised market place.

Global buyers when auditing your machine shop will only casually glance at your quality certifications as they walk in the door. What they most want to see is that you have world class process controls in place that govern every aspect of your business.

A good start is the software packages you are using to run and control your business and your production. If you are using a basic accounting package and a whiteboard to control your production, I’m sorry but you won’t even get past first base in the audit. These days information is the key to effectively running any business, and buyers expect to see an effective software system in place to manage your information and guarantee information is accurate and up-to-date. For very high-end manufacturing such as aerospace or medical manufacturing, the buyer may also specify certain software packages they expect you to be using such as SAP.  

Next the buyer will want to see just what you are doing with your excellent software package. In a typical audit you will be asked to demonstrate how you can determine the status of a job at any stage, asked to retrieve important data such as batch numbers and heat certificates, demonstrate how you know a job is on track for on-time delivery or even asked to demonstrate how you manage a problem that has caused a job to run on longer than expected. The buyer will be expecting to see that you have formal process controls and management practices in place that work and don’t rely on a ‘seat-of-your-pants’ approach or relying on information in someone’s head. Good management of processes and information is mandatory.

The buyer may then take a look at your workshop and question your staff. Having a nice, clean workshop that obviously implements 5S and lean manufacturing practices is the first clue for a buyer that you will have happy, dedicated staff and that your production is also lean. A clean, uncluttered, bright, well lit workshop is also mandatory if you want to impress a new buyer. A workshop that is fighting for every last millimeter of space tells a buyer that you are at maximum capacity and are unlikely to be able to effectively take on any more work. Shabby machines, equipment, benches and tools, tells the buyer you don’t have a quality culture in everything you do.

It is quite likely a staff member will be picked at random during an audit and asked to demonstrate how he or she knows that are using the right information or data for the process they are working on. They will need to demonstrate not just how they are given formal, comprehensive instructions, but also how they can absolutely guarantee that they know they are using the most recent information and that a more recent update has not been issued.

Most machine shops are expecting an audit of their final inspections as a method to prove they are producing quality work. Inspection records are important to prove jobs that have been sent out are quality components and meet the buyer’s specifications. But buyers also want to see good process controls in this area, not just records. Calibration records are a given, but they will also want to see evidence of formal metrology training of staff, control and inspections on gauges, temperature control and a high level of cleanliness in your dedicated metrology area. Never underestimate how important it is in terms of a buyer's perceptions of your operations to have a metrology area that looks spotless and is temperature controlled.

Every buyer has their own pet areas of your operations they may want to audit. Don’t be surprised if they ask to look at your quality documentation, sales practices, MRP systems, maintenance scheduling, and dispatch practices. Many buyers rate the later one as important as many have experienced the frustration of finding out their late delivery was in fact completed on-time but sat in dispatch for several weeks. For any area being audited, the buyer will expect to see good, formal practices in place that show very good management and control of all processes and information.

The Importance of Good Maintenance Practices

It is also worth discussing maintenance practices a bit more as for the high-end manufacturing fields, a buyer may sometime employ their own in-house assessment practices of your equipment maintenance without you knowing it. It is not unusual for a buyer to order a batch of say 100 components for their first order. Quite often this first batch is measured in great detail at their own facility. But they will be looking for more than just sizes that are within the specified tolerances. Often they are also looking to see just how much variation there is in the dimensions over the entire batch. A nice, tight spread of dimension variations shows that your machines are of good quality and are well maintained, and also that you have good control over your cutting tool wear. Measurements showing dimensions varying within the tolerance or occasionally venturing outside the tolerance can mean you are using low quality or poorly maintained equipment.

So, the message here is that you absolutely must ensure you can comprehensively demonstrate you have excellent control over your processes. Especially if you want to become a company that will survive in the globalised market. It is what the buyers want and expect to see. Good process controls are a common theme amongst all CNC machine shops that buyers consider are good and consistently produce quality work, and at the end of the day, this is the object of having good process controls. It is your way of implementing processes and procedures that guarantee a quality result that your customers will be happy with. Experienced buyers know this and demand it.

Our next issue will look at where CNC machine shops are most commonly falling down in their customer relations practices.

By George Pofandt, Managing Director, ManufactureLink Pty Ltd

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