"It's Hard To Find a Good CNC Machinist"

15 Apr 08

I speak to a lot of people who source CNC machining from Australian suppliers and I hear a lot of the same themes underlying what they are saying. The most common one – ‘it is so hard to find a good CNC machinist!’

But why is this? You would think that with the competition between CNC machine shops being so fierce, and the quality of the technology they are using being so cutting-edge, that sourcing quality CNC machining from Australian manufacturers would be a simple task. But apparently this is not the case, at least if you talk to those are issuing the work. So in this article I am going to outline some of the most common complaints from buyers and suggest a few good remedies. The themes here are the same regardless of the type of CNC machining you are doing, be it 5 axis or 6 axis milling, high speed machining, CNC turning, swiss turning, 3D contour machining or any type of CNC machining for any industry. Your customers have only basic requirements that must be met if you are to stay competitive and build a happy customer base.

This is the first in a series of articles which will examine a number of key areas that CNC machinists need to always be mindful of in managing their shops. The first one will look at quality and delivery issues that stem from poor scheduling practices. Future articles will look at process control and customer relations.

Quality, Delivery and Scheduling

The single biggest complaint from buyers is that they are getting tired of receiving machining work that is out-of-spec, of general poor finish and quality, or has been delivered late. With the majority of Australian machine shops using the latest and greatest in CNC machine tools, CAD/CAM software, MRP and ERP software, work holding fixtures, cutting tools and metrology equipment, you would think every job would be dispatched on time and exactly meeting the customer’s requirements. But buyers tell me they are not receiving the quality or reliable delivery they need. In Australia we tell ourselves we are the ‘short run capital of the world,’ but we don’t seem to be getting it right.

Practically every CNC machine shop has the capability to produce quality work, and to produce it when the customer needs it. So I am going to outline what I perceive to be the primary causes of the production of poor quality work.

The most common cause to me is poor scheduling. Most machine shops are capable of producing machining work of the highest quality if they have time to put the effort in and do it right. The majority of poor work seems to be produced at times when the machine shop is overloaded. So the best remedy is to engage better scheduling methods to ensure your staff has the time they need to produce quality work.

The most common scheduling error I see machine shops make is not allowing for the orders that they know are going to come from their regular customers. The typical scenario is the machine shop gets an enquiry for a job with a short lead time. They look at the actual orders they have received and tell they new customer they can do the job when they need it and win the order. But before the job has been started, they receive orders from their regular customers who need their work at the same time. No machine shop is going to say no to their regular customers, so the new customer gets their job pushed back. Once the machine shop gets to the new job, it is already behind schedule and the new customer is on the phone demanding their components. So the tendency is to rush it through to get it out the door by cutting corners or having less experienced staff complete it. The result is a job that is delivered late and of poor quality, for a customer who may have been able to provide a great deal more regular work, but who has now been lost.

The overloading of your machine shop can, of course, also affect the quality of the work you produce for your regular customers, as well as your Delivery In Full On Time (DIFOT) record. So the lesson learnt from this scenario is to always make sure you manage your shop’s workload so no job is rushed or not given the time it needs to produce quality work on time.

There is a common theme also amongst the CNC machine shops that are expert at good scheduling and have a DIFOT record above 90%. These are the companies who are never out of work because the customers know exactly what they will get if they place their orders with these companies. Practically all of these companies have formal scheduling processes in place, and all of them are using good software to accomplish this. All of them also develop a good relationship with their regular customers and work out with them a set number of hours for each month that they can pre-book on their machines for the entire year. So effectively what they are doing is sitting down and working out that each month they have x number of hours of regular work they know will come from their regular customers, so they have y number of hours available they can book for rush jobs and new customers. Maintaining good communications with their customers means they can adjust these hours each month to suit variations. This process is conducted with each new customer as they start to receive regular orders.

By employing these simple scheduling techniques, you are never selling your regular customers short on machine time for their components. Your customers know how much time they have booked, and know they need to call you as soon as they realise they will need more time, or you will sell the machine time to someone else. For your new customers, you can be confident knowing exactly how much time you can give them and when their job can realistically be delivered.

Some machine shops I have visited take this scheduling technique a step further. They want to be known as a CNC machinist who you can go to for fast turn-around jobs. So they specifically allocate machine time for urgent jobs. To manage the costs, they either amortise the hourly rate for this time onto the remaining regular machine time, or charge a higher rate for any job required within a certain number of days. Customers whose business depends on fast but reliable delivery are usually fine with paying more, as long as you do deliver.

These scheduling techniques can be simplified by one simple concept: make sure you schedule for what you know is going to come in the door, not just what you already have orders for. Talk to your regular customers and have them give you the confidence to know what machine time they are likely to order.

But you need to couple better scheduling with never being afraid to say no. I hear all the time that buyers hate when CNC machinists tell them they can deliver by a certain date and then fail to deliver. Unless the items ordered are just going into stock, buyers rely heavily on firm dates and it costs them money when you don’t deliver. Buyers also tell me often that they will always give a machine shop that says no a chance at the next opportunity they have, as they appreciate their honesty.

By George Pofandt, Managing Director ManufactureLink

www.manufacturelink.com.au

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