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CNC Pro-Tip

Using CNC technology to retain great talent In a high demand job market.

60% of discrete manufacturing in North America, uses equipment that is more than 20 years old.

If you have machine tools in your manufacturing process, it is likely you have an old reliable CNC machine tool or two that make you money. Keeping skilled operators can be a challenge and you might not consider how old equipment can impact morale. Little things that make a job frustrating can pop up more often when you don't maintain your equipment.
In a recent survey of 100 operators of CNC machine tools, we learned that 6 equipment related things make them feel like businesses don't care about their people:

  • Hard to read monitors

    It may seem obvious, but fading CRT and LCD screens are common and this is top on our survey results of 6 things that impede operator productivity and job satisfaction.

  • Broken push-buttons and indicators

    Push buttons and lights that don't work or aren't clearly labelled make it difficult for operators to get trained and operate the equipment effectively.

  • Bypassed or broken safety switches

    When safety switches are bypassed because they are broken or malfunctioning, operators surveyed think you don't care about their safety.

  • DNC cables you have to wiggle to make work

    Once or twice a shift, operators have to set up new jobs on equipment. When they download part programs, broken cables, or cables with loose connections frustrate users as the may have to make several attempts to download the program. It kills set up efficiency.

  • Automatic splash and guard doors that must be opened and closed manually

    Defective Pneumatic door actuators,as well as broken rollers and door tracks mean that operators have to manually operate heavy doors. You risk injury to your workers and slow your workers down.

  • Manually counting completed parts

    Yeah, that's right. Operators don't want to count parts and those surveyed indicated that part counters were wrong or malfunctioning.

Don't let things like this impact productivity.

Equipment maintenance for little and seemingly unimportant things can make a huge difference to productivity and employee retention. You won't spend more than a few thousand dollars per year maintaining the little things. If you can train operators more easily, make their work a little less frustrating, and give them better information about the performance of them and their equipment you will save tens of thousands posting, interviewing hiring and training employees you have to replace because your equipment frustrates them.

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