CMM inspection

It really goes either way, here anyways. We have some machinists who are incredibly good at doing there job, so all they require is the report, and how the part sits on the machine. They figure out the rest and quite frankly, they don't want any assistance. Then we have the type of guys who evaluate the data well, write down what they think they need to do, then bring it to me to verify. THEN, we have the guys who cant do anything on there own, they require there hand to be held all the way through. At the end of the day, we are all here to make high quality parts, so if manufacturing wants me involved 100%, then im involved 100%... If they need nothing... then I just go about my day. It has been made crystal clear though that when I help its nothing more than that, help. I don't physically change the numbers in the mill, I don't order them to do anything, so if they screw up, and attempt to blame it on me or my cmm team then the help will stop.

Same here mostly, we're pretty much stuck working with the people that are there day to day, year to year, and so on. I help those who ask honestly and don't bother those that don't. Holding hands is for the ones I love and care for, if they require that they need to pack they're chit and git! How else are you supposed to cope, junkie?

TK

I need to go down to the machine every third or fourth program to make a minor tweak or point out things to the operator like "You have the wrong part for this program on the machine" or "Your part moved in the fixture". I occasionally see a report after a program is complete. Every once in a while one of the product engineers will call me with a question. I do a machine tool evaluation about once every other month....

Basically, I'm an ivory tower programmer. I couldn't find half of the machining centers here, and that's how the company wants it.

I don't mind holding someone's hand to get a part dialed in most of the time. Don't get me wrong, we have some that just don't belong here, but there are others, who are fantastic machinists, that just really struggle to understand the reports, how moving this will effect that, and so on. BUT, once they get going, they manufacture nearly perfect product, monitor everything they can with hand tools etc. You can just tell they genuinely care about what they are doing, which is becoming a rarer and rarer quality nowadays.

I'm somewhat like RandomJerk, on the ivory tower, my operator is a robot that doesn't have hands. I work with seasoned CNC programmers, Robot people, and a set-up guy that does the initial CNC proofing...ONCE! It's a blessing compared to where I came from, 12 CMMs (5 bridge, 2 vision, 5 arms), 11 operators, 1 offline programmer all under my skin I mean under my supervision.

As a former Machinist, I go to the machine and look at programs and the offset. Then I ask basic questions like, when was the last offset made, when did you last changed inserts, did you make line edits, etc. Machinists have a tendency to respect you if you show an interest in what they're doing. They really hate the quality guys that either just tell them what's wrong or just give them a bad report and tell them to fix it. I know I did!!!

I'm a Quality Engineer that does CMM programming. My company designs & manufactures medical products as well as aerospace and defense stuff... from single prototype jobs to full scale multi-million piece production orders.

As far as my responsibilities go...I am involved in the design meetings from a "quality" standpoint. I look at the prints, bubble them, identify any crazy requirements & provide risk assessment input, ensure we have the appropriate instruments to measure each and every feature, write the quality control plan for the part, then whatever is determined will be a CMM check....I write the programs offline. I then run them for the first time online once parts are made and validate the program's accuracy by verifying everything on the rock. After program validation, the routines are uploaded to a "Validated" file and then the Insp. Dept will use them once the jobs are in production. Once ALL of this is done, I work with my customer's Supplier Quality Engineers and Auditors & "sell" them on the inspection process & they give us their blessing to move forward.

Our Production Dept. works with me and gives me a copy of their tooling sheet for the job. This will tell me which boring bars generate which surfaces and etc. That stuff gets noted in the program so the insp dept can have a better understanding of whats going on & how they should approach certain things from a measurement standpoint.

As a rule of thumb, we DO NOT tell production what to do. We only tell them where they're at by showing them the data. If they challenge the results, we'll do plate layout with them & hopefully come to a common understanding that will resolve the issue.

In our company, quality is the driving force. If I tell you the part is bad, there isn't any arguments. Production works with quality not the other way around. We as Quality Engineers and Technicians have the authority to stop production if there's a problem.

People are people. People make mistakes...sometimes the CMM measures over a burr...sometimes I'm wrong or read a leader line the wrong way...etc.

Even though it works the same way in my shop regarding quality having the final word, we work with one another to have a common understanding. I will never look at a machinist who is convinced that he made a good part and tell him "I'm right, you're wrong, thats it." Instead, I will measure the part with him to ensure he understands where I'm coming from and to ensure this discrepancy will not happen again. I try my best to coach, not act like the great and powerful oz =P