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Crazy Job Market

Cris_C
What's the CMM job market like near you?

I live and work in the far northern outskirts of Chicago. There is a fair amount of industry around me, but there are typically only two or three CMM job openings at a time within my commuting area. Most of them are normally the same few jobs that nobody wants or they just don’t pay enough.

However, right now it seems like there are quite a few jobs available near me that I'd be happy to take if I didn't already have a good thing going. Also, where I work we have been down a CMM programmer for many months and recently lost two more who left for greener pastures. HR tells me that no one is even applying, let alone anyone with good qualifications! We are working to build talent from within, but it's going to take some time.

How about you?
Are you currently understaffed? Or should I say, more understaffed than usual?
Do you see a lot more job openings near you?
Am I the only one dumb enough to do this for a living? What am I missing here?
  • At my company QC is king. Above the manufacturing dept.

    -We stop their bad products from going out the door. This keeps our customer's coming back. They are well aware of their inability to stick to the most basic procedures and thank us when we stop them from looking bad.
    -Introduction of CMMs as well as other automated inspection systems increases speed of parts going through the whip
    -The inspection data is used to spot trends and increase efficiency at the machine level while simultaneously reducing DPMO

    The most underperforming companies I have seen are the ones where manufacturing has a negative opinion of quality.

    The most profitable, clean, comfortable, well run companies I have ever been to operate the other way.
  • That "no value added" BS is what some wankjob came up with in teaching courses/seminars in the 'real world'.

    The parts you make have NO VALUE to you or your customer until you prove they are the parts the customer wants. IMO, without quality, the parts have no value and may even have negative value. Just try shipping bad safety parts and have one fail, then enjoy the lawsuit(s) that will come your way.


  • He (and the guy I deal with) are correct to a point. Quality is all overhead costs. They do not make money because of us, we actually cost money in scrap material and lost production time. That being said, we are contractually required to exist. We are a necessary evil. I have had this discussion many times with my former roommate because he was the director of operations for a billion dollar company. The difference is those that actually work with quality and realize why we are there vs those that wish we didn't exist and try to circumvent us. Accept that we need to be there and help us to make the shop and processes run better and more accurately. This guy just goes around us every chance he gets. There is a reason why we have lost and continue to loose customers. That is NOT the kind of company I want to be a part of.

    That's what I had going on. I would find an issue that would require about 30 min of downtime to fix. Instead, we would keep running nonconforming parts for a day and have 2 people rework everything for 2 days. Then he would get mad at quality because the parts were 2 days overdue and would override quality again and ship the remaining bad parts. When the customers complained they insisted that we increased inspections. That was unacceptable because it slowed down production. So we didn't do it and just told the customers we were. I quit when I was written up for insubordination for refusing to lie to the customer.


  • That's what I had going on. I would find an issue that would require about 30 min of downtime to fix. Instead, we would keep running nonconforming parts for a day and have 2 people rework everything for 2 days. Then he would get mad at quality because the parts were 2 days overdue and would override quality again and ship the remaining bad parts. When the customers complained they insisted that we increased inspections. That was unacceptable because it slowed down production. So we didn't do it and just told the customers we were. I quit when I was written up for insubordination for refusing to lie to the customer.

    That is one of the few places where I would draw the line. I also will not sign off on non conforming parts. I have been asked to do that before (not at this or my previous job) and I flat out refused. I take pride in my job and I value my integrity as an inspector too much to do that.


  • That is one of the few places where I would draw the line. I also will not sign off on non conforming parts. I have been asked to do that before (not at this or my previous job) and I flat out refused. I take pride in my job and I value my integrity as an inspector too much to do that.

    At a previous company I was asked to sign a CofC for parts I knew to be nonconforming. I didn't argue at all.

    I wrote : "Parts are nonconforming to customer B/P number XXXXX/dimension #s X,X,X, and X. Signed under duress at the instruction of XXXX XXXXX. *my signature here*"

    Slid it back across the table to him and walked away

    Parts didn't ship. I was never asked that question again.
  • in reply to Matthew D. Hoedeman
    Let alone, the potential for loss of life (product/market dependent).
  • in reply to KronkGitBasher
    The only thing you can own in a workplace is your own integrity. Bravo. Stand tall and sleep easy with no skeletons in your career-closet, knowing you did the right thing for yourself!


  • That is one of the few places where I would draw the line. I also will not sign off on non conforming parts. I have been asked to do that before (not at this or my previous job) and I flat out refused. I take pride in my job and I value my integrity as an inspector too much to do that.

    Most of the work was raw forgings. If there was a surface that had .001-.003" extra stock and it was going to be machined off I would sign off. We had some verbal agreements then it came dimensions with added machine stock or areas that would be drilled out. This guy was sending bent parts and parts with safety critical dimensions out of spec. We did steering components for semi trucks. This guy was system admin as well. He could electronically put anyone's name on something. I had to get out of there before something really bad happened. Last I heard, almost the entire quality department had quit.


  • Most of the work was raw forgings. If there was a surface that had .001-.003" extra stock and it was going to be machined off I would sign off. We had some verbal agreements then it came dimensions with added machine stock or areas that would be drilled out. This guy was sending bent parts and parts with safety critical dimensions out of spec. We did steering components for semi trucks. This guy was system admin as well. He could electronically put anyone's name on something. I had to get out of there before something really bad happened. Last I heard, almost the entire quality department had quit.

    I don't blame them for leaving. I would have done the same.


  • Wow, I didn't know was that bad! Sunglasses

    Not everyone can handle this much awesome! Wink
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