hexagon logo
Register Sign in
  • Replies 24 replies
  • Subscribers 18 subscribers
  • Views 459 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related

Working Environment

Cris_C
What is your working environment like? I'm currently at my 3rd CMM job and had very different settings for each of them.

My first CMM job was in a high volume manufacturing environment. I worked in a small climate controlled box in the middle of a large machine shop. It was the customary fishbowl setting with lots of windows in the box for everyone to watch me work. The box was just a little too small for all the work that went through it, so it was always a mess. It wasn't the most comfortable setting, but on hot summer days I sure preferred it to being on the shop floor (no AC).

My second CMM job was in a mold manufacturing shop. I worked at two CMMs side by side right on the shop floor. It was a pretty clean shop with lots of ventilation on the machines, so I didn't have any problems with the air bearings getting gummed up or anything like that. All the machines near me were doing finishing ops like grinding and EDMing so it wasn't too noisy. It was an ok setting. The whole shop was climate controlled so that was quite nice.

Now I work at a company that makes various aerospace parts. I do most of my work at a desk in a large open office. There is a CMM in the room adjacent to me and two other CMMs in a separate building. It is nice to work at a desk in an office, but the open office setting isn't always great for concentrating. Also, I'm an introvert, so I'd be happiest hidden away in a darkened corner. It can sometimes be a pain to work a whole building away from two of the CMMs I work with, especially when it is snowing in the winter, but for the most part it is a pretty sweet arrangement.

How about y'all?
What is your work area like?
Do you have any past settings you loved or hated?
  • Past Job
    Loved that I had a large picture window to look out of
    Hated that I had a large picture window to look out of....
  • Past Job
    Loved that I had a large picture window to look out of
    Hated that I had a large picture window to look out of....

    What did the large picture window overlook?
  • Just woods. Nice view, but hated that I was stuck inside.
  • I sit in a cubicle with 8 other engineering programmers that do all of the programming (mill/lathe/wire/sinker) for new product/ECNs for our facility. The last 4-5 companies that I have worked at have been pretty much nothing but programming CMMs. Before that I was a jack of all trades guy, CMM programming / hard gage calibration / FAL / PAPP layout / trouble shooter.

    Past Job
    Loved that I had a large picture window to look out of
    Hated that I had a large picture window to look out of....
    If I had window I wouldn't get much done....
  • Started in a fishbowl in the center of a Caterpillar factory. Got to watch the Cat employees stand there goofing off for an hour at a time. PC DMIS. HAD TO DO GAGES

    Worked in an aerospace machine shop with a tiny, packed QC area. Learned the ways of a McGyver inspector. PC DMIS. HAD TO DO GAGES

    Worked in a new, pristine medical IQA setting. Dimensional inspection was not their specialty - SQE's didn't know what a thread gage was. NO FLIPPING GAGES FINALLY, but not enough programming to stay busy. Had to run parts much of the time. Too many programmers, but that's the way the medical company wanted it, cause they wanted layers of people just in case. CALYPSO

    Gov contractor, aerospace now - 8 of us program 100% offline from the engineering dept. for a bunch of different types of CMMs and support the CMM operators on the floor. PC DMIS
  • Just woods. Nice view, but hated that I was stuck inside.

    Ah, that makes sense. I could see how that is both a blessing and a curse.
  • I sit in a cubicle with 8 other engineering programmers that do all of the programming (mill/lathe/wire/sinker) for new product/ECNs for our facility. The last 4-5 companies that I have worked at have been pretty much nothing but programming CMMs.


    That sounds like it could be a good arrangement. With the CNC programmer near by, I bet you have a good handle on what's coming your way and when. It could be a good team setting as long as everyone gets along. Where I work it is rather departmentalized. We all get along ok, but communication is lacking.
  • First job was in an enclosed lab at a calibration lab with one window on the door. 2 CMM's and one mega surface plate (15' by 6'). Loved the environment of that job but the pay was $13.50 an hr. Coolest part about that job was showing people how friction can be nearly eliminated by flatness. First I would Clean the surface plate and place a 30 lbs steel angle on it. then with one finger I could push it and have it slide off the other side of the plate. Super cool.

    Second job was in a huge lab with a huge CMM. The floor under the CMM was cut out and it floated on 4 giant air bags. I had one window that was on the door to the room directly behind me. That's where all of the big shots had their meetings. So everyone would look through said window and watch me "do nothing but sit at my computer" and complain to my boss. I don't know what they expected me to be doing as a programmer. Dance?

    Current job is in a fish bowl. One CMM. 3 computers (2 desktops and a laptop). I have a little cubicle with the CMM right behind my personal PC. I feel like I'm in some kind of a command center wheeling around in my chair from computer to computer. All in all the environment here is pretty cool.
  • Started in a fishbowl in the center of a Caterpillar factory. Got to watch the Cat employees stand there goofing off for an hour at a time. PC DMIS. HAD TO DO GAGES

    Worked in an aerospace machine shop with a tiny, packed QC area. Learned the ways of a McGyver inspector. PC DMIS. HAD TO DO GAGES

    Worked in a new, pristine medical IQA setting. Dimensional inspection was not their specialty - SQE's didn't know what a thread gage was. NO FLIPPING GAGES FINALLY, but not enough programming to stay busy. Had to run parts much of the time. Too many programmers, but that's the way the medical company wanted it, cause they wanted layers of people just in case. CALYPSO

    Gov contractor, aerospace now - 8 of us program 100% offline from the engineering dept. for a bunch of different types of CMMs and support the CMM operators on the floor. PC DMIS

    I like that "McGyver inspector". I think many of us have had that role.

    I used to work a lot with gages too. Good to learn all that, but I don't miss it either.

    I have never worked at a place with too many programmers. Must have been odd. I would hope, at least, it made it easy for you to go on vacations without everything falling apart.


  • I have never worked at a place with too many programmers. Must have been odd. I would hope, at least, it made it easy for you to go on vacations without everything falling apart.


    I have only ever worked alongside another programmer for a total of 6 months of my total 7 years. I would love to have a coworker that understood what was going on and someone I could bounce ideas off of.
© 2024 Hexagon AB and/or its subsidiaries. Privacy Policy | Cloud Services Agreement