With how common remote work is these days, I'm wondering if anyone has ever been able to obtain an offline seat and a company-supplied workstation to program from home? I'd imagine that a lot of trust and prestige would be needed to be able to do this.
Seems like everyone on this thread has a programmer role for their job. How are your programs proven on the physical CMM? Are your operators competent enough to run through un proven program to make any corrections or adjustments? Or are your programs so good and robust that you can confidently send them to the operators to run with no issues? I think anyone can program offline all day from anywhere but at the end of the day, that program needs to be a CMM checking parts.
Where I work, the CMM programs are often written offline a month of two before the parts are made - at least, that is how it is supposed to work. When the first part arrives, that program is run on a CMM by the person who made the program, or by another programmer if the original programmer is not available that day. After that, all future parts are cycled through the CMM by CMM Operators.
I like this system. It is nice to actually touch the machines once in a while. It also puts pressure on the programmer to do a good job. If you do a good job, you can have a nice relaxing time away from the desk just watching the machine beep. If you do a bad job, you need to fix it on the spot under a time crunch. It keeps people accountable.
However, one big problem with that system is that it makes it hard for someone to get started in programming. I was lucky enough to have learned a lot doing online programming at prior jobs. Then again, I have known people who were too accustomed to online programming and struggled to transition into offline programming, so... it's complicated.
When I had Covid-19 they set up a webcam so I could see the machine. Could program and run the machine from home. Worked out great. Had someone in quality change parts when needed.
