Sweet Vindication

[gcode]

One my programers programmed this job recently
Big pieces of 304SS plate, water jet +.12 and Blanchard ground to size
unit cost = $5K each
machining is profile to size, drill a bunch of holes and taps some of them
he specified MA Ford Cyclone carbide stub drills, which the tool crib failed to order

The material came in and they set it up and ran it using generic jobber length drills
they found laying around the shop, despite strong objections by my programmer and myself.
They put a new hire on the machine and the first part got scrapped, resulting in much screaming yelling and finger pointing. Through it all my only response was buy the right GD drills !!!
After wasting a day and a $5k piece of stock they decided to wait for the proper drills.
They tested the drills on the scrap piece of stock and they ran perfectly at programmed feed rate
with no pecking and no thru coolant, exceeding the required number of holes per part by 20%.
The shop manager was very humble when he told me the results of the experiment WITH THE CORRECT TOOLS!!!
It was very very hard to keep my mount shut and not say "I told you so". 

[Jim at Gentex]

Dumfuks gonna be dumfuks. 

I'm glad it worked out as planned, but I'm also skeptical about whether dumfuks actually learned anything. 

[crazy^millman]

One my programs programmed this job recently
Big pieces of 304SS plate, water jet +.12 and Blanchard ground to size
unit cost = $5K each
machining is profile to size, drill a bunch of holes and taps some of them
he specified MA Ford Cyclone carbide stub drills, which the tool crib failed to order

The material came in and they set it up and ran it using generic jobber length drills
they found laying around the shop, despite strong objections by my programmer and myself.
They put a new hire on the machine and the first part got scrapped, resulting in much screaming yelling and finger pointing. Through it all my only response was buy the right GD drills !!!
After wasting a day and a $5k piece of stock they decided to wait for the proper drills.
They tested the drills on the scrap piece of stock and they ran perfectly at programmed feed rate
with no pecking and no thru coolant, exceeding the required number of holes per part by 20%.
The shop manager was very humble when he told me the results of the experiment WITH THE CORRECT TOOLS!!!
It was very very hard to keep my mount shut and not say "I told you so". 

Same guy that was taking my 6" overall length tool and giving to the floor at almost 14"? Luckily your Machine operator pushed back and got them to build it correctly or that would have been a scraped part and crash Head.

[DUM1]

you have your own team of programmers ? or is it a trainee ? do tell.

that's really a great feeling when you don't have to say I told ya so, huh?
happened to me a couple times over the years , kinda rare now days since management is so compartmentalized .

[gcode]

you have your own team of programmers ? or is it a trainee ? do tell.

The programming department has 5 programmers. I am the manager, though given a choice I'd rather just program

[mayday]

I had 7 under me at one time, as G said, kinda pain is the ass
I was so busy keeping them busy and fixing their issues I didn't have time to do my own project
plus the politics from the engineering dept.

[JParis]

Gee, Tom & Wes are making me wonder whether I should take over programming here in the next couple months...lol

[gcode]

Gee, Tom & Wes are making me wonder whether I should take over programming here in the next couple months...lol

If you enjoy programming, you will hate being a manager

[CNCAppsJames]

I was my company's AE manager for about a year. The guys were fine, the sales guys were the nightmare. I gave it back to Bill and he gave it to the Corporate Project manager after about a year of having it back and the sales guys bitched about the scheduling. Now for the time being each regional manager is basically in charge of the AE'(s) in their individual regions... except for one other AE and I... we're the two Senior Applications Engineers. Probably 70 years of manufacturing experience between the two of us and 60 years Applications Experience between us. We belong to the company not to the region so basically we make our own schedule with some guidance from the Project Manager. If there is a conflict that we cannot solve, the President is the referee and we do what he decides is in the best interests of the company.

[Jeff]

It was very very hard to keep my mount shut and not say "I told you so". 

I would have said "Well, would ya look at that! Hmmph"

[JParis]

If you enjoy programming, you will hate being a manager

and I do realy enjoy it..

We are hopefully going to hire a toung gun and I'll have the chance to "coach" him up...that is something that will be a plus..

I have several plans to implement, that already have the support I need to get them going, so that will give me something to focus on as well...

They recognize somethings need to change and that the outgoing person isn't the one to push the needed changes through and to fruition.

So hopefully some focus into other things will help.

[mega]

One my programers programmed this job recently
Big pieces of 304SS plate, water jet +.12 and Blanchard ground to size
unit cost = $5K each
machining is profile to size, drill a bunch of holes and taps some of them
he specified MA Ford Cyclone carbide stub drills, which the tool crib failed to order

The material came in and they set it up and ran it using generic jobber length drills
they found laying around the shop, despite strong objections by my programmer and myself.
They put a new hire on the machine and the first part got scrapped, resulting in much screaming yelling and finger pointing. Through it all my only response was buy the right GD drills !!!
After wasting a day and a $5k piece of stock they decided to wait for the proper drills.
They tested the drills on the scrap piece of stock and they ran perfectly at programmed feed rate
with no pecking and no thru coolant, exceeding the required number of holes per part by 20%.
The shop manager was very humble when he told me the results of the experiment WITH THE CORRECT TOOLS!!!
It was very very hard to keep my mount shut and not say "I told you so". 

Part of being a good teacher is not saying I told you so, the lesson is enough, in this case, a very expensive lesson!

[pmartin]

I would think that a 5k scrap would eat into the profit margin a wee bit. You'd think that people would learn from past mistakes and do better next time, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

[JParis]

WuT?
You KNOW you want it....IT is YOUR destiny......

You damn well know it...I've worked to hard and waited tyoo long for this...

[DUM1]

been a programmer teacher a few times and enjoyed it , bad part is once I get them trained up they leave for better paying jobs . Good for them but I'm getting tired of training people so they can leave . 
been a manager/supervisor a few times and hated it. I wont do it again.
 
for me the best job is just programming parts and watching the guys enjoy a good stable routine running day in and day out.
of course the managers always want to fuck things up , take short cuts and try to make someone make it go faster than its supposed to.  those are the I told ya so moments they don't like about me , I'll say it.

funny part is that I can't talk anyone into taking on the horizontals ,we have 7.
I keep telling my supervisor ,who I trained, that someday I wont be here then what?