CNC Programmer hierarchy

[BrianCNC]

Can you guys give me some insight into how your CNC departments are managed? For example do you have several levels of CNC Programmers based on skill level and what is the chain of command within the programming department? I would just like to get some information on how other large companies handle CNC Programming.

 

Thanks

[Newbeeee™]

Programmers working for the programming manager working for the Engineering Manager is where I used to work.

As always, everyone has different skill sets, so different types of jobs used to be given to different programmers.

HTH

[gcode]

One boss

One general manager

One scheduling manager

5 project managers

all fighting to get their project to the top of the pile

for 4 CNC programmers.. pandemonium and hilarity ensues

 

and I really relay wish I were joking

 

 

In a properly run shop you have a program manager

responsible for the programming department.

He doles out the work to the programmers based on their skill level and experience.

He is also involved in planning and quoting new work

I've never worked where the programmers had specific titles, rank or a pecking oder.

Good programmers are usually too rare and expensive to waste in management positions.

They are all called CNC Programmers are kept in their cages crunching code

 

That is proabably different in a union shop where everyone must have a a title designating

senority, status and paygrade.

[Hardmill]

One boss

One general manager

One scheduling manager

5 project managers

all fighting to get their project to the top of the pile

for 4 CNC programmers.. pandemonium and hilarity ensues

 

and I really relay wish I were joking

 

 

 

 

ROFL, trust me hes not over exaggerating either, it does make for an interesting day though :blink:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PEACE

[BrianCNC]

Good programmers are usually too rare and expensive to waste in management positions.

 

Now that is funny.

 

 

Right now we have 7 plants one right next to the other with a machine shop in each plant. The programmer(s) for each plant are under the respective machine shop manager who may or may not have any understanding of what CNC programming involves. Also, each plant tends to run things different, different programming methods, different tooling, etc.

 

Those of you with programming managers: do they program or have any CNC programming background?

[gcode]

I wasn't joking.

Just last Friday, the boss said.

"I'd like to get you involved in planning and quoting, but you don't have the time."

[Josh Kinney -Elite Engineering]

I'm also curious as to how most shops work. Do you hand off the programs and setup sheets and someone else makes the edits and tweaks on the floor? It's hard to try and program futures jobs while babysitting all the jobs you've handed off!

[35K chipper]

Josh,

programming gets the job from planning.

then programming goes back to engineering to get all details they forgot.

programs are written and verified then

all programs go on the server.

manufacturing manager gets the job package with the drawing, setup sheet, tool list, and the process operation sequence list for all operations.

he distributes then to the operators.

operators dnc programs from the server

there are no floor edits or tweaks.

If something needs a change it can only be done by programming.

this prevents crashes and maintains the MasterCam association with the nc program, tool list, and the process list.

so we use them and loose them. the only thing back loaded to the server are the machine parameters once a month.

hope that helps

.

.

35k

[Guffie]

We are 2 guys programming here... We program all simple parts in Mazatrol, so it's only the more advance jobs we make in Mastercam... But I usually devide the jobs, the other programmer get all he can take and I take the rest... We always follow the whole process through, programming, setup, test run together with operator and then the operator takes over and come back to us if there are problems and we make correction..

 

I have the opposite problem of most of you guys, since I would love to spend more time programming and less time on other things... But as production manager, quoting, planning, tool purchase etc. I usually got my hands more than full...

 

 

 

[Rstewart]

I'm in kind of a small shop position Like Guffie.

 

I do half of the job quotes, most all of the tooling quotes/purchasing. I do all the programming on two mills and 95 percent of the set-up and operation. Along with the occational tig welding and sheetmetal work lol. It works pretty good considering I'm the only person running the parts. My strategy would have to completely change if there were multiple programmer/set-up people here though......

[Tim Johnson]

We have three programmers here with each being primarily responsible for their group of machines (my responsibility is the horizontals). When a programmer gets overloaded then someone with less work will grab up some of the load. We work off a program priority list created in Excel for new or revised work and off of our individual stacks for edits/process improvements. Our production foreman will hand out work for the unscheduled/emergency/"goverment" jobs as needed.

 

Good programmers are usually too rare and expensive to waste in management positions.

 

I was told once that I was too important to be moved to management. I responded with "Just pay me like I'm am". He then asked why want I want a cut in pay.

[RandleXX]

I'm the only programmer here.. Only a couple people have ANY idea whats going on, kinda like semi controlled chaos.. no joke!!

 

Management here outnumbers the people who actually do stuff.. LOL!!

[Mgrenier]

Kind of same as Tim here,

 

We have 10 programmer distributed in 3 different departments and we are all assigned our department first and we offload others if we have time. It's up the the department managers to call who does what. We prpgram, check with Vericut and it goes to the floor. The machinists make the program mods if minor and they save the job afterwards.

[BrianCNC]

Thanks for all the replies; it is interesting to see how other companies run things. What works well, and what doesn't.

[Dontech]

Sorry for the Thread-nomancy here, I'm just a bit late to the party.

 

In my company's Shop we had three programmers, one of which migrated to the Engineering side of the street which left two guys...myself and my assistant. I run the show out here from top to bottom...scheduling, planning, fixturing, etc. Both myself and my assistant are competent enough to serve as programmer and operator. My company employs @ 100 ppl but @ 30-40 are white-collar positions that don't see the floor very often, if ever. The rest of us work in several depts from Receiving to Shipping. We run two shifts; I've got one guy keeping select jobs running at night but he's only an operator at best owing to some very scary and expensive decisions he's made in the past which means the bulk of the work from planning to final product happens on day shift, between myself and my assistant. Engineering has almost no input on any decisions I make or fixturing designs we come up with. I get my marching orders from the Head of Scheduling and then distribute the jobs between the two of us out here accordingly. I handle most of the more complicated jobs, not because I don't trust my assistant's skills, but because I'm the guy in charge which means I'm accountable first, last, and always. This place is like many of yours...it's a cluster-flak just about every day of the week. Understaffed, over-scheduled, and planned on a wing and a prayer.

 

 

Rob.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

I've worked in quite a few shops and I think the best run shop was as follows;

 

President

GM

Programming Mgr. (PM)

Programmers

 

The PM pretty much doled out the work to each guy according to his skillset though we were a pretty solid group so we could pretty much all do whatever came across the desk. The GM and PM had to agree for vacations and stuff. That worked about as well as I've seen it work anywhere.

 

Anytime programming answers to a mid-level manager peon, $#!+ hits the fan regularly and pandemonium ensues. The more layers betweeen the "buck stops here" guy and programming, the worse things suck in my experience. Luckily in my job I get my marching orders from the President of my company. Often times I make executive decisions so as to not burden him with too much from my department. Seems to to work pretty well for our customers. We get relatively few complaints and I aim to have ZERO complaints about our department. It that realistic? Probably not, but that's the goal, and I'm sticking to it.

[SKIR68]

Everyone here, programs thier own parts. I run an Okuma Multus, its a Mill/Turn. I do all my own programming, set-up and run the parts. If i have more than one to run, we can pull a night shift "button pusher" over to run the parts.

 

 

 

[MACHINEMASTERG]

We program and run our own parts here too, repeat production jobs go to the operator .

[mig]

We program and run our own parts here too, repeat production jobs go to the operator .

Same here

[dforsythe]

vp of manufacturing

programming manger

5 pmt's

programming supervisor ( me)

4 other programmers

 

all the PMT's want their stuff done right now. I send them to planning where the dispatch list gets made, then divide the work out depending on skill level or cross training. on the bright side i get to hand pick the work i do

 

programs and setup sheets go to the machine shop supervisor.

 

we review the programs after they run for changes

 

repeat over and over and over and over agian!

[Nathan G. Baldwin]

We have Only operators, engineers, and managers. Operators perform setups and are strictly forbidden to change code. Engineers handle programming, fixturing, fist article setup, and inspection guidelines. Managers interact with track leaders (aka floor supervisors) who control what cuts where. It works, I suppose. regardless, it's insanely busy at all times.

[Jon @ NOWHERE]

Here is how it is here at our shop:

 

There are three of us who do the bulk of the programming. We are called engineers(None of us have a degree although I am working toward mine) and we handle all aspects. We quote, we design fixtures, tools, gages etc. We do all of the programming, order all the tools needed, the material to make the fixtures and gages. I was once blamed by our boss for a job being late, even after I asked the production control to put the part on the schedules a month before it was due on our customers dock, needless to say it didn't get put on the schedule, the part ended up late and the boss told me I am responsible for the part from beginning to end so I guess that means we do scheduling too .