Capturing Programming time

[Clayzer]

I work as and IE in a rather unique fabrication shop.  We have production machines that use NC programs for the tool paths.  We also have machines that make emergent parts.  Parts that we will only see once or twice.   These machines are programmed by the CNC operator at that machine.  We have estimation systems to give us a best guess as to how long the part will take to run but we have no way of capturing how long our guys are programming at the machines.  Does anyone out there have a solution to this problem? 

[Matthew Hajicek - Singularity]

Only way I know of is to have the programmers log their time, which can be a royal pain if they're trying to multitask.  It also means they'll probably rush more and make more mistakes.

[Watcher]

Do you have a DNC system on these machines?

 

Of so, which one?

[Jayson Kramer]

Watcher, I could see with Cimco DNC and then have MDC and we can have them log in to setup as they are programming and setting up the machine. So now you have logged the operator and  Machine and the clock is running. now you are now logging the time. so when they hit the start on the machine the programming has ended and we have a time that is in the data base to bring up later. just quick thought. Now we are logging run times after that.

[pip]

our Heidehain has key logging, so we could, if we wanted to, read the log at the end of the day and check. We dont program at the machine, we do it all in mastercam..

[Watcher]

Watcher, I could see with Cimco DNC and then have MDC and we can have them log in to setup as they are programming and setting up the machine. So now you have logged the operator and Machine and the clock is running. now you are now logging the time. so when they hit the start on the machine the programming has ended and we have a time that is in the data base to bring up later. just quick thought. Now we are logging run times after that.

You got it!

[jlw™]

If its like our shop and my experience else where I would program using a main program and my first sub would be enough to get going and get the machine running. Then I would program more subs in the background while it was making chips. All that to say I don't think you'll capture just the programming time without trusting the guys to keep a log and pray they do it accurately.