My lead told me my tool change routine was costing us time, and he was right.

I was setting up a run of 304 stainless parts on our old Haas, doing my normal thing where I'd check each tool's runout after every change. He watched for a bit and said, 'You're adding 15 minutes to every setup for maybe one bad collet in a hundred.' I switched to just checking them at the start of my shift and after any crash. It felt weird at first, but we're getting jobs out faster now. How do you guys handle tool checks on long runs?

2 comments

2 Comments

michaelnguyen6d ago

Ever feel like you're the quality control department for your own bad habits? I used to check every single drill like it was going to space.

foster.wade6d ago

It's like we're trying to build a perfect record for a future audit that'll never happen. We treat our own routines with a level of care we'd never expect from an actual employee. That drill-checking habit probably started from one small mistake years ago, and now it's a full-time job we never applied for. The weird part is we'd fire someone else for being this slow and careful over tiny things.