For a new person learning a line, how long do you give them to get up to speed?

I had half a day training on what I was told was the hardest spot on the line. I've only been at this job 1 week total. Today I got cussed out all day by some old bitch because I don't move as fast as the guy who usually does it, even though he's been doing it forever.

I'm through a staffing agency so I'll be calling tomorrow to end that assignment. But for future refrence, how long does it take to get up to speed on an assembly line?

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I start college at Tetr soon and my first project is going to be a consumer product, I'm thinking of making a line of vegan leather wallets, have some designs already. Just so I dont go fully unprepared, I’m narrowing down on supplies and hitting two walls here: the minimum order quantity leather worksmen are demanding is way more than I expected, and the second they realize I'm young and small, the tone shifts and I stop being taken seriously.

For people who've been the small buyer: how do you actually get a supplier to lower an MOQ, or find ones open to small runs? And how do you get taken seriously when you clearly don't have volume yet? Trying to take some small steps before i start my sem, thank you in advance.

Hello fellow manufacturers,
I just opened a FDM printing and manufacturing shop in Houston. I wanted to take B2B route and wanted to reach out to Gas and Energy companies near me. Does anyone have any marketing advice?

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for advice from people who work in manufacturing, industrial safety, glass handling, or any industry with similar hazards.

I work at a candle manufacturing plant where we produce candles in glass containers.

Any product that gets damaged during production goes to a recovery (salvage/rework) process. The job requires operators to reach into large containers filled with molten wax mixed with broken glass to recover usable material.

To be honest, it’s one of the most dangerous tasks I’ve seen in the plant. Between the broken glass and the hot wax, it feels like we’re one mistake away from a serious hand injury.

Right now we’re using bulky “clown gloves” (the oversized leather work gloves everyone has probably seen). They provide some protection, but they’re extremely bulky, reduce dexterity, slow the job down, and the task still feels risky.

I also tested seamless knit ANSI/ISEA A9 cut-resistant gloves with a leather palm. They did a great job preventing cuts, but the molten wax soaked through the knit material, so they weren’t suitable for the heat hazard.

I’m looking for recommendations for the most specialized gloves and arm sleeves you know of that could handle:

• Maximum cut resistance (ANSI A9 or equivalent)
• Protection against hot molten wax
• Good enough dexterity for handling broken glass
• Preferably something used in glass manufacturing, foundries, metalworking, recycling, or similar industries.

I completely understand that the best solution would be changing the process or implementing engineering controls rather than relying on PPE. Unfortunately, that’s not a decision I can make in my current position, so right now I’m trying to find the best available PPE to reduce the risk.

Any recommendations on specific glove models, brands, materials, or combinations of gloves and cut-resistant sleeves would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance, and stay safe.

Every conference talk and LinkedIn post says DPP is coming and manufacturers need to prepare. Then you ask what specifically to prepare and the answer dissolves into "it depends on the delegated acts."

Here's my practical problem. The data that ends up in a passport, material composition, recycled content, substance information, repairability, lives in five different places at our company. PLM has a BOM that's mostly right. Substance declarations live in a shared drive. Recycled content claims live in supplier emails. Nobody owns the whole picture, and the gap between "we have this data somewhere" and "we can produce it per product, per unit, machine readable" is enormous.

Batteries look like the first wave and the rest of us follow at some point. So for anyone in categories likely to get hit early: are you actually restructuring product data now, or is the sensible move to wait until the requirements are concrete? Because I can see us spending a year building the wrong data model.

I do apologise in advance if this isn't relevant but I'm looking at moving to the US having worked in the UK for a good amount of time and was curious which places struggle the most with hiring engineers and which places are up and coming. I know I can search google for the most populated area for manufacturing but that doesn't necessarily mean they struggle to get engineers in. I'm multi skilled, electrical bias with experience in food and beverage industry and plastic moulding.

Hello! For the last four years I've managed a nonprofit makerspace in the DMV area. My hands-on fabrication experience covers about 10 years: woodworking, digital fabrication (laser, CNC router, 3D printing), screen printing, soldering and basic electronics (Arduino). On the management side I handle shop safety, tool maintenance, purchasing, and training/supervising a technician and students.

Recently I trained a fabrication engineer from a major defense contractor on our laser cutter, and she told me directly that I could do her job. That got me seriously looking at the transition — but from the outside, the path from "makerspace manager" to "fabrication engineer" isn't obvious, and I want to understand it from people already in the field.

Specifically, I'd love input on:

1. What technical skills or software (SolidWorks, GD&T, specific CAM packages, etc.) would you expect a candidate at this transition point to demonstrate?
2. Are there certifications or short courses that meaningfully change how a résumé reads to a hiring manager for fab engineer roles?
3. What portfolio pieces or project write-ups tend to land well?
4. How would you translate "shop manager" experience into language that a fabrication engineering hiring manager would recognize?

Any and all technical advice appreciated.

Hello, looking for advice on the best way to learn how to take apart and put back together a gearbox in an hour a week from now. This is for an interview I have for a production technician role. Thanks.

I'm looking for some clarification from people with experience in electroplating and engineering specifications.

The drawing specifies:
Protection zinc plating: ISO 2081 – Fe/Zn12/C

Our plating supplier delivers an iridescent zinc finish and states that it complies with ISO 2081 Fe/Zn12/C.

However, our customer rejected the appearance, re-plated the parts, and informed us that they require a natural (clear) zinc finish instead.

The drawing does not specify:

• Clear passivation
• Trivalent or hexavalent passivation
• Appearance or color
• Top coat or sealer

It only specifies:

Protection zinc plating: ISO 2081 – Fe/Zn12/C

My questions are:

1. Does ISO 2081 Fe/Zn12/C necessarily imply an iridescent finish?
2. Can a clear/natural zinc finish also comply with this specification?
3. From an engineering and quality standpoint, would you consider this drawing ambiguous, or should the desired passivation/appearance be explicitly specified?

I'm not trying to determine who is right or wrong. My goal is to understand how this specification is commonly interpreted in industry and how to avoid this issue on future production runs.

Quality guy at a mid-size manufacturer here. Curious how smaller shops handle this. When you catch a defect or nonconformance, how do you take it from containment through root cause to actually closing out the corrective action — spreadsheet, Word templates, or some dedicated tool?

Hey all, I'm new to the manufacturing industry, got hired in IT department for a plastic injection molder. One of my first projects for the company is to rebuild the website. Their website has not been updated in over a decade and they are looking to rebuild it to start bringing in possible clients through the website.

Im not a marketing or web design guy by any means. Does anyone have experience working with web design agency? Are there specific companies that just do manufacturing websites or do I just do this myself and figure it out?

Also, if you just have general tips about the industry, im all ears lol.

Hello Everyone, I’m looking to start a manufacturing unit in Siliguri (or nearby place), West Bengal. I have a capital to start a physical product small manufacturing unit, to be clear not much but enough for a small manufacturing.

I’ve been digging into a few ideas rather than jumping at the obvious ones (tea/spices/bamboo felt too generic given how saturated they are locally). Currently most interested in large cardamom processing — modern curing/grading/export-packaging — since Siliguri is actually one of the official Spices Board auction markets for it and the trade hub for cardamom coming out of Sikkim, Nepal and Bhutan. Also looked seriously at ginger oleoresin extraction and wet wipes manufacturing.

Would genuinely value outside perspective on:

• Anyone with hands-on experience in spice processing, food manufacturing, or running a small unit in North Bengal — what am I not seeing?
• Realistic take on breakeven timelines, government scheme experiences (PMEGP/CGTMSE/Banglashree) — did they work as advertised for you?
• Anything specific to Siliguri/Terai/Dooars I should know before committing capital?

Also — if there’s someone based in or near Siliguri who’s serious about manufacturing, has relevant experience or is willing to put in equal work, do keep in touch.

Thankyou.

expanding our floor soon and trying to get the trash and recycling setup right before we do. went through a few cheap options at our current facility and the pattern is always the same, lids crack, bases crack after getting clipped, or they're just too light to stay put on a busy shift.

need something heavy duty enough to take a hit, easy enough to move for cleaning, and big enough that we're not emptying them constantly. also trying to add recycling separation this time around which we've never done properly before.

not sure if i should be looking at mobile units or fixed stations for the floor. and whether the lid type actually matters or if open top is just easier to deal with day to day.

what are people here running for waste and recycling on a manufacturing floor and did whatever you picked hold up the way you expected?

Do you do a flat rate on top of material purchases and then burn rate per hour? Or do you add a surcharge for your labor only?

Doing CI work at a mid size manufacturer, mostly order to cash and a couple of shop floor changeovers. About 9 people need to look at any given map, and maybe 3 of them will never open a real tool without me sitting next to them.

We've been on visio for years. Fine for the final artifact, rough for the workshop itself, since one person drives and everyone else watches over their shoulder. We also ran 2 sessions on a miro board, which the operators took to fastest bc it's mostly dragging boxes around. But we also found the maps get sloppy quick and it doesn't enforce any notation.

So i'm stuck between loose enough that a supervisor will correct the map in front of me and strict enough for proper BPMN. Which tool have you used for process mapping when you have both problems. No vendors, please, I just want to know what's on your screen.

Hey Folks,

I am in USA and worked in the manufacturing industry for 5 years in roles related to quality engineering, automation and digital manufacturing.
After that I went back to school for a PhD in AI/ML. Now I am about to graduate and looking for opportunities that are related to manufacturing.

Any ideas what type of roles/organizations can value manufacturing industrial experience along with AI/ML expertise?
Also, I may add that I am on a visa in USA and government labs or defense organizations are out of reach :(

Thanks in advance for any insights or recommendations.

Looking to outfit a new line with assembly workstations. Wanted to get opinions on brands that are liked and have held up in high throughput. Need overhead support, not sure on material types yet, modular would be ideal, different sizes. Ive been eyeing treston at the moment but im open ears.

I’ve been asked to do a “presentation / discussion” for a production supervisor role. They want me to present “how I would add value to the company”.

I have 10 years of experience as a production manager in a very similar role however I don’t know what issues they’re having, what the bottle necks are, where they’re struggling etc in their specific production set up. I had a look round the factory for the inital interview but that’s all I’ve seen, no one was working at the time either. The “presentation” also is supposed to be 30 minutes long which I’m really going to struggle with as presenting and puplic speaking are probably my two main major weaknesses.

Has anyone got any insight into this? What sort of things would you want to hear?

I’ve got it down to:

1. Introduction
   
2. What I will do in my first 30 days
   
3. Build relationships
   
4. Improve production workflow
   
5. Quality
   
6. Planning
   
7. Technology
   
8. Continuous Improvement
   
9. Long term vision
   
10. Questions

I’d be aiming for 3 minutes for each point.

Thanks

A US manufacturer explaining how to compete with China

This might be against the rules, but i hoped this can help manufacturers located outside of China.
https://youtu.be/fqe39Dx-rQ0?is=YcVbM-vxfUc7Fayu