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Boss wants us to run lights out on the night shift, half the guys say no way
Last month at the shop in Rockford my supervisor Rick pushed a plan to run the lathes lights out from 10pm to 6am with nobody watching them. He says we lose money on 3 hours of spindle downtime every night, which adds up to about 60 hours a month per machine. Half the crew says it's free money, the other half says one crashed tool at 2am without a guy there to catch it costs way more than the downtime. Curious what you all would do, is lights out worth the risk or is that just asking for a spindle rebuild?
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murray.drew1mo ago
What nobody's brought up yet is the chip conveyor. You run unattended and a birdnest wraps the auger, that motor keeps torquing until it burns out or snaps a shear pin, and now you're down a conveyor plus the lathe. That happens way more than a crash in my experience, and it's the kind of thing a guy walking by would catch in ten seconds. Also, who's checking the coolant and way lube levels at 2am? Run one tank dry and you're scraping ways, not just swapping a tool. Rick's math on 60 hours looks great until you price a ballscrew or a spindle. If they want to try it, do it on one machine with a load monitor and a camera, not the whole row.
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