The job of the Laser & Press Brake Manager can be intense at times but years of training in the manufacturing industry has given the tools and experience in which to cope with the fast turnaround and demands that 21st-century engineering requires. Check out the daily routines and responsibilities of Laser & Pressbrake Manager Marcus Beavon-Hughes from RSD Pressings.
First things first, clock in and change your shoes to safety footwear but only after washing your hands and sanitising them.
Emails opened and read, two requesting quotations for possible work (these parts will need to be programmed for machine times and estimations on any additional operations), and one from the Quality Assurance Manager reminding everyone about updating KPI’s all of which are marked as unread to ensure they are followed up later in the working day.
Ear defenders on and gloves at the ready, it’s onto the shop floor to power on the brake press and laser profiler.
Once initial machine checks are done it’s then time to carry on from the previous day's production or to set up a new job for both machines depending on what the customer schedules dictate. Once the operators know what they are working on it’s back to the office to start work on outstanding quotes, work instructions, and updating work requirements.
After a quick check on the production monitoring software, it’s back onto the shop floor to clear an alarm from the laser profiler as well as a quick update from the operators on how they are getting on. This includes a reminder of how long they have left to complete their assigned work.
Back to the office, and there’s an order arrived for a new part which was quoted a few days ago, this kicks off the quality planning reports, laser profile and brake press program verifications, feasibility meetings along with material and Bought Out Parts (BOP) requirement planning.
Onto programming now for the laser profile and press brake enquiries via the 3D CAD package supplied by the machine manufacturer. Once the CAD is complete, sheet prices are obtained and the CAD is nested for the best material utilization and timings obtained from the software, this can then all be calculated to offer a quotation to supply.
Finally, back onto the shop floor to run a new part on the press brake, the tooling is all set up and is program loaded. Operators are tweaking the settings to obtain the correct angles for the quality measure, and photographs of the setup are taken to create the work instruction later on for the process.
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