There's a phrase that comes up a lot when discussing CNC operators and
machinists: attention to detail.
"I'd say it would be top of the list, and I think a desire to make things,"
says Ken Ellis. He's chair of the Center for Advanced Technologies at a college,
which includes a CNC program.
"I think if you really have a desire to make things, then precision and
accuracy would partly come along with that because you want the parts to be
right, because you enjoy making it," says Ellis.
"When people are doing things they don't really care about, they don't
really put that time and effort or pay attention to the fine details."
Jasmine Harris agrees. She's a manufacturing development engineer in Franklin
Lakes, New Jersey who began her career as a CNC machinist. She got her start
by studying machine tool technology for one year at a technical college.
"I think you [need] strong attention to detail, because if you miss a decimal
point or something somewhere, then you can end up damaging equipment or creating
a bad situation," she says.
"And I think enjoying creating things is part of it as well, because you
get to take something that was an idea and put it in and make it an actual
product, which I think is pretty exciting."
What sparked Harris's interest in working with machines? "Actually, my
dad introduced me to it," she says. "When I was in high school, we took a
'shadow day' where I went around with my dad and he was an electrician on
the trains.
"They had the very large equipment, the machines, the wheels and all the
parts for the trains and everything, and so that's how I kind of found out
about it," says Harris. "I've always been interested in motorcycles, working
on motorcycles with my dad... and there was a local school around me that
offered machining, and so I took it through there."
In her first job as a CNC machinist, Harris did all of the setup and day-to-day
operations of the CNC machines. In her second job, she did the programming
and setup for CNC machines. Then she decided to build on her formal education.
"During my second job is when I decided to go back to school to do engineering,"
says Harris. She ended up earning a bachelor's degree in manufacturing engineering.
"From the job I'd had, I'd known a couple of people that had gone into
manufacturing engineering and, at the time, the school that I was looking
into (Weber State University) was in the top five in the nation for manufacturing
engineering," says Harris.
"The reason why I did it, I really liked the programming side of it, but
I wanted to do more of the background work.
"One of the places that I worked at was a job shop. So we would get a lot
of [blue]prints in that were just one or two of this or that, just to do prototyping.
And I really liked that aspect of it -- in trying to take a concept like that
and putting into production how you would make it.
"Once I got that experience as far as programming I wanted to go a step
further, and that's where the engineering in manufacturing came in."
Harris is now a manufacturing development engineer for a medical devices
manufacturer. Her example shows that training in CNC technology can provide
a foundation for other jobs in manufacturing.
The CNC program at Ellis's college takes eight months to complete.
Ellis says graduates usually end up going to manufacturing companies. Others
go into research. "Mostly [they go] into the aerospace industry or automotive
industry," he says.
"But then they could be involved with a variety of all different kinds
of industries. A lot of companies have now moved to CNC equipment, and CNC
equipment is used in woodworking, metal cutting and glass cutting, although
our main focus would be on metal cutting. We have some students that have
gone to work for [a hospital] where they use CNC equipment to make experimental
prototypes for cancer [research] or other types of research."
What's it like to work in this field? Ellis says it depends on the type
of company you work for.
"If you're in a high-volume manufacturing environment, then certainly time
pressures would be an issue," says Ellis.
"But if you're making parts for an airplane and they're very
highly sophisticated and have to be highly inspected afterwards and they're
very costly to make, then time isn't as big a factor. Quality and output of
the product is more important.
Again, attention to detail is extremely important in this job.
If your attention to detail is excellent and you enjoy working with machinery,
you could build a successful career as a CNC operator or programmer.