Inquiry About Daily Responsibilities as a CMM Programmer

[[Ra...]]

Hello,

I hope you're doing well. Today,

 I wanted to ask you about your experience working as a CMM programmer. Specifically, I’m interested in understanding what a typical day looks like and what responsibilities are expected under the role of a Zeiss programmer.

 I’ve been working at my company for 15 years. About three years ago, we acquired a Zeiss CMM machine, and since then, I’ve been operating it. However, I’ve also continued to handle my previous tasks, which means my workload has increased significantly.

 Although I’ve been programming and running the CMM machine, I’ve never officially held the title or position of a CMM programmer. That’s why I’m curious—what duties are normally associated with this role?

 Additionally, there are times when we receive batches of 10 to 15 parts at once, which can put me in a challenging situation.

 From your experience:

• How many parts do you usually program in a day?
• How many parts do you typically inspect daily with the cmm?
• When you’re creating a new program, do you pause to inspect other parts, or do you usually complete the program from start to finish without interruption?
•  

I appreciate any insight you can share. Thank you in advance for your time.

Best regards,

[[DW...]]

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 Ahh, the classic 'we need someone to program this shiny new piece of equipment, but we do not want to pay a programmer' scenario. It is way too common. I am going to keep this short, you are most likely being financially screwed by your employer. If you have never had official training, get the employer to pay to have you trained, and then leave for a better company. They are using your 15 years of loyalty to pile on a whole other job, while most likely not compensating you at all. Run.

 

[[Ri...]]

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1. This depends on complexity.

2. Whatever comes into the room. It can be one complex part that has upwards of three or more programs and takes hours per program to basic 30 minutes from setup to results.

3. Learn to multitask.

3a. When I start a project, I start a notebook that I track what I am doing (Each book is for a specific part or part family), where I left off, what I plan on doing, etc. Along with the notes, I have a Ghant Chart that tracks all of my programming (Projects) from cradle to grave.

3b. I have complex projects that have had a total of 52 days to complete for a single part (This was my initial estimate for completion if I worked on that project without interruption). I would say I get broke off of any given project multiple times a week or per day.

(My largest project was for Cummins RMEP, I spent 6+ months in North Carolina to rewrite the CMM programs for nearly every Diesel head design they have from LK's to Calypso, this as usual, was a cradle to grave job).

4. Most projects I handle include Project Planning, Part Fixturing, Fixture Design, Part programming, MSA/GRR, program life management, experimental inspection methods on the CMM, and much more.

The majority of what I have learned over the past 25 years has been from Seminars, you will learn more from seminars than you will from any OEM CMM software class.

(Back in the day, I used voice recorders to record entire seminars, video cameras were just too big 🤣).

Edited July 29

[[Ra...]]

 

Thank you for your comments. 

[[Pa...]]

I work for a company of roughly 200 employees.  Two of us know how to turn on a Zeiss CMM.  4 of us can run them.  Six of us know how to spell CMM.

I am the only programmer.  Have been for 3 years since the last guy left.  We've been hiring for that second position this whole time; so far not one candidate has shown interest aside from several "willing to learn's".  We are in rural Maine.

Every day I walk in, change my shoes, and see what second shift blew up.  I spend the morning fixing whatever that was while fielding phone calls and emails from project engineers etc who failed to plan ahead and now want to know if I can make up the time they lost.

2 of every 10 hours is spent listening to people tell me that my results are "physically impossible" or the like, and then proving them wrong on a surface plate.

I manage just over 30,000 programs written by predecessors who had no GD&T; lots of time is consumed making "proven programs" useable every day.

And I write all the new stuff.

Our CMM room processes sometimes 3 parts in a day, sometimes ~75 parts.

I write simple programs in just a few minutes.  I write massive programs that run for 6 or more hours.  This takes a couple days (see interruptions above).

I never sit at my programming workstation for 2 hours uninterrupted.

And I dodge phone calls on my days off asking me to come save the day.

You are worth much more than you're paid.  Best suggestion on here is to have your boss pay for Calypso Basic, Advanced, Freeform/Curve, and GearPro if you need it.  Then move on to another company.  You'll be a hero, though probably still underpaid.

Good luck out there.  Loyalty ONLY benefits the employer, though that's not the message they'll give you.

[[Cl...]]

We (medical device) are moving away from using the CMM whenever possible, due to cycle time. Almost anything 2d and with little GD&T we measure with the Keyence. We work off a program request log. This is used by the engineers for new program request.

There are four CMM programmers here. We have three O-inspects Five Conturas. Dozens of Keyence 7000/8000/LM-X. We also have an OGP ZIP 300. In addition to

writing the programs, we perform program troubleshooting, type-1 & 2 Gauge R&R's, program verification, first articles and all the paperwork involved in that, i.e., Minitab, etc. We use operators to run production in Autorun.

Edited Thursday at 03:52 PM