long does it take to train new people on this machine?’’
"About six months,’’ he says.
I shake my head.
"That’s a big part of the problem, Al. We train somebody and after a couple
of years they can go elsewhere and make a few dollars more with somebody
else,’’ says Bob. "And we can’t seem to attract anybody good with the wages
we offer.’’
"Well why don’t we pay more for people on this equipment?’’
"The union,’’ says Bob. "We’d get complaints, and the union would want us
to up the pay-grade for all the setup people.’’
I take a last look.
"Okay, so much for this,’’ I say.
But that isn’t all. The two of us walk to the other side of the plant where Bob
gives me a second introduction.
"Meet Herbie Number Two: the heat-treat department,’’ says Bob.
This one looks more like what you might think
of in terms of an industrial
Herbie. It’s dirty. It’s hot. It’s ugly. It’s dull. And it’s indispensable.
Heat-treat basically is a pair of furnaces ...a
couple of grimy, dingy, steel
boxes, the insides of which are lined with ceramic blocks. Gas burners raise
the internal temperatures to the 1500-degree-Fahrenheit range.
Certain parts, after they’ve been machined or
cold-worked or whatever at
ordinary temperatures, can’t be worked on anymore until they’ve been treated
with heat for an extended period of time. Most often, we need to soften the
metal, which becomes very hard and brittle during processing, so it can have
more machining done to it.
So the furnace operators put in the parts, from a dozen or less to a couple of
hundred, then they fire up the thing and cook the parts in there for a long time
—anywhere from six hours to sixteen hours. And afterwards, the parts always
have to go through a further cool-down to air temperature outside the furnace.
We lose a lot of time on this process.
"What’s the problem here—we need bigger furnaces?’’ I ask.
Bob says, "Well... yes and no. Most of the time
these furnaces are running
half empty.’’
"How come?’’
"It’s the expeditors
who seem to cause the problem,’’ he says. "They’re
always running over here and having us run five of this part or a dozen of that
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