As machinists, how often are we asked to produce hardware that was needed “yesterday?” The fact is, quite often as shop personnel try to keep “squeaky wheels” greased. Squeaky wheels come at us from all sides. Production people count on machinists to keep lines going, research and development people count on machinists to keep new product programs on track, maintenance people count on machinists for repair parts and so on.

The bottom line is when people want parts; they want parts. They don’t want excuses or anything else. That’s one of the beauties of being a machinist. Your responsibilities are clear and simple. If you can get people their blessed parts, they’ll go away.

Most people, including myself, don’t want to work any harder or faster than we have to. At times though, when the crisis monkey is on us, we have to get the lead out and get going. Crisis machining can be fun once in awhile and generally speaking; any glory to be had usually comes from helping someone through a crisis. If nothing else, it can be a nice change of pace. The hours tend to go by quickly when you’re working on a “hot” job.

The following suggestions may help you work quickly...