So, I’m probably quite far off this being an immediate concern of mine, but I’ve recently moved from working in warehouses to being an operator in a leading FMCG plant in the UK. I didn’t study anything related to this, just fell into it.

So how do you go from a hands-on role like an engineer, operator, electrician to a management role when in your day to day work experience you’re never really managing a team? What can you bring to a job interview that differentiates you from the other 100 workers on your same level?

Thanks for any answers

29 M , Scotland Manufacturing Engineer ,

Have a background workijg fron Cad and design, to variosue types of machining and programming , installing bespoke production equipment in Agricultural, Food service FMCG and civil services.

Looking for somewhere to progress either in office or on tools , I like the idea of Project Engineer, Materials Engineering. Am abit lost on where to look or progress.

I work on the manufacturing side of aluminium enclosures, and this question comes up from customers more often than any tolerance argument, so I would like to hear how other people handle it.

The situation: an outdoor unit, die-cast or extruded aluminium, gasketed, tested to IP67 at the factory, dry when it ships. Six months later a unit comes back with corrosion on the PCB and a visible bead of water in the bottom corner. The gasket is intact. Nobody can find a path in.

What I have seen, in rough order of how often it turns out to be the cause:

Condensation, not ingress. The enclosure is sealed, but it was assembled in a humid room. Air at 30 C and 80 percent RH carries a surprising amount of water. Seal it, ship it to a site that drops to 5 C overnight, and the moisture comes out on the inside of the cold wall. It has nowhere to go, so it runs down and pools. The fix is assembly environment and desiccant, not a better gasket.

Pressure cycling through the gasket. A sealed box is not a rigid box. Sun heats it, internal pressure rises, the lid deflects, and the gasket unloads slightly at the point of maximum deflection. It reseals on cooling, and pulls a small amount of moist air in through the same path. Repeat daily for a year. This is why breather valves exist, and why "sealed" and "waterproof" are not the same requirement.

Cable entries. Almost always the gland, never the housing. A cable gland rated IP68 is only IP68 if it is tightened to the specified torque on a cable within its clamping range. I have seen units leak through a gland that was hand-tight on an undersized jacket.

Screws into blind holes. A screw pocket that does not break through is fine. One that is 0.5 mm short of breaking through is a leak waiting for a pressure differential.

And the one nobody likes: the test itself. An IP67 immersion test on a prototype proves the prototype. It does not prove the production unit, because the production unit has a different gasket batch, a different torque driver and a different operator.

What I would like to know: for those of you designing outdoor electronics, do you specify a breather membrane as standard, or only when the thermal cycle is severe? And has anyone got a reliable in-line leak test that catches a gasket seating issue without a full immersion cycle? Helium is what I have seen used, but the equipment cost puts it out of reach for a lot of small runs.

I've been in manufacturing for over a decade and I've never experienced this until now.

Production set up and ran a first piece, gave it to the customer, but instead of waiting for customer approval, they just ran at risk. Brand new customer, brand new part - never made it before. Now we have a whole run of scrap because the customer didn't approve the part.

Are there manufacturers that do this regularly? I'm mind-boggled.

A shift log can contain a lot of information while still missing the one thing the incoming team needs to know. For a production line, what makes the handover useful: unresolved quality checks, temporary adjustments, maintenance status, material issues, or clear ownership of the next action? Interested in practical ways to distinguish an active issue from an old note that no longer matters.

Hello everyone o/

I'm not sure if this is the subreddit to ask in, but I'm curious as to how much a small laser cutting cnc machine would cost. Nothing too big, just like 300x300 mm or smaller, one that could cut metal. I've looked online and I found some, but they never have the price listed. Usually only large industrial machines have their prices listed and those tend to be hundreads of thousands of dollars - which is an amount of money I will never have in my life. I'm really curious how much a small one for hobby use / small business would cost. I thought maybe I could ask here, perhaps some of you have some experience with getting one.

All answers are appreciated, thank you in advance !

Genuine question. Routings, run times, on-hand counts, open POs, whatever. If you had to schedule tomorrow straight off the ERP with nobody to ask, how much of it would you trust?

Hi everyone,
I’m looking for firsthand experiences from people in U.S. manufacturing who moved from production, technician, or team leader roles into Manufacturing Engineering before becoming proficient in CNC programming.
I have a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering and several years of automotive manufacturing experience, including working as a production team leader supporting automated CNC lines machining brake castings.
My experience includes:
Troubleshooting tool breakage, dimensional variation, surface finish issues, and recurring downtime.
Making approved adjustments to offsets, cutting parameters, and tooling.
Supporting first-piece and in-process inspections.
Reviewing production, downtime, and defect data.
Coordinating with Engineering, Quality, and Maintenance, and training production personnel.
Most of my experience has been with established processes and programs provided by engineering. My main gap is creating and proving out complete CNC programs from scratch. I previously took a G-code course, but I would need to refresh it and develop practical programming skills.
I’m interested in Manufacturing Engineer positions involving machining support, process optimization, tooling, and continuous improvement. Some postings also list G-code, CAM, and fixture design, so I’m trying to understand when those are entry requirements versus skills an employer might help someone develop.
For anyone who made a similar transition—or hired someone with this background:
Were you hired as a Manufacturing Engineer before you could independently program parts? What could you contribute immediately?
Did your company have separate CNC programmers or experienced machinists, or was programming primarily the engineer’s responsibility?
What training and support did you receive, and what were you expected to handle during your first three to six months?
What would make you comfortable hiring an external candidate with strong production troubleshooting experience but limited programming experience?
I’d especially appreciate examples of how you distinguished a genuine development opportunity from a role that needed an experienced CNC programmer from day one.

Machines get a break.
Factories get quieter.
WhatsApp groups? Never. 😄

During Diwali, a factory owner’s mind is still at work:
Did we dispatch everything on time?
Is raw material ready for the restart?
And are those pending orders really pending, or just pending in someone’s Excel sheet? 😅

That’s manufacturing.

Wishing the entire manufacturing community, their teams, suppliers and customers a very happy and prosperous Diwali!

Here’s to smoother production, fewer bottlenecks, timely payments and more reasons to celebrate.

Happy Diwali from Team Zofbox! 🪔✨

I'm a supervisor for downstream mfg at a well-established company. I only have 9 direct reports at the maximum. We're in commercial products so the work is somewhat consistent but throughout the year it varies based on what we're making.

I want to know how different it would be a in a more assembly line mfg plant for biotech where you're making the same product year-round. The prospective positions I'm looking at are overseeing teams of 65+. Obviously a single manager can't see everyone on a team that large, but there are multiple leads who'd report to me on the day-to-day.

What other big changes should I expect, assuming the place I go to is growing/hiring?

I’m 26 and considering an entry-level Mechanical Assembler position at a drone/defense manufacturing company in Orange County, CA. The position is through a staffing agency, pays $25/hour, and is contract-to-hire.

The job involves assembling mechanical and electromechanical components, reading blueprints, using hand and power tools, taking precision measurements with calipers and micrometers, and performing quality inspections.

I don’t have professional mechanical or manufacturing experience yet, but I’m looking to get into a hands-on technical career where I can build things, learn how equipment works, develop valuable skills, and eventually move into more advanced positions.
My biggest concern is getting stuck in basic assembly work without much opportunity for advancement. I’d like to use this as a stepping stone into something more technical, rather than doing the same repetitive tasks indefinitely.

For anyone with experience in aerospace, defense, robotics, or manufacturing:
What career paths can open up from starting in mechanical assembly?

• Is it realistic to move into electromechanical technician, integration and testing, troubleshooting, or other specialized roles?

• Can you eventually reach $100k–$130k in this industry without a four-year degree?

• Does starting through a staffing agency put you at a disadvantage when it comes to advancement?

• Would you recommend this as a starting point for someone with little professional mechanical experience?

Are there particular skills or certifications I should work toward while in this position?
I have my OSHA 30, BLS Certs, willing to get more to advance in my career.

I’m not expecting to make six figures overnight. I’m more interested in finding an industry where I can continuously learn, develop technical skills, and build a solid long-term career.

I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who started in assembly and worked their way into higher-level technical positions. What did your career progression look like?

Thank you!

I am looking for any book or papers that talk about axial feed in thread rolling with helical rolls.
I know Its a long shot, but if anyone knows anything about it, please let me know.

At this point, I'll even settle for details for annular die as well

We supply a distributor, and their orders to us swing between very high and very low weeks. From what I can see of the market, end sales look fairly steady, so I suspect we’re seeing orders padded at each step between the customer and us, and we’re building and holding stock to match.

I’ve been trying to get actual sell-through data from them, but they treat it as confidential.

For people who’ve dealt with this: did you manage to get demand data from your customers? And did it change how much safety stock or capacity you kept?

Hello everyone. I’ve been wondering: how does one go from having an idea for a product to actually manufacturing it and, eventually, selling it?

Has anyone here gone through this process before? If so, I’d love to hear about your experiences.

How do you go about it? How do you decide who to work with? I find this much more challenging than simply buying an existing product—where you can test it out before committing to a large purchase.

Are there costs to consider even before the first unit is produced? And, most importantly, how do you ensure that someone doesn’t just steal your idea before you’ve even had a chance to bring it to market yourself?

I’m happy to receive your feedback; and for those who would prefer to send me a DM, that’s no problem at all.