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So, ive been in manufacturing for almost 7 years. Right now i work for Navistar which was a great job at first but its slowly starting to crash and burn. What i mean by that is management has been terrible the last year or so... They started hiring who ever they could get and that started creating a toxic work environment. They've started picking favorites and make it impossible to move up in the company. The bad thing is i cant really go anywhere else bc no one else in north alabama pays what i make without having to work swing shift. I currently put in to transfer to a different department so hopefully it'll be a little better but i dont have high hopes. I just want to know what can i do nor to be ao miserable?

Just checking if I'm missing another common phrase or not pairing it correctly.

Shop floor traveler and job order traveler seem to be the most specific use of it.

Sorry if this breaks Rule #3!

MaintainX or UpKeep: Which is better?

What would the enterprise pricing be for 150 accounts?

 I have an area of flooring that gets splashed, dripped on, sprayed, etc. with polyurethane, silicone, degreaser, and more. It's a pain in the ass to clean and keep clean. We're currently using stall mats, which are great for the anti-fatigue, but they have to be replaced weekly and it gets pricey.
 The boss was told about one product that was basically just a large pad of paper that stuck to the ground and you can tear away the old sheet at the end of the day to a clean one for the morning. I was not told the name of the product and Google isn't giving me results.
 Anyone out there know what this product is? Or any other recommendations?

My wife owns a candy business selling mostly taffy, freeze dried and gummy type products. We’re currently labeling stand up pouches by hand (front and back), filling by hand and sealing by using a cheap vertical heat sealer. She recently got an account with a big grocery store so we need a better solution.

We have a budget of around $15-$20k. We either want a machine where we can order printed rolls then the machine will form into a stand up pouch and fill with our product then seal it. Is this even possible in our price range? If so, what type of machine should we look for?

If that isn’t in budget, what other solutions can we look at to automate our packing? Our goal is something that can do around 100-150 bags formed and filled within an hour. Thanks for any advice or leads.

What are the pros and cons of being a listed manufacturing partner on Alibaba?

My company is considering paying up and joining the Alibaba supplier program in order to attract some new brands/clients, but I've been seeing mixed results on Reddit with some people's experiences. Are there any manufacturers out there who can testify to how Alibaba has helped improve their business?

Thanks in advance.

We are starting an employee training program through a community college that also offers on the job training, if all goes well. The description is as follows: Learn Art To Part Process for injection molded part, and how to quote the job. Setting up a injection molding machine and how to make adjustments to produce quality parts Basic quality control/ assurance Basics of running a CNC machine Designing molds in Cimitron on a basic level. We need an official title bit are coming up short. Any ideas would be helpful.

Hello Friends,

Might anyone here know businesses that deal with Bauxite Alumina (Used in making Aluminium), Gypsum (Used in Construction and Agriculture) and Himalayan Salt. We have mines for the products in Pakistan, and we are looking for business partners globally ? Anyone with any idea where to forge such partnerships ? TIA🙏🙏🙏

I have made smart CT Sensors for a Machine Monitoring (Status, Runtime and Downtime).

It's part of larger Manufacturing Execution System Software.

I am wondering can I also sell just the hardware also as a standalone product?

I want to understand how viable it is to setup a quick die change system for Press machines. We have a small press shop with 10 press machines ranging from 75T to 350T C frame press machines. Current time ranges to 40 min for die change. Is it viable for small facility like ours to have QDCS installed? Context : Press shop is in India.

I work in manufacturing as a press room operator, making jet engine parts for Pratt and Whitney (at a third party part supplier), and will soon be taking over for the lead (and only other person in the department) who is retiring next year.

I am in the process of trying to figure out some improvements to help myself and whomever they might hire and one of the biggest is our current way to 'clean' and descale our hot form dies. Currently it's a two man 40 man hour process of manually hand scraping inch by inch with mold maker stones made of aluminum/silicone carbide.

But there has to be a better way right???

We have air powered wire wheel tools we use in-between parts for the light scaling while hot but once cooled they need to be hand scraped before the next use, wire wheel won't do nothing to em.

From what little research I could find myself online I saw mention of 'water knifes' or acid solutions. But curious to what the reddit community has to offer for suggestions.

Hey everyone!

I’m curious to hear from others working in R&D or product development within manufacturing. I'm trying to get a better understanding of the tech stacks you’re using for research and development, particularly for complex data handling, visualizations, or anything that supports faster prototyping.

Are there specific tools or platforms that have become essential in your workflows? And how well do they integrate with other parts of your stack? I’m also interested in how much customization is typically required or if you rely more on out-of-the-box solutions.

Would love to know what’s working well, where the biggest gaps are, or anything that might be lacking in current options. Thanks in advance for any insights!

I want to make plushie like stuffed animals. I need to find a manufacturer. I am quite green in this area. What should I look for when searching for one, what questions should I ask? Any tips would be appreciated

Hello fellow manufacturing redditors,

I’m trying to find a reliable sensor to detect shiny black objects. I found a sensor but I wanted to know if there’s a place to find reviews about it or if there’s any insight that can be given to me in here.

Sensor is: OPT Series Blue Light Photoelectric Sensors.

Thank you.

Hello all,

My new job in aluminum can production works four days on, four off. 12/hrs a day.

However every thirty days you switch from nights to days or days to nights.

Is that common?

TIA

I’m located in the UK and having trouble finding companies that can produce a single backpack for personal use without the high fee

Mechanical components manufacturer, smallish one. Struggling with accurate estimate of initial prep times and change times. Manufacturing times are based on MasterCAM estimates, but also deviates quite a bit.

What kind of method/software or algo do you use?

Hi folks, this may be a weird question. I’m a writer and I’m working on a project that includes a character that works at an auto plant. He’s laid off then, after begging, gets hired back on but at a job that nobody likes doing. He takes it any cuz he’s trying to teach his son a lesson but he hates it.

My question is, is there a certain job in a factory that most people hate doing? Like could be bordering disrespectful if someone is asked to do it.

Totally understand if this is a weird question that doesn’t really have an answer. Thanks for any and all input!!

Edit: to thank everyone for all of your input! contributors and detractors alike (looking at you, grammar police…). This has been all too helpful!! I am trying to strike a balance between being realistic and easy to relate to for readers who have never and may never work in a manufacturing setting. I’m also attempting not to degrade the position, because any job is better than no job (for the most part). Like, I don’t want to disrespect a janitor cuz their job is pretty crucial and usually thankless; but also not sure there are many who see a janitor job opening and are like, “oh yeah, can’t wait!”

The story is about a young black kid in a dying Midwest town trying to save his favorite arcade. It’s set in 2009 in Michigan, U.S.—the rust belt—with the financial crash in full swing. Plants are closing or moving over seas and folks can either move, too, or grind it out where they are and hope more jobs come back. The factory the main character’s dad works at is downsizing and the dad gets laid off (which may need to be revised based on input below about unions). In the course of the story, the dad goes back to the factory that he no longer works at and asks for another job—any job, and for his son to join to, working for free. All this so he can show his some what hard work really is; the kind of hard work that turns you into a man (though genuine, the dad’s a bit misguided about this and that gets dug into as the story progresses).

What I’m hearing tho is cleaning of some sort, whether on the floor and/or bathrooms can be a rough assignment. Also repetitive, or tedious tasks in harsh conditions, whether it be cramped space, high temps, or physically grueling work ranks low on the desirability list.

Ok, strange issue (at least I believe it is) only because business doesn't have nor want to use an ERP system.

We have an issue with first pieces. From what is being communicated, inspection on first pieces is taking far too long to even be picked up from the drop-off location. Inspection is stating otherwise. Here is the process:

When a FP is done it is dropped off on a shelf for first pieces. Inspection is supposed to be watching that shelf and when one is on there, process it ASAP (for the obvious reasons).

I made the comment that with a proper ERP system and utilizing barcodes then this would be tracked and they could follow literally any piece they wanted to at any time. You would have thought I was speaking from the future. They are super OLD SCHOOL here and are reluctant to change.

I then stated that a super low-tech answer would be a clipboard where a time (machine operator #, and job #) is written down by the person dropping off, then they would flip a switch that would turn on a light inside of inspection letting them know there is something there. When they come and retrieve the part then they write down the time, their number, and then flip the light off. Obviously this isn't perfect as if there are multiple pieces then you can't track how many are out there etc. Also, as stated they could still lie on the form when they pick up the piece or someone could just flip the light off if they didn't want to see it etc. So it's not perfect. I then suggested that we could put a camera to watch the clipboard and then can spot check/reference times if things do not seem to add up then.

Ideally I guess the best I could hope for would be a low tech box with a small screen with a 10-key attached. Person walks up, types in say Operator number*Part number, like 153247*11254114 and then press ENTER, it would log the time on top of that and then send that to one or more email addresses (or text messages etc.). Then on retrieval, the person would do the same: EmpNum*JobNum [Enter] and it would again log etc. and then the logs could be pulled and since they cant' set the time of day they would be pulled from the system. Then say somewhere would be a log file that could be pulled to see time issues in delays etc.

No, without a proper ERP and utilizing barcodes/RFID this tough to do. Anyone know of anything that could do this without having to try to build something ourselves?

Hey everyone.

We are having an issue with customers getting products with oil stains, we’ve tracked the problem down to being the lubricant our operators are spraying on the SS and Galv sheets to help them slide across other sheets easier.

Our products are large (6’x6’x6’ up to 30’x30’x30’) and sit outside so the oil stains are very noticeable and I understand the customers grievances. Cleaning every sheet before assembly is just not feasible.

My first thought is going with the obvious Dawn Dish soap solution, but I’m not sure if that will still leave residue stains.

Does anyone have suggestions for lubricants that can do the same trick and avoid leaving visual traces? Are there any corrosive effects of dawn dish soap I am missing when considering galv materials?

Hello everyone,

So we are suppliers of Bauxite (Alumina),, Gypsum and Himalayan Salt from Pakistan. We are looking to expand our global supply bu venturing in new markets. Does anyone have any ideas on platforms that would help us connect with potential business partners ? Any help will be greatly appreciated 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾

Hello folks.

We own a small manufacturing business here in India. We provide machineries to businesses in the chemical, dairy, etc industries.

Technically my father runs it. I on the other hand am a marketer but I lack hands on experience in the industrial sector.

My experiences are with B2B service based businesses.

According to your experience, what is it that goes into marketing the business to generate leads?

At the moment most of our customers come from referrals or repeat customers. I want to add multiple channels for acquiring customers.

Your perspective would be really helpful.

Thanks in advance.

I'm wondering if somebody can help me identify this aluminum extrusion. Not sure what profile this would be and haven't had any luck online just basic z profiles is all I can find. I drew this up quick using the piece I have but I need to replace it and don't know where/how to find it. Thanks in advance!

https://preview.redd.it/nzrvcjewyjyd1.png?width=790&format=png&auto=webp&s=3de6d2eceaf942109a9f0770a995aa68e4e0661b

https://preview.redd.it/sdvlzffwyjyd1.png?width=457&format=png&auto=webp&s=21b887e96854906026cd65cee63a0355175d8618

Hello👋

I have recently built a website that aims to help fashion brands discover manufacturers in Portugal. It’s something I deeply struggled with with a small brand I previously owned and after getting some feedback from other brand owners, it was apparent I wasn’t the only one struggling.

After trailing various methods of sourcing, I came up with a really good system for finding manufacturers and started to curate a database of all of the companies I found.

Whilst the database has had a lot of great feedback from brands that are using it, I feel like it doesn’t quite solve the real underlying issue of actually connecting brands with manufacturers.

I was hoping I could get some quick feedback from those of you operating across different industries about what solutions you find best for sourcing manufacturers and what makes your life easier?

Any input is greatly appreciated 🙏

Looking alternate suppliers for metal casting, metal stamping, CNC, and plastic injection molding in Mexico. Let me know if you have any suggestions or have work with anyone in the past.

Hi all, I need some advice,

My company I'm working with is in the molded pulp industry using recycled paper. And our client currently want our manufactured product to be BPI certified. The problem is the profit margin is already quite thin, but the price of getting certified is very costly, especially the cost to lab test the product, not to mention we are based in Asia so in our perspective, the total cost is very absurd. But this is also our very big client?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

We’re looking to create a production line that assembles various pre-packaged food items, such as a bottle of water, a cake, a pie, and a biscuit. These items will be sourced from suppliers and need to be compiled into a single bag. What type of production line or machinery would be ideal for efficiently combining these products?