Machine shop
The control and traceability of the materials usually depend on the company's management and the industries that are served, standard certification of the establishment, and stewardship.
A machine shop can be a capital intensive business, because the purchase of equipment can require large investments.
One of the earliest publications in this field was Horace Lucian Arnold, who in 1896 wrote a first series of articles about "Modern Machine-Shop Economics.
As an independent consulting engineer one of his first major assignments was in 1898 at Bethlehem Steel was to solve an expensive machine-shop capacity problem.
As materials and chemical substances, including cutting oil, become more sophisticated, the awareness of the impact on the environment slowly grew.
In parallel to the acknowledgment of the ever-present reality of accidents and potential occupational injury, the sorting of scrap materials for recycling and the disposal of refuse evolved in an area related to the environment, safety, and health.
In regulated machine shops this would turn into a constant practice supported by what would be a discipline known as EHS (for environment, health, and safety), or of a similar name, such as HQSE that would include quality assurance.
Digital instruments for quality control and inspection become widely available, and the utilization of lasers for precision measurements became more common for the larger shops that can afford the equipment.
Typical applications of robots include welding, painting, assembly, pick and place (such as packaging, palletizing and SMT), product inspection, and testing.
Thus the relative movement between the workpiece and the cutting tool is controlled or constrained by the machine to at least some extent, rather than being entirely "offhand" or "freehand".
Smaller machine shops may have a more limited assortment of endmills, keyseat cutters, inserts, and other cutting tools.
In some instances, the shop is swept minutes before the end of every shift, and in other cases, there's no schedule or routine, or the cycle for sweeping and cleaning is more relaxed.
In larger and organized operations, such responsibility may be delegated to the Health, Safety, Environment, and Quality (HSEQ) department.
Subsequently, subject to the rigor declared by the customer, the machine shop may be required to undergo a verification and validation even prior to the issuance and acknowledgment of an order.
The standards followed, the industry served, quality control, and mainly the type of practices in the machine shop, will denote the utilization of precision inspection instruments, and the accuracy of metrology employed.
Not all machine shops have the same type of measuring instruments, though it is common to find micrometers, Vernier calipers, granite surface plates, among others.
The frequency and precision for calibrating metrology instruments may vary and it may require hiring the services of a specialized third-party.
Profitability is commonly a driving consideration in regards to maximizing production, and thus aligning the machines in an effective manner; however, other critical factors must be considered, such as the preventive maintenance of the equipment and safety in the workplace.
Depending on the size of the operation, management, and controls, these areas may be restricted and locked, or these could be staffed by an employee, as by a tool crib attendant; in other instances, the storage rooms or cages are accessible to all personnel.
In an effort to standardize some common guidelines, in the United States, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issues didactic material and enforces precautions with the goal of preventing accidents.
Some of the common practices include: Safety precautions in a machine shop are aimed to avoid injuries and tragedies, for example, to eliminate the possibility of a worker being fatally harmed by being entangled in a lathe.
