Should a Shop Manager know every position in the shop?

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Top comments include:

• “Eh yes and no, they should have a basic familiarity with every machine type and its capabilities. However knowing it to the level of hoping on any machine and running it, not really. In an ideal world yes they would be a master at every machine but you realistically can't be and managing at the same time, you’ve got to pick a skill to refine at some point and running machines comes second when your paid to manage.”

• “No...hired to manage the people below you. The people below you should know how do their jobs.

  I manage the CNC department at my workplace. I started on the floor, so I can run all the machines if needed but I just delegate and schedule work to the operators. I also make files, quote new CNC work as it comes from my manager. I do my best to make everything as simple as possible for the guys on the floor”

• “Every Manager should start on the Floor.”
• “Nope. Delegation and problem solving is what a good manager is an expert at.”
• “When I worked as a manager of an engineering company, I would never ask anyone to do a job I couldn't do, the regular operators could probably do it quicker, but they respected the fact I could do the hands on stuff, as well as managerial tasks.”
• “Had one that couldn't understand why quotes for 304 sst parts were higher than 303 sst parts. He actually said that there couldn't be that much difference, it's only one number. He didn't last long.”
• “How can you do that when he gets there at 10 AM and has golf scheduled at 1 PM and he does it five days a week. Shop managers in my experience were a total joke. Look at their hands then you’ll know.”
• “I co-manage a shop now but the best manager I ever worked under was not machinist but was mechanically inclined. I learned a lot from that guy and implemented his management techniques daily”
• “for scheduling and quoting purposes a manager should be able to do everything, like a jack of all trades, but not necessarily well enough to consider himself an expert. if the shops big enough that there’s separate departments those departments should have a foreman or process engineer for the main manager to talk with, but they shouldn’t be defining the minor details for new processes that should be up to the machinists. pretty much respect the process, if somebody knows how to do it best listen to them.”