Job descriptions for sheet metal and fabrication units: define the skill, not just the task

One shop's description for its benders reads: 'Press brake operator. Responsible for bending work as per instructions. Must be hardworking and punctual.' It fits a trainee on his second day and a craftsman with fifteen years on CNC brakes. It cannot steer a hiring test, a grade or a rate. It never mentions spring-back, crowning, inside radius or flange length. Nobody reads it, and nobody misses it.

A fabrication role is really a promise about output: which parts, from which sheet, held to which tolerance, checked how. A useful description names that promise. It is where our role design service begins, and it underpins several patterns in the fabrication sector overview.

• Hiring: without named processes and gauges, there is nothing to test against, so 'all positions, all processes' goes unchallenged.
• Grading: two welders with the same title can differ widely, and the description gives no way to separate them.
• Pay: rates drift to seniority or bargaining because the role does not show what extra skill is worth.
• Training: a helper cannot see what the following level asks of him.
• Supervision: the chargehand cannot tell whether a fault is a training gap or carelessness.

• Purpose: one line on what the role hands to the next station or the customer.
• Machines, processes and tools: named, including controllers, nesting software or welding sets.
• Materials and gauge range: mild steel, stainless, aluminium, galvanised; thinnest and thickest.
• Drawings: which views, sections, weld symbols, bend notes and tolerances he must read.
• Checks he owns: first-off angle, inside radius, square, fillet leg, grain match.
• Safety duties: guards, kit, lifting, cylinders, his share of the station check.
• Levels: what changes at each grade, and how it is proved.

Purpose: fold cut blanks into parts that fit at fit-up and assembly without hammering or correction.
Reports to: bending section chargehand.
Machines: CNC press brake with crowning; manual brake for short runs.
Materials: mild steel, stainless and galvanised sheet across the gauges the shop quotes.
Level 1: loads programs, folds repeat parts with set tooling, reads angles with a protractor and radius gauge, flags any first-off outside tolerance.
Level 2: picks punch and V-die from the drawing, sets the back gauge, sequences up to four bends, corrects spring-back when a fresh lot of sheet arrives.
Level 3: writes bend programs, handles boxes, joggles and hems that need gooseneck or offset tooling, trains Level 1 hands and signs first-offs.
Quality owned: first-off signed at every new drawing, revision, tooling change or sheet lot.
Safety owned: light guard or pedal cover checked at shift start; a helper on every long panel.
Progress proved by: a practical test on a part from the shop's own drawings, witnessed by two people.

1. 1

   List roles by station, not by title

   Shear, laser, punching, bending, fit-up, welding, grinding and polishing, coating, assembly, dispatch, site. Note who works at each.

2. 2

   Watch a good performer at each station

   Write down what he actually does that a weaker hand does not: checks, settings, judgement calls. Those are the skill statements.

3. 3

   Split each role into two to four levels

   Level 1 runs set work. Level 2 sets up and handles variation. Level 3 programs, solves problems and trains. Some roles need a fourth for lead hands.

4. 4

   Name how each level is proved

   A practical test, a sample part, a signed record of first-offs. If it cannot be proved, rewrite it until it can.

5. 5

   Tie each level to a grade and a band

   The description becomes the grade's definition. Pay design then rests on something anyone can see.

6. 6

   Read it with the people who do the job

   A senior welder or bender will spot what is missing. Their agreement also makes the grade easier to accept.

7. 7

   Keep a revision date

   Update when a new machine, alloy, customer finish standard or site requirement arrives.

• Laser nester: nests mixed parts for least waste, picks nitrogen or oxygen assist by material, sets pierce points, lead-ins and microjoints so parts neither drop nor weld themselves to the skeleton.
• Die setter in a stamping unit: sets shut height and feed pitch, seats pilot pins, proves the first strip and checks burr height before releasing the press.
• Fitter: reads assembly drawings, marks out from datum edges, tacks frames square and checks diagonals before handing to welding.
• TIG hand on light-gauge stainless vessels: welds with back purge, keeps heat tint straw-coloured at worst, leaves a bead that blends without thinning the shell.
• Polisher or seam blender: blends welds flush, follows grain direction to the reference sample, keeps stainless brushes and discs apart from mild steel.
• Erection foreman: reads the erection drawing, plans each lift and sling angle, sequences bolting, packs shims and checks plumb and line before final tightening.

Laser shops separate operating from nesting and programming, as roles in a laser cutting service explains. Enclosure makers need door-gap and finish checks written into each role; see how cabinet makers write fit-and-finish checks into roles. Stainless shops must define polishing and site fitting carefully, covered in defining TIG and polishing roles in stainless work. For the chargehand's own role, read the working supervisor problem.

Pin each role's levels near its station. Use them when hiring, as the fabrication hiring guide shows, at the day-thirty review, and whenever someone asks for a retest. A description that is read every month is worth ten that sit in a file.