Industries
Why manufacturing employees leave and how to understand why
Operators, technicians and supervisors leave for reasons that sit in shifts, skills and supervision. How to ask, read the pattern by shift and act on it.
6 min readRead article
Forging and Metal Forming · Deep Drawing Units
HR for Deep Drawing Units: Presses, Blanks, Dies and Surface Finish
Deep drawing units press sheet blanks into cups, vessels and shells for cookware, tanks and auto parts. Cracks and wrinkles show within seconds, but finding their cause takes longer, and the operator takes the blame.
Not sure what you need? Tell us about your business in six short steps and we will come to the first meeting prepared.
Share your requirementsA deep drawing unit presses flat sheet blanks into cups, shells and containers on hydraulic or mechanical presses through a series of dies. Blanks are cut or bought, coated with drawing oil, drawn, redrawn, trimmed and annealed between draws where needed, then cleaned and checked. Output goes to cookware, container, auto and appliance buyers. Quality depends on blank size, lubricant, die wear and press speed, and defects such as cracks, wrinkles and scratches show up at once. Heavy dies must be lifted and aligned by setters. Operators often work in pairs, one feeding and one removing, and the work is noisy and repetitive. For the wider sector, read HR for manufacturing.
- Plan
- Hire
- Onboard
- Manage
- Develop
- Perform
- Engage
- Retain
- Exit
- Improve
When HR is weak in deep drawing units, you may see
- Press hands risk serious hand injury
- Die setters are the scarce skill
- Defects are pinned on the operator
- Blank and oil handling is casual
- Repetitive work dulls attention
- Annealing and trimming sit out of sight
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
Who does the work in deep drawing units
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
- Press operators and feeders
- Die setters
- Blank cutting and shearing staff
- Drawing oil and cleaning attendants
- Annealing furnace operators
- Trimming and edge finishing staff
- Surface and size inspectors
- Press shop supervisors
Where HR strains in deep drawing units
Press hands risk serious hand injury
Feeding and removing blanks beside a moving die is a daily danger, and small shortcuts around guards cause lasting harm.
Die setters are the scarce skill
Lifting, aligning and trialling a die takes judgement, and the best setters are lured away for a small pay difference.
Defects are pinned on the operator
A crack may come from the blank, the oil or die wear, yet the person at the press takes the criticism.
Blank and oil handling is casual
Dirty blanks and uneven drawing oil cause scratches and tears, and the helpers who do this get little training.
Repetitive work dulls attention
Long runs of one part lead to inattention, and a pace pushed to meet output raises both errors and injuries.
Annealing and trimming sit out of sight
Furnace and trimming staff are left alone, and faults there come out late as batch problems.
HR topics for deep drawing units
Start with the topics that matter most here: Health, Safety and Wellbeing; Compensation, Payroll and Benefits; Performance Management. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for manufacturing, not in general.
Health, Safety and Wellbeing
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Compensation, Payroll and Benefits
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Performance Management
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
HR Strategy and Workforce Planning
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Organisation Design
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
Recruitment and Talent Acquisition
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
Onboarding and Probation
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Employee Administration
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Learning and Development
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Career and Succession Management
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Employee Engagement and Experience
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Employee Relations
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
Policies, Compliance and Governance
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
Retention and Attrition Management
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
Exit and Alumni Management
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
HR Technology and Automation
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
HR Analytics and Management Reporting
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
HR Operations and Governance
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
What a working HR set-up looks like
The pieces a deep drawing units business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Open every shift with a press safety talk
Two minutes at shift start on guards, two-hand controls and a firm rule never to reach into the die area.
What this coversHide
Open every shift with a press safety talk
Two minutes at shift start on guards, two-hand controls and a firm rule never to reach into the die area.
What this coversHideTwo minutes at shift start on guards, two-hand controls and a firm rule never to reach into the die area. See workplace health, safety and wellbeing.
Give die setters a grade and a pay step
A scale from assistant to senior setter based on die size and difficulty.
What this coversHide
Give die setters a grade and a pay step
A scale from assistant to senior setter based on die size and difficulty.
What this coversHideA scale from assistant to senior setter based on die size and difficulty. Use compensation benchmarking.
Trace each defect to its cause first
A short defect sheet listing blank, oil, die and operator, reviewed with the crew as part of performance management.
What this coversHide
Trace each defect to its cause first
A short defect sheet listing blank, oil, die and operator, reviewed with the crew as part of performance management.
What this coversHideA short defect sheet listing blank, oil, die and operator, reviewed with the crew as part of performance management.
Train helpers on blank and oil handling
A one-page routine for cleaning, storing and applying, checked by the supervisor, with a short onboarding for newcomers.
What this coversHide
Train helpers on blank and oil handling
A one-page routine for cleaning, storing and applying, checked by the supervisor, with a short onboarding for newcomers.
What this coversHideA one-page routine for cleaning, storing and applying, checked by the supervisor, with a short onboarding for newcomers.
Rotate press crews across parts
Changing task and pace through the week eases boredom, with extra care in the first hour of a new part.
What this coversHide
Rotate press crews across parts
Changing task and pace through the week eases boredom, with extra care in the first hour of a new part.
What this coversHideChanging task and pace through the week eases boredom, with extra care in the first hour of a new part.
Start by checking where you stand
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These checks take an afternoon and tell you which of the topics above to start with.
Share your requirements- Walk the press floor and note any guard that is bypassed or removed.
- List the die setters and mark how many can set the largest dies without help.
- Take the last ten defect reports and count how many name a cause other than the operator.
- Ask the helper who handles blanks what training he was given.
- Count the hours one operator spends on the same part in a week.
- Confirm with a qualified professional the factory-registration, press-safety, record-keeping and employment rules that bind your press shop.
Confirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
How GullyHR helps
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
- Workplace health, safety and wellbeing
Press safety habits and hand protection routines for crews working beside moving dies.
- Compensation benchmarking
Pay steps for die setters set against nearby press shops, so the best stay.
- Performance management
A fair defect review that checks blank, oil and die before it checks the operator.
- Employee onboarding process
A short, clear induction for helpers on blanks, drawing oil and press safety.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Our HR transformation approach
- 1
Assess
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
- 2
Identify gaps
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
- 3
Design
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
- 4
Implement
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
- 5
Automate
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
- 6
Measure
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
- 7
Improve
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
Blogs worth reading first
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in manufacturing, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
HR Management
The safety poster nobody reads
A laminated notice, an annual drill, and an incident register with three entries in two years. What workplace health and safety looks like when it is real.
7 min readRead article
HR Management
Salary bands for SMEs: building grades when you have never had any
Most salary structures grew one negotiation at a time. How to build grades and bands from what you already pay, without repricing everybody at once.
8 min readRead article
HR Management
Why employees need clear expectations before performance reviews
A review can only judge what was agreed beforehand. How to set expectations that are specific, written and revisited, so the review stops being a surprise.
5 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Questions owners ask
Make guards non-negotiable, open every shift with a talk, and have supervisors check guards daily. Never let output pressure justify removing one.
Recognise the skill with a grade, a pay step for large and difficult dies and a say in choosing tooling. Setters leave when they feel interchangeable.
Often the blank, the oil or the die, not the operator. A cause sheet reviewed with the crew gives fair answers and better learning.
A short induction on press safety, blank handling and drawing oil, then a week beside an experienced hand. Check what they understood on day three.
Rotate operators across parts and roles during the week and honour rest breaks. Fatigue is a safety issue, not just a morale one.
We would watch press safety habits, ask who can set the largest dies alone, and see how defects are traced beyond the operator. A die setter grade scale with a shift-start safety talk is a good opening job. We then write the scope down for your approval.
More on HR for manufacturing
All 6 business types in forging and metal forming · Find another business type