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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.
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Industrial Machinery and Equipment · Special Purpose Machine Builders
HR for Special Purpose Machine Builders: Custom Designs, Fitters and Commissioning
Special purpose machine builders design one-off automation for a single customer's process. Every machine is new, so the few who can turn a concept sketch into a running machine are hard to replace.
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Share your requirementsA special purpose machine builder takes a customer's problem, such as assembling a part, leak-testing a product or feeding a line, and builds a machine for it. Work moves from concept sketch and 3D design to machining, fitting, panel wiring, PLC programming and trial runs on the shop floor. Then the machine is dismantled, shipped and recommissioned at the customer's plant. No two jobs match, so repeat work is rare and written procedures few. A small group of designers, senior fitters and control engineers carries the know-how. Each order ties to an acceptance date and a payment milestone, and delays pile up at trials. See also HR for manufacturing.
- Plan
- Hire
- Onboard
- Manage
- Develop
- Perform
- Engage
- Retain
- Exit
- Improve
When HR is weak in special purpose machine builders, you may see
- Each machine hangs on a few people
- Trials overrun and the team works nights
- Commissioning trips pull engineers away for weeks
- Design and shop floor blame each other
- Fitters learn by years of watching, with no grade
- Control engineers get calls from larger firms
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 special purpose machine builders
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.
- Concept and 3D design engineers
- Senior assembly fitters
- Machinists and turners
- Control panel wiremen
- PLC and HMI programmers
- Commissioning engineers
- Project coordinators
- Inspection and trial-run staff
- Stores and bought-out part buyers
Where HR strains in special purpose machine builders
Each machine hangs on a few people
The designer who understood the customer's need and the fitter who solved the odd alignment often hold what no drawing shows.
Trials overrun and the team works nights
Mechanical fixes, rewiring and software changes all land in the final weeks before the customer's acceptance visit, so overtime and tempers rise together.
Commissioning trips pull engineers away for weeks
They stay at the customer's plant far from home, so allowances, travel days and the return to workshop duty need written rules.
Design and shop floor blame each other
Drawing changes after parts are cut mean rework, and fitters feel designers never see how the machine is really put together.
Fitters learn by years of watching, with no grade
A helper becomes a fitter by observation, and pay seldom shows who can build a sub-assembly unaided.
Control engineers get calls from larger firms
PLC and automation people field many offers, and a builder with only one or two can stall a project if either resigns.
HR topics for special purpose machine builders
Start with the topics that matter most here: Retention and Attrition Management; Learning and Development; Compensation, Payroll and Benefits. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for manufacturing, not in general.
Retention and Attrition Management
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
Learning and Development
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Compensation, Payroll and Benefits
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
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.
Performance Management
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
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.
Health, Safety and Wellbeing
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
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 special purpose machine builders business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Hold a lessons review after every machine
The designer, a fitter and the control engineer note what went wrong and what to try next time.
What this coversHide
Hold a lessons review after every machine
The designer, a fitter and the control engineer note what went wrong and what to try next time.
What this coversHideThe designer, a fitter and the control engineer note what went wrong and what to try next time. See learning and development.
Grade fitters by what they build unaided
A scale from helper to senior fitter lists the sub-assemblies expected at each step and ties them to pay.
What this coversHide
Grade fitters by what they build unaided
A scale from helper to senior fitter lists the sub-assemblies expected at each step and ties them to pay.
What this coversHideA scale from helper to senior fitter lists the sub-assemblies expected at each step and ties them to pay. See compensation benchmarking.
Write down the rules for site trips
Allowances, travel days, rest on return and a named person to call at the shop are fixed in advance, so each trip needs no fresh argument.
What this coversHide
Write down the rules for site trips
Allowances, travel days, rest on return and a named person to call at the shop are fixed in advance, so each trip needs no fresh argument.
What this coversHideAllowances, travel days, rest on return and a named person to call at the shop are fixed in advance, so each trip needs no fresh argument.
Plan the trial-stage crunch early
One project calendar shared by design, shop and control teams lets you book overtime and extra hands before the crunch.
What this coversHide
Plan the trial-stage crunch early
One project calendar shared by design, shop and control teams lets you book overtime and extra hands before the crunch.
What this coversHideOne project calendar shared by design, shop and control teams lets you book overtime and extra hands before the crunch. The workforce planning service supports this.
Search for control and design people ahead of need
Begin before a project calls for them and keep a short list of candidates.
What this coversHide
Search for control and design people ahead of need
Begin before a project calls for them and keep a short list of candidates.
What this coversHideBegin before a project calls for them and keep a short list of candidates. See recruitment process consulting.
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- List the machines in progress and the one or two people each depends on.
- Ask your senior fitter which problems on the last machine only he or she could solve.
- Total the commissioning trips made last quarter and the days engineers spent away.
- Check how many drawing changes arrived after parts were already machined on your latest job.
- Confirm with a qualified professional the registration, record-keeping and employment duties that govern a custom automation workshop like yours.
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.
- Learning and development
Recording what each custom build taught, so knowledge sits in the team and not in two heads.
- Compensation benchmarking
Fitter and control engineer pay set against nearby builders, so key people see a reason to stay.
- Recruitment process consulting
A hiring process for design and PLC engineers that starts before the project needs them.
- HR strategy and workforce planning
A project-led view of who is needed when, so trial-stage peaks are planned.
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
How to recognise and address employee workload problems
How to spot an unmanageable workload before it becomes an exit or an error, what to look at, how to talk about it and what to change, without guessing.
5 min readRead article
HR Process
The training calendar nobody attends: fixing the learning and development process
A calendar of courses, a budget spent by March and no record of what any of it changed. What a learning and development process contains when it starts from need rather than from the catalogue.
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 articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Questions owners ask
Offer a clear grade, a visible career path and a say in project planning. Market pay matters, but so does being trusted with whole machines.
Pair the fitter with a junior on a live job and have both note the tricky steps. A short review at project close turns scattered experience into written guidance.
A written scheme beats case-by-case bargaining. Cover travel, stay and rest on return, and check the details with a qualified professional.
Often design changes, bought-out part delays and wiring faults collide in the same fortnight. A shared calendar and earlier hand-offs between teams help.
Many builders do. Brief them well, keep drawings in your own system and record what they hand over. Check the engagement terms with a qualified professional.
We would list your live machines and who each depends on, review how a recent commissioning trip was handled and see where drawing changes caused rework. A practical first piece of work is a fitter grading scheme and a project-close review habit. Scope is then written down for you to approve.
More on HR for manufacturing
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