CNC plasma tables cut plate for fabricators, machine builders and structural shops. This page covers table operators, programmers, fume and arc hazards, and the pressure of quick turnaround orders.
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Share your requirementsA plasma cutting company takes steel and aluminium plate and cuts shapes from drawings. A programmer nests parts on the sheet, an operator sets the plate, torch height and gas, and helpers load, unload, sort and deburr the cut parts. Customers are mostly fabricators who want parts the next day, so tables often run two shifts. The work brings arc glare, noise, fumes, hot slag and heavy plate movement by crane or forklift. A good operator knows when a cut looks wrong and saves the plate; a poor one wastes expensive sheet. Related reading: HR for manufacturing.
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
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.
GullyHR runs talent acquisition for permanent roles in plasma cutting companies. For each role we agree the job description with you, find and screen candidates against it, and support the offer through to joining. Tell us the role and the number of people, and we start there.
We recruit permanent employees. We do not supply contract or temporary staff.
Every business interviews, but few have a written process that works the same way for every role and every interviewer. GullyHR designs yours, from the role brief to the offer, trains your managers to run it, and can run it for you on the roles you hand us.
We agree what the role must deliver, the must-have and nice-to-have skills, and how each will be scored.
Screening call, assessment, interview rounds and decision points, sized to the role and the number of people you hire.
Structured questions for each role family and a rating guide, so two interviewers judge the same answer the same way.
A short briefing for your managers on what to ask, what to avoid and how to give a clear yes or no.
Who approves, how the offer is made, and how candidates are kept informed from first call to joining.
Torch height, consumable wear and gas settings affect edge quality, and the difference between operators shows in scrap bins.
Nesting knowledge and customer part libraries sit on one or two computers and in two heads.
Eyes, lungs and hearing suffer where extraction and protective gear are poor, and complaints build over months.
Plate is moved by crane, chain and hand, and unsafe slinging or stacking shows up as near misses.
A customer's rush job extends shifts, and tired workers are left to run torches late at night.
New helpers are sent to the table with a few words of advice and a nod, and learn by mistakes.
Poor sorting and tagging of cut parts sends the wrong item to the wrong job, and blame lands on the nearest helper.
A fabricator may offer a seasoned operator a steadier job, and the cutting shop loses its best hand.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Learning and Development; Health, Safety and Wellbeing; Career and Succession Management. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for manufacturing, not in general.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
The pieces a plasma cutting companies business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
A short ladder from helper to junior operator to senior operator, with practical checks on settings, consumable changes and edge quality.
A short ladder from helper to junior operator to senior operator, with practical checks on settings, consumable changes and edge quality. See the learning and development process.
A shared folder of nests, customer part libraries and setup notes, with a second person trained to run them.
A shared folder of nests, customer part libraries and setup notes, with a second person trained to run them. See HR documentation.
Fitted respirators, eye and ear protection, checked extraction and a clear way to report symptoms.
Fitted respirators, eye and ear protection, checked extraction and a clear way to report symptoms. See health, safety and wellbeing.
Slinging, stacking and moving rules written for each crane and forklift user, with who is authorised to operate them recorded.
Slinging, stacking and moving rules written for each crane and forklift user, with who is authorised to operate them recorded.
A roster with rest limits, overtime records and a cap on consecutive late nights.
A roster with rest limits, overtime records and a cap on consecutive late nights. The attendance and shift process covers this.
A tag, a bin and a sign-off at every table, so a wrong part is traced to the stage where it occurred.
A tag, a bin and a sign-off at every table, so a wrong part is traced to the stage where it occurred.
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 requirementsConfirm 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.
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.
A ladder from helper to senior operator with practical sign-offs.
Fume, arc, noise and plate-handling routines with records of who was trained.
Rosters and overtime limits that keep tired operators away from the torch.
A view of what skilled operators and programmers earn at nearby shops and fabricators.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in manufacturing, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
Why the best operator often struggles as shift supervisor, what it costs the line, and a practical way to choose, prepare and back new supervisors in any kind of plant.
7 min readRead article
A founder's guide to hiring freshers and running a first-year programme: campus or open drives, a screening round, a training plan by quarter, mentors and checkpoints.
6 min readRead article
A shift, weekly and monthly safety routine for rubber plants that names who checks platen guards, mill trip bars, autoclave doors, burst-test cages and slings, and who acts on near misses.
7 min readRead article
A two-hour exercise that names the roles you could not fill quickly, who could cover them, and what readiness would actually require.
7 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Train on torch height, consumables and settings, check edge quality early in each job and review scrap by operator without blame. Wastage falls when people see their own numbers.
Give clear responsibility, fair pay and a trained backup so leave is possible. Store nests and libraries in a shared place so the shop does not depend on one machine.
Fitted eye, ear and respiratory protection as a minimum, plus extraction. Ask a qualified professional what your premises must provide.
Only if trained and authorised in writing, and as the rules allow. Confirm requirements with a qualified professional.
Plan overtime ahead, set rest limits, rotate late nights and price rush work so it covers the extra cost.
We would ask how operators are trained, who holds programming knowledge and what safety records exist. A good first job is an operator skills ladder. After a first talk, scope and fee are put in writing.
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