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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 and build one-off automation for a single customer's process. Every machine is new, so the people who can read a concept and make it work are few and hard to replace.
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Share your requirementsA special purpose machine builder takes a customer's problem, such as assembling a part, testing a product or feeding a line, and builds a machine for it. The flow runs from concept and design to machining of parts, fitting, electrical and control wiring, PLC and software, trial runs at the shop, then dismantling, shipping and commissioning at the customer's plant. No two jobs are the same, so there is little repeat work and few written procedures. A small group of design engineers, senior fitters and control engineers carries the knowledge. Orders arrive against a customer deadline and a payment milestone, and delays pile up at the trial stage. 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 depends on a few key people
- Trial runs overrun and the team works late
- Commissioning trips pull people away for weeks
- Design and shop floor blame each other
- Fitters learn by doing, with no clear grade
- Control engineers are courted by 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 design engineers
- Senior assembly fitters
- Machinists and turners
- Electrical panel wiremen
- PLC and control engineers
- Commissioning engineers
- Project coordinators
- Quality inspectors
- Stores and purchase staff
Where HR strains in special purpose machine builders
Each machine depends on a few key people
The designer who understood the customer's need and the fitter who solved the odd problem often hold knowledge that is written nowhere.
Trial runs overrun and the team works late
Fitting, wiring and software fixes all land in the last weeks before the customer's acceptance visit, so overtime and tempers rise together.
Commissioning trips pull people away for weeks
Engineers stay at the customer's plant far from home, and their pay, allowances and return to workshop work need clear rules.
Design and shop floor blame each other
Drawing changes after parts are cut cause rework, and fitters feel designers never see how the machine is actually put together.
Fitters learn by doing, with no clear grade
A helper becomes a fitter by watching for years, and pay rarely reflects who can build a sub-assembly alone.
Control engineers are courted by larger firms
PLC and automation people have many offers, and a builder with one or two of them 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.
Record what each machine taught the team
After each job, a short review by the designer, fitter and control engineer on what went wrong and what to do next time.
What this coversHide
Record what each machine taught the team
After each job, a short review by the designer, fitter and control engineer on what went wrong and what to do next time.
What this coversHideAfter each job, a short review by the designer, fitter and control engineer on what went wrong and what to do next time. See learning and development.
Grade fitters by what they can build alone
A scale from helper to senior fitter with the sub-assemblies expected at each step, tied to pay.
What this coversHide
Grade fitters by what they can build alone
A scale from helper to senior fitter with the sub-assemblies expected at each step, tied to pay.
What this coversHideA scale from helper to senior fitter with the sub-assemblies expected at each step, tied to pay. See compensation benchmarking.
Set rules for commissioning trips
Written allowances, travel days, rest on return and a named person to call at the shop.
What this coversHide
Set rules for commissioning trips
Written allowances, travel days, rest on return and a named person to call at the shop.
What this coversHideWritten allowances, travel days, rest on return and a named person to call at the shop. Clarity reduces disputes over each trip.
Plan the trial-stage peak
A project calendar shared by design, shop and control teams so overtime and extra hands are arranged before the crunch, not during it.
What this coversHide
Plan the trial-stage peak
A project calendar shared by design, shop and control teams so overtime and extra hands are arranged before the crunch, not during it.
What this coversHideA project calendar shared by design, shop and control teams so overtime and extra hands are arranged before the crunch, not during it. The workforce planning service supports this.
Hire control and design people early
Start the search before a project needs them, and keep a short list of candidates.
What this coversHide
Hire control and design people early
Start the search before a project needs them, and keep a short list of candidates.
What this coversHideStart the search before a project needs 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 now in progress and the one or two people each depends on.
- Ask your senior fitter which problems on the last machine were solved only by him or her.
- Count how many commissioning trips your engineers made last quarter and total the days away.
- Check how many drawing changes came after parts were already cut on your latest job.
- Confirm with a qualified professional the registration, record-keeping and employment obligations that apply to your special purpose machine builders business.
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
A habit of recording what each custom build taught, so knowledge sits in the team and not just 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
Give that person a clear grade, a visible career path and a say in project planning. Pay that matches the market matters, but so does being trusted with whole machines.
Pair the fitter with a junior on a real job and ask both to note the tricky steps. A short post-project review also turns scattered experience into written guidance.
A written scheme is better than case-by-case talks. Cover travel, stay and return rest, and check the details with a qualified professional.
Often because design changes, bought-out part delays and wiring faults meet 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 the people each depends on, review how a recent commissioning trip was handled and check where drawing changes caused rework. A practical first piece of work is a grading scheme for fitters and a post-project review habit. Scope is agreed in writing afterwards.
More on HR for manufacturing
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