Swiss Rejuvenation Doubles Shop Productivity

When Emerging Leader Darrin Baker came on board at Liberty Precision Machining (New Berlin, Wisconsin) three years ago as a CNC Swiss machinist, there were seven Tsugami Swiss lathes and four legacy Swiss machines on the shop floor with a couple machinists operating them. But as he progressed to CNC Swiss lead and later to his current position as CNC Swiss production supervisor, Baker helped the department double its productivity, according to his nominator and CEO of the company, Bill Berrien.

Replacing legacy equipment (which ate up a lot of the machinists’ bandwidth with the need for constant repairs and lengthy setups), purchasing five new Tsugami CNC Swiss lathes and expanding the Swiss department to include the company’s Doosan TT lathes brought the department to a total of 15 machines with a much lower average machine age. 

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Baker has been a part of upskilling much of the Swiss department at Liberty. He says 90% of the department’s machinists have taken some form of upskilling courses, and if it takes into account ToolingU courses, that number is 100%. “Four of us have received Esprit CAM software training, some of us multiple iterations of that from basic to advanced Swiss training. I personally am taking leadership training through Living as a Leader, a Wisconsin company.”
Photo Credit: Liberty Precision Machining LLC

These changes, combined with hiring more machinists with experience, and with successful leadership from Baker and the 11 years of Swiss experience he brought to the department, it is now more efficient than ever before, providing more advanced manufacturing capabilities to its customers.

Offering a new energy to the department, Baker integrated some new ideas including staging jobs. He says doing this enables the department to stay ahead of schedule and save money by eliminating the need to place last-minute, overnight orders of cutting tools and other job components. The company also started pushing a heavy lights-out campaign, running 7 days a week with some jobs hitting 24-hours-a-day operation.

To fill needed positions on the CNC Swiss shop floor, Liberty upskilled some existing employees to operate the machines. The company, a sister company of Pindel Global Precision also located in New Berlin, implements the Pindel Professional Development Program of upskilling employees by offering on-the-job training to advance their careers within the company (read There’s No Downside to Upskilling).

Upskilling has played a large role in Liberty’s success. In fact, the rejuvenation of the CNC Swiss department could not have been possible without upskilling much of the department’s staff.

Baker tells the success story of a woman who went through the company’s upskilling program via the Swiss department. As a janitor who worked for a janitorial company that Liberty hired to clean the facility, this woman is now a CNC Swiss machinist on the shop floor. “She showed a knack that we noticed,” Baker explains. “She was constantly staying busy, was detail oriented and seemed like a solid person.”

Liberty gave her some brief training, sent her to the local technical college for a Swiss boot camp program lasting a few months, and now she is back and working on the shop floor, only this time, she is not cleaning it.

The added Swiss capabilities that are available due to upskilling has helped earned the company’s AS9100 certification, creating the opportunity for aerospace manufacturing.

Baker says, “Without the expertise, hard work and trust of my team, none of this would be possible.”

And, because he strives to help his co-workers grow, he is continually working to improve his leadership skills by attending leadership training courses.

According to Berrien, “Darrin truly embodies the mantra: ‘Accomplish the mission and take care of your people.’ And we couldn't be happier to have him as a leader at Liberty Precision.”