Facing Lathe

In most factories, what duties does a skilled machinist do that's different from a semi-skilled machine tool?

...operator? Don't they both work in production? Let's say in a typical car engine factory that employs skilled tradesmen called machinists, as well as semi-skilled guys who are called machine tool operators, what sort of differences are in their daily duties?

Public Comments

1. A skilled machinist plans and sets up the jobs, a machine tool operator follows the instructions of a skilled machinist. The skilled machinist is apt to be assigned new jobs on the completion of a previous job, the machine tool operator does the same thing over-and-over-and-over....
2. I think there's a chance that the skilled machinist will set up and program the machinery, trial it, check the results, then turn the machine over to the production machinist when he is sure it is operating correctly. He might also perform quality checks on the production while running. He might also be responsible for replacement and resetting of worn/ broken tooling during the run. The operator is just that. He might do basic checks on accuracy with gauges, but report anomalies to the skilled tradesman for rectification.