👕🔥New Drop: USA - CNC Mill Tee
Rep American manufacturing with this new Built By Machinists design. Featuring a CNC mill set against the Stars and Stripes, it’s a tribute to the trades that built this country — and the machinists keeping it strong today.
🧰 When 5S Goes Too Far
“I love it when 5S rears its ugly head and that stuff the boss told you to throw away is now desperately needed, but has been recycled into a beer can by now....”
That post hit a nerve in the MACHINIST Facebook group this week — thousands of likes, hundreds of comments, and a whole lot of machinists venting about the chaos that comes when corporate “organization” meets real-world manufacturing.
Turns out, most of us have a story about 5S gone wrong — and they’re usually expensive, frustrating, or hilarious (sometimes all three).
Here are a few of our favorites:
🏗️ “They put all the fixtures outside for 5S on a Friday… by Monday the homeless camp had cleaned us out. Needed them again a month later.”
💸 “We had to spend thousands remaking custom cutters that the 5S team threw away — for parts we already owned.”
⚙️ “5S is good for factories. Not tool shops.”
🧾 “Office: ‘Remember that job we did?’ Me: ‘Remember that tooling you threw out?’”
😤 “They made me label every drawer even though no one else runs my machine. Two hours of meetings later, we’re supposed to make up the time.”
💰 “We’ve thrown away over $250K in tools and material because of corporate 5S nonsense.”
🗑️ “5S means throw it out so you can buy it again.”
🧠 “Some Stupid Sht Somebody Said.”*
🫡 “Some Stupid Supervisor Said So.”
Seems like the only thing more consistent than a bad 5S rollout… is machinists having to fix the mess afterward.
