Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Dear AT and T

The crew you had laying the new fiber optic cable today cut through the old one.

Of the 10 or so on the crew none could speak English.

They tried to fix the old fiber optic cable by peeling back the cover, twisting the strands together and taping it.

You have the worst customer service in America but you don't care because we just buy your products anyway.

At some point this will all catch up with you.

Friday, March 25, 2016

What drives an ISO auditor crazy...

There are abundant work instructions all nasty and greasy on a row of welders... But no one has a complete set. No work instruction for machine #1.

"Where is the work instruction for that part?'

The quality manager says "oh, it's on the line somewhere. Maybe at another machine. The official version is in the computer anyway."

"Then why do you bother to laminate some of them, and hang them up out there?"

"Well the engineer is from a well-known Asian country and he is used to it."

"And does it bother him that they are not complete?"

"He does not know the difference. Anyway that is not his responsibility"

"And do you not find it difficult to get your workers to pay ANY attention to ANY instructions? "

"No they have all been here for years. If we want to do something different we just tell them.'

" and so why don't you just take them all down? They are filthy and cluttering up the place."

"The Asians"

"So what if there are some obsolete ones?"

" we try to take the obsolete ones out"

"So these things are for decorative purposes. "

"Basically"

"So is there any impact on quality from all of this?"

"No. In fact 90 percent of our customer complaints have disappeared since they announced the closing. "

"Closing?"

"They are closing the plant. Model year phase out and they don't feel like spending the maintenance budget to bring in new models".

Me (thinking): " maybe, just maybe bad housekeeping or resistance to manufacturing discipline...or spending a lot of overhead money on work instructions that are ignored... Is not a good thing...

Sunday, March 20, 2016

Dear Detroit

Thanks for letting me visit without incident yesterday. I made it up Gratiot and down 8 mile without seeing either Eminem or Diana Ross or being held up by zombies.

I suppose there is plenty of whining about how you got into the condition you are in. I go into chaotic places all the time, and the root cause of most organizational decline, whether it be a civilization, a city, or a little machine shop is that you stubbornly expected to be able do the same things that originally made you successful forever. We know how that worked.

So now what? Why does it not get better? The lone answer is: you tolerate mediocrity.  Your citizens are so beaten down that they accept their community being the way it is.

Sorry I can't be more helpful. I do have a suggestion though. Come up with some measurements of effectiveness, and set up programs to improve. Determine what needs to be done, by when, assign accountability, dedicate resources to improvement (rather than stadiums) and do not take "we can't" for an answer. Do not expect the rest of us to solve your problems. Expect commitment  from everybody.  Audit yourself occasionally.

Sound familiar?

http://all-that-is-interesting.com/abandoned-detroit-photos

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Pizza Recall

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/wcm/connect/FSIS-Content/internet/main/topics/recalls-and-public-health-alerts/recall-case-archive/archive/2016/recall-024-2016-release

To you and me, five truckloads of screwed up pizza is a lot, but in the grand immensity of the mass produced and distributed food industry it is not even a blip on the radar...

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Rental Karma

The service road into the rental car lot here in Houston is not well marked and I found myself in the middle lane needing to turn right.

I signalled in plenty of time for the two cars in back of me to see what I was doing. The closest, an idiot in a silver van, accelerated to get into my blind spot and cut me off. The second, little car of some kind, courteously slowed to let me in.

All three of us pulled in to the rental car lot. The van was forced into a long line at the check-in, but the little car and I were guided into the front of a new row, right in front of the escalator.

I approached the driver of the little car, an athletic young female. "Thank you for courteously waiting for me to change lanes" I said. She smiled and said "I had to get in that Lane myself".

" Your reward for being polite is that not only do you get to check your car in before that guy who rudely cut me off to save two seconds, but you get a shorter walk with your bag."

"Karma" she said.

"Yep. The universe  is in alignment" I responded.