let me tell ya about our company's latest QC supervisor. We've gone through 4 of these since last Jan. They all started out ok, and then went stark raving mad before being fired or walking out, and this one is 3/4 of the way to being comitted to the looney bin already so . . . .
Here we have M, who looks like Mimi without the makeup, so I'll just call her that here. Another employee discovered she delivers newpapers to homes before work [car is stuffed to gills with papers and junk, making her look like a hoarder], and I noticed she does not do weekends, which will not sit well with the head of QC.
As well as working closely with management, I also work closely with QC because as trainer, I have to make sure I train myself on all the latest procedures, rejects, alerts, ect. so I will know what to train the OPs to do to reduce rejections. I read every job book every day, and if I see something that needs fixing, I ask QC to make those changes to the books. While other trainers or OPs either complain about the procedure, or do it their way, dispite what the books says, I've found if I simply state my case, and show QC what OPs should be doing to produce good parts, the procedural change usually gets put in the book that day. So I do know what the head of QC wants, and I think we'll be singing "Another one bites the dust" soon.
but until then, here's Mimi:
I saw a job set up that, upon reading the book, I noticed that one vital procedure had been left out of the instructions. If we do not do this prcedure, the parts will be bad and we will get a rejection. It won't run on my shift where I can instruct the OP to do it, so we must change the book to include this so if it starts on another shift, they will know to do it. So I tell Mimi. She says "Oh honey, I'm busy right now maybe later" I tell her if that job starts on 2nd or 3rd shift we will have bad parts, and I tell her what we need to do to insure that doesn't happen. I also tell her that the last time this ran, I told the last QC manager, and he didn't do it fast enough [it started up on another shift], and all the parts were rejected by the customer, so this should be a priority. She insists that she will do it tomorrow.
Luck was on our side, as the other shifts didn't have enough OPs to run it.
So finaly I get her to look at the sample parts the next day, and show her what we do to keep them in spec. She wants to make the Sup process that out. I have to tell her it's not a processable defect. As the material cools, it shrinks on one direction - laws of physics and all that. We're using the material the customer wants, and the fact is, it shrinks a bit. All we have to do is slightly bend the part flat before placing it on a cooling rack. She wants to think about it.
I got a QC tech to do it later while she was preoccupied with something else.
Thank goodness I am reasonable enough for others to see this was a priority.
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Among running an assembly machine myself, and sometimes an automatic press, and training people, and fixing things, I also make boxes, set up or fix job cells to S5 requirements, and give breaks. [yes, I am a bit hyper at work] That means I run their press while they go on break. One at a time. The breaks are 30 minutes each, so 5 of them means I will be tied up for 2 1/2 hours. If the cycle time affords, I often make boxes and do other jobs while running their press. Some jobs, I can't do anything but run the parts at hand, however.
So here I am, giving a break on press 4, and Mimi holds up a 2" tape gun and asks me for some tape. I tell her there is a tape gun on press 3 [next to me].
She holds up both tape guns and as if I didn't understand her, and she says
M: I want tape for this [empty] tape gun.
X [me]: Theres tape in that [other] gun, use it
M: where is the tape?
X: in the shipping dept
M: way over there?
X: Yep. just use the tape gun with tape in it [not that it matters, but the one with tape in it is a 3" tape gun]
M: but I want tape in this gun
X: then go to the shipping dept
M: but I don't want to walk way over there
X: then just use the gun with tape in it.
Even though I could get it for her, and then catch up any parts that are made while I am gone, I am already doing parts from another job inbetween parts from this one, and I do not want to indulge her folly.
She sulks off, comes back with 5 freakin rolls of tape, and places them on the OPs working table.
X: "Well you've now made this work cell non-compliant for S5" I say as I look at the pile of tape.
M: Can you put this with your stash?
X: I don't have a stash. I have one roll [it's the 3" and it's on a tiny table behind my assembly machine - people who need tape quickly, know it's there, and I check or replace that roll almost every morning]
M: Come on, you know you have a stash
X: I have ONE ROLL
M: Well, can't you find a place for it?
X: no
Later, when packing up my tools, to put them in my tool box, I see 4 FREAKIN rolls of 2" tape IN THE BACK OF MY TOOL box! Horrified, I removed them to place my tool bag in and lock up my tool box. I then take the freakin tape back to the shipping dept where it belongs. I am so mad that my personal space has been violated, I have to wait until I calm down before I say anything. Otherwise I may say something not nice.
She beat me. She came up to me, and elbowed me, and said "I found a place to stash that tape"
X: I saw that, and you can't keep it in my tool box.
M: Why not?
X: because it's my tool box. I lock it each night and there is no company property in it. Everything in it, on it, and including it, is mine, paid for by me.
M: Well can't I just keep some tape there?
X: No. No one is to go in my tool box.
M: mm, where else can I stash it? [looks around] what about there?
X: That's the stand that holds the computer that displays my test results, and everything under it is specific to this assembley machine. I can't have people comming here poking around and taking things I need to fix this machine.
M: It would just be me
X: people would see you, and then they'd come here and start taking stuff I need to run this assembly.
M: It wouldn't be that often
X: then just keep the tape where it belongs - in the shipping dept.
M: Where did you put that tape? [she wants to stash it there anyway]
X: in the shipping dept
M: Oh man . . .
Fortunately she is to lazy to go back there and get it. I sure as heck better not find that freakin tape stashed anywhere around my assembly!!!
What a time suck that woman is!
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and speaking of time, lets just see where her priorites are, shall we?
We had a rejection on a part that was sent out incomplete. In the biz, it's called a "short" So to make sure OPs pack complete parts, The Head of QC adds instructions for the OP to use a silver sharpie and make a "Witness mark" on the part in the area of the part that is sometimes short. This forces the OP to look there while making that mark, and it validates to the customer that we did indeed look there.
We have a lot of jobs utilising such witness marks, and some are for parts that require assembly, to insure that components have been installed the part.
Well, all these marks take time, and because we're a creative bunch, many things were made to keep the sharpie marker accessable, without having to waste time taking the cap off, and putting it back on each time. Some have made holders out of an empty roll of tape. Often the pen cap comes with it, and so many OPs end up holding the pen in their hand the whole time, which dries it out prematurely. I simply tape the pen cap to the edge of the table, or the pole that holds up the light, making it a one handed operation to grab pen, and put it back, keeping it from drying out. This works well, and all is good.
Here comes Mimi:
Hey x [me] I wonder if you could try something out for me?
I am doing something, but I'll bite, so I say "Sure"
M: I made this pen holder and . . .
X: Oh the one on press 12?
she thinks . . [cuz she obviously doesn't know all the press's numbers yet]
so I say "the press up front, right?"
M: Yeah I made this . . .
I say "holder, right? it seems to work just fine." [its a chunk of syrofoam with a hole in it for the pen, and she taped it to the table top kinda like the empty roll of tape thingy that already doesn't work after awhile because the hole becomes bigger with use, and soon the pen cap comes with it]
M: Great, Im going to make them for all the presses
X; Ok, but whats wrong with this one? I say as I pull a pen out of the cap I have taped to the pole on the table at the press I am running.
M: Every table doesn't have a pole
X: If it has a light, it has a pole
M: yeah but every table doesn't have a light
X: well it should. We have to see the parts, right?
M: Well does it keep the pen from drying out?
X: The job this is for, hasn't run in 3 days, so lets just see
I pull the pen out again, and write on the desk with it, and it writes just fine, proving that taping the pen cap to the pole or edge of the desk top is an excellent idea.
Umimpressed, she leaves, and later I find out from a QC tech that she is BUYING the damn things cuz she thinks we are going through too many pens.
Never mind that we just ran a job that has to be marked in 3 places, and another that has to be marked in 16 places, besides the 2 jobs we always run that only get marked in one, so yeah we went through a few pens in previous weeks. How does she know how many?
Well she has made herself the keeper of these pens. Yep with all she has to do, she has added "keeper of the pens" to her job description.
Now what she is buying I don't exactly know, but I do know one can dumpster dive for a chunk of foam, and get what she made for FREE. Or we can all just tape the freakin pen top to the edge of the table or light pole, and call life as we know it, good.
When the job changes and that stupid chunk of foam is there in the way of the next job [unlike the one I had on a pole while running a job that didn't need it] what do you think is going to happen to that "device"? I know. It's gonna get tossed in the garbage! LOL
So when press 12 [ground zero for her experiment] got changed over to another job, I run to see where that stupid chunk of foam is, and fell out laughing well I saw it TAPED TO THE EDGE OF THE TABLE. I picked up the pen, and the cap CAME WITH IT.
That stupid thing will be in the garbage before the ones she ordered come in.
Oh, and all this after Mimi made the push with the head of QC to have us use china markers instead. I can't even imagine that conversation, but the head of QC is much less patient than I am, so . . . .
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Another Mimi encounter:
Our heat quit at work when it was 20 degrees outside, and many people were wearing coats. I was giving breaks [running peoples machines while they go to lunch], and she caught me doing my 5th 30 minute break of the day. I was busy as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs, trying to squeeze in other stuff while doing this, so I could finish my own stuff and go home at a reasonable hour.
M: Aren't you cold?
X [me]: I ditched my coat back at press 8&9. [those parts are hot, and I had been running the 20 feet or so between the two to do both and break 2 OPs at once]
M: Oh, you're one of those people that like to show your skin
X: Huh?
M: Do you use a tanning booth?
X: [holding arms out in disbelief] why would I use a tanning booth?
M: Aren't you an exhibitionist?
X: uh, yeah. That's me.
[the only skin showing is my face and arms, not dark skinned, don't wear make up, wear jeans from salvation army, and leather work boots, but ok]
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So how about another Mimi story?
I think there oughta be a law that if we have to work on Sat, someone needs to bring doughnuts. After declaring it to be a law, nothing happened. So I began buying doughnuts on the way home from work, no matter how tired I am, and bringing them in Sat morning for everyone. I've probably been doing this for 6 months or more. Sometimes I take left overs home, and sometimes a person or two will ask if they can take some home. Sometimes, I save some for 2nd shift. As always, I am generous, and no one has ever seemed to be greedy about it.
Some lady on a message board posted a recipe for apple cider doughnuts, and I thought it would be cool to make them for work, but I did it on a weekday.
It took me 2 days to make them because I only have about an hour to do stuff each night.
So, predicting they'd be a hit, I made a quadruple batch of them. Made the dough one night, and fried them up the next night. Of course I rolled them in sugar and cinnamon till they were good and covered. In a minute you realise why I am telling you this.
I put them in the lunchroom, and warned everyone this was my first attempt at frying doughnuts. Everyone liked them.
Somewhere around noon, I was in the QC office, and Mimi [who had only been here a coupla weeks at that point] tells me they were too sweet, and that "once she scrapped off as much of the powdered sugar" that she could, she liked them.
Then she added that if there was any left at the end of the day, she could take them home with her, and give them to the deer that hang out her house.
I was shocked that, first of all, there was no powdered sugar. Then the audacity to selfishly take them all home with her, along with my tupperware containers probably, and finally feed her pet deer with them. I think I just said, oh, I'll keep it mind.
and boy did I. As soon as the last person finished their lunch, I ran into the lunchroom, and took the remaining doughnuts out to my car. I park in the back, and when I passed through the maintainance area, the QC tech was there, who had over heard Mimi tell me she wanted to take them. She was as flabbergasted as I was. I told her I was taking them home myself, and that just maybe I wanted to eat them, or feed my own deer. She told me that she couldn't believe that Mimi said that, and I said I was hoping she meant it nicer than it sounded. I mean does she have any idea how much work it is to make what 6 dozen doughnuts?
I got an idea.
Why don't I give her the recipe, and tell her she can make them for her deer!
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Mimi botched up another job book yesterday. It's a part that is pass/fail. There is nothing to do to it, but inspect it, and pack it if it's good, or scrap it if it has any defects including 'flash'. She wrote instructions that the operator is to flick off bits of flash with their fingernail. It also says not to use a knife. Knives are exactly what we use to trim parts.
I didn't find out she changed the book until this morning when I come in and there is a brand new OP on 3rd shift using a knife to trim. I potlitely told 3rd shift QC tech, and we both looked for the book, and found it had been put away before the job was finished. Another "no, no"
After reading it and questioning a few people, we found out the OP was using a knife because he has no fingernails.
Everything he did is scrap now, actually if it needed trimming, it was scrap before, plus wasted 8 hours of manpower that could have been doing something productive.
I could put up with her being odd, but she is pretty much a failure at QC Sup, so far. It seems she just makes stuff up, without any investigation or research on what the customer wants.
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Now for a quick note on Mimi:
She botched another job book, broke 2 digital gages, and mouthed off to a big wig yesterday, and I fear the stories will come to an end before this year does.
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Mimi has upped her game. I am sorry to say, she hasn't said anything stupid to me all last week, and has been correcting job books fairly quickly. That's a good thing, actually, and all I really wanted. When she does her job, it makes my job easier. Doesn't make for a good story, however. I'm sure there will be more stories. That kind of stupid doesn't just go away. There's plenty of silliness left in her, just waiting to come out. That perscription ain't gonna last forever ya know.
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Monday morning, I found out Mimi got fired last Fri. Bummer. No more Mimi stories.
There has gotta be one last Mimi story, but no ones talkin.
A whole lotta folks were dern happy about it. Was it a coincidence that I made doughnuts with my new Fry Daddy on Sunday, and brought them in? I dunno . . .
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