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I cringe when i hear other mechs' stories of questionable workmanship. But a whole goddamn production line of it?
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May 6, 2015 18:25
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We have a good situation where I work. Our product is inspected right after they're sintered, but only for a certain number of defects. By the time they reach my department, a lot of other defects can potentially have been introduced (grinding errors etc). After me they're coated and then inspected. Now here comes the good part; if the post-coating inspection finds defects, the product is returned to the previous operation (me), and all defects are considered "my" fault. My department doesn't do any grinding, no polishing. But if the parts aren't polished, and I send them on, the rejections fall on my department, because I'm supposed to do a running inspection during production. Never mind that ALL departments are supposed to do this, if the parts are coated they can't be regrinded or repolished, and then it becomes "my" defect for passing them on. To get a sense of scale here, I personally handle about 10-20 thousand parts, for a final market value of about $189-378k, per 8 hour work day.
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May 6, 2015 18:30
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Nidhg00670000 posted:We have a good situation where I work. Our product is inspected right after they're sintered, but only for a certain number of defects. By the time they reach my department, a lot of other defects can potentially have been introduced (grinding errors etc). After me they're coated and then inspected. Sintered, y'say? What do you mean, friction parts like brakes and clutches?
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May 6, 2015 18:34
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Mooseykins posted:Sintered, y'say? What do you mean, friction parts like brakes and clutches? Most likely small brakes for powersport or things on tiers of scale under automotive. EBC?
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May 7, 2015 05:58
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Rather not say, sorry. Our products are used in the manufacturing of everything from brake calipers to jet engines.
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May 7, 2015 18:47
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My wife works in quality for a plastic factory that makes parts for most major automakers. The stories I hear are hilarious and I wouldn't touch any of them. Granted, these are mostly minor cosmetic pieces (though a few intake manifolds and trunk latch parts as well) but it's pretty appalling even today what poo poo goes down often. I worked for a global manufacturer of hitches, and it was nearly as bad. Though our product was way over-engineered, some of the hand-waving that happened on minor things was pretty hilarious. And dealing with engineers from GM, Chrysler, Ford, Toyota, and others on a daily basis, and realizing that these people are engineering the majority of the stuff that is on the road... yeah. And where I work now? A major manufacturer of vehicles. Any problems? Well, let's just say this came across my email this morning on a vehicle about to release: quote:It has found that when the key is used to start the unit and the key is turned off if the key moves into the accessory position the unit stays running. 
CornHolio fucked around with this message at 18:56 on May 7, 2015 |
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May 7, 2015 18:52
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My workplace is so disorganized that I've often joked that if we made a physical product we'd be out of business overnight. I'm not so sure about that now...
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May 7, 2015 20:46
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1500quidporsche posted:My workplace is so disorganized that I've often joked that if we made a physical product we'd be out of business overnight. I'm pretty sure this poo poo occurs in all industries or businesses, which is a really depressing thought. I do software for an industry leader that is known for making hardware (although they do a lot of other stuff like research and licensing). I often wonder how our products actually work. It seems like it wouldn't be all that hard to "do it right" and become the new industry leader.
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May 7, 2015 22:35
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Mooseykins posted:Sintered, y'say? What do you mean, friction parts like brakes and clutches? Lots of different things are sintered nowadays, like tungsten carbide machining tools.
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May 7, 2015 22:49
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Brigdh posted:I'm pretty sure this poo poo occurs in all industries or businesses, which is a really depressing thought. I do software for an industry leader that is known for making hardware (although they do a lot of other stuff like research and licensing). I often wonder how our products actually work. It seems like it wouldn't be all that hard to "do it right" and become the new industry leader. Big business is full of middle management. Its like politics, once your at the spot that you want, your entire existence is based on just trying to keep your job. So you try to keep yourself looking as busy/keep production/etc so that way they don't question your job.
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May 7, 2015 23:53
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DethMarine21 posted:Lots of different things are sintered nowadays, like tungsten carbide machining tools. Yup. I've seen a ton of sintered metal precision ground metal parts where I work. If the application is right, they offer an amazing price, to strength, to wear resistance ratio. Sadi fucked around with this message at 02:43 on May 8, 2015 |
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May 8, 2015 01:45
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 Does this belong here? I think this belongs here. Seems to fit the thread.
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May 8, 2015 09:28
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I am anxiously awaiting more, this is great.
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May 8, 2015 13:12
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Vanagoon posted:
I wish they still sold that t-shirt.
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May 8, 2015 14:33
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I heard of a few supplier horror stories. This is from a small truck manufacturer, who sometimes builds specialty vehicles for the big automakers. One was a electrical supplier who fulfilled a resupply of body harnesses, all of which were keyed wrong. The wiring loom was correct but someone goofed on the pin insertion on the plugs. That took a few dealership techs to figure out something was up when 2 or 3 re-orders of the same part had the same "defect". Engineering at the plant went into storage and pulled all the wire looms and sure enough they were all keyed wrong. No one bothered to check on delivery and just assumed they would work. The same company used a frame rail supplier in... Venezuela of all places. Which worked out well until the mid 00's. Before then they saved a ton of money, until they got a few thousand units in of bad rails. How bad? The left and right frame rails were largely identical except the driver side had a few additional holes and a few bosses welded in to support the steering gear mount. Someone at the plant figured they could just take a large batch of passenger side rails and just bend them to left side specifications and be done with them. The factory received them stateside and rejected the lot, and Venezuela told them to pound sand and it wasn't their problem, send another order and they'll do another batch. At that point the frame production was moved stateside, although at an almost 8x cost increase. I guess you get what you pay for.. sometimes. The funny part was the rejected rails wound up in some aftermarket supply chain, and you see guys getting them from yards or ebay and wondering WTF when they try to install them. I guess someone at some point rubbed off the "bad" wax marker writing that was on them. Because of that fiasco, that plant started destroying all rejected/bad parts as they didn't want them to end up back on trucks later on due to liability issues. Good times.
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May 8, 2015 22:05
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Big K of Justice posted:...No one bothered to check on delivery and just assumed they would work... This is why I *ALWAYS* check anything we have subcontracted. No matter how good a supplier may have been in the past, you can't guarantee that will continue, or things won't change at the company in question. Bad parts getting back into the supply chain is not uncommon in a lot of industries. It's such a problem for aircraft manufacturers that the AS9100 standard, which pretty much all aircraft OEMS insist their suppliers to be certified to, requires destruction of nonconforming product. As you can imagine, it's a bit more of a problem if a botched or improperly repaired part ends up in an aircraft than a truck.
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May 8, 2015 22:35
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 Anxiously awaiting the next episode of "As The Plant Turns".
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May 8, 2015 22:37
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Explains why my new truck is in worse shape than the truck they forced me to retire.
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May 8, 2015 22:37
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Man the old machine shop I worked for would never tolerate rejects like that, but we had tiny batch sizes. Since it is now factorytalk I have a couple little stories I now work in a major woodmill. I remeber a log went through our main vertical bansaws and made a very loud noise, multiple people got on the radio telling the operator to hold up. He replied "YOLO" and ran another log through and snapped the #1 saw in half, wiping out a saw guide mount and watering system. Got a 1 hour lunch while it was being repaired. Another time there was a group of highschoolers getting a tour. Our gangsaw had a fault on it and cant (this one was about 6"x16"x10') wouldn't pass through the chipping sideheads. the operator was fiddling with it for 5 minutes while the kids watched from the catwalk above the sawbox. He overrode the faults, forced it though the misaligned heads which caused the cant to whip around in the heads, slam into the side of thr sawbox and shake the the whole thing. It went into the saws at a steep angle which forced the roundsaws into the metal saw guides with a ear-piercing shriek. Naturally the cant got stuck in the saws which started 'cooking' finishing the performance with a big cloud of woodsmoke as the machine went into emergency shutdown. Our manager couldn't get those kids off the floor fast enough
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May 10, 2015 06:59
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I apologize about not posting anything recently. My father had a stroke and I've had a lot on my plate the past few days. I'll have a double post tonight to make up for the time I've been gone.
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May 11, 2015 18:18
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Devyl posted:I apologize about not posting anything recently. My father had a stroke and I've had a lot on my plate the past few days. I'll have a double post tonight to make up for the time I've been gone. Sorry to hear about your dad, Devyl. Don't feel like you have to rush back!
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May 11, 2015 18:20
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Take your time man. Hope he comes through it OK 
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May 11, 2015 18:20
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Heard in this morning's engineering meeting: "The body is only 1/4" out of square? That's pretty good!" We're the modern Leyland. Sometimes our vehicles are an inch or two longer on one side. 
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May 11, 2015 21:39
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Apologies again. I've been on the road a lot visiting family and dealing with my dads' medical issues, so I haven't had much time to sit down; let alone type. A few days later. The bedroom is dark and the air is cold. I'm heavily asleep due to some imbibing on some of Kentucky's finest home-made whiskey. Asking Alexandria suddenly blares from my phone at eight in the morning. I stir from my almost comatose state and stumble with my phone. I look at the screen and while hazy, I'm able to make out Melissa's cellphone number. I try to answer. Swipe. gently caress. Swipe. God-damnit, fingers; work! Swipe. The call connects. Don't sound drunk don't sound drunk don't sound drunk "Hello?" A voice sounding way to chipper to be up this early answers. "HEEEEEeeeeeeeeey! It's Melissa! Look Devyl, I wanted to apologize about Kelly. She's not the smartest if you catch my drift, and I think you'd do way better on second shift. Matter of fact, we just got an opening! Do you think you could come in today? A little early so I can introduce you to everyone? Say about 1:30 in the evening?" I pause to think. It's a Friday. I'll have the weekend off. Yeah. You can do this. "Sure thing. I'll be there. I'll meet you at the cafeteria." "OK greeeeeeeaaaat! I'll see you then!" It's way too early for THAT poo poo. I hang up. I look at the phone and sigh. It's eight in the morning. I clumsily set an alarm for noon and promptly resume my alcohol-induced slumber. Avatar. Smells like a freak show. Heavily distorted power chords pierce the silence of the room. I wake up. Still groggy. I look over at my girlfriend. Still passed out. She could sleep through a tornado. I sit up and my head spins. Maybe all that whiskey wasn't such a good idea... I collect my bearings and slowly rise up. I turn on the shower. Steam rises from behind the glass shower door. I get in, clean up, towel off. Grab some work clothes and get dressed. I look at the clock on my phone. 12:30. I have an hour to become human again. I step out onto my back deck. I sit in the sunlight. I take a deep breath. Fresh cut grass. Then the loud sound of a high horsepower car running a quarter mile breaks the silence. then another. And another. Beech Bend track must be running today. I show up at the factory gate. Mister Mustache is at the window again. I slowly roll up and tell him my name. He flips the the white sheets of paper on his metal clipboard. I bet that because he has that metal clipboard he thinks he's a badass. I know I would. He looks at me and nods. "Have a good day!" I nod and find a parking spot. I look at my phone. 1:25. Perfect timing. I go into the cafeteria and get a diet Mountain Dew from one of the vending machines. And then I wait for Melissa at a table right outside. I light up a cigarette. I smoke the entire cigarette. It's 1:40 and I've yet to see Melissa. I go inside, wash my hands, and grab a chair to wait. And wait. And wait. 2:00 flashes on the large LED clock in front of me. The now-full cafeteria is slowly losing its' occupants. the first-shifters are getting in their cars and going home. The second-shifters are all headed inside to clock in and start work. I look at the clock. 2:20. The only people left in the cafeteria are a few janitors, the cafeteria cooks, and myself. I dial up Melissa's number. No answer. I call again. This time she answers. "Hey Melissa. It's Devyl. Yeah, I'm in the cafeteria. five minutes? Yeah I'll be here". Shortly after the call, Melissa comes practically running in. "Sorry Devyl, just been really busy. I'm running a swing shift of first and second so it's been pretty hectic. Anyways, I'm going to introduce you to your new lead." We walk along the blue pathways on our way to the Nissan department; headed to meet the people whom I would soon consider to be an extended part of my family.
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May 15, 2015 05:01
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Devyl posted:Nissan department; headed to meet the people whom I would soon consider to be an extended part of my family. Chrysler of Japan  I can't wait for more episodes.
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May 15, 2015 14:06
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Geirskogul posted:I can't wait for more episodes. Better than 90% of TV episodes.
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May 15, 2015 14:26
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I work in a machine/stamping shop, and it's mismanaged pretty poorly. The engineer retired and they didn't hire a new one, and no one is making drawings for new parts. They're referencing older parts for new runs, and then throwing them back in the bag. I asked one of the machinists about this and they just laughed at me. Oh well that's probably why I'm constantly getting boxes of our poo poo back from customers.
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May 15, 2015 14:57
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A word about walkways in factories. For those of you not blessed enough to have worked in a factory environment, almost every factory has a marked path you're allowed to walk in. During your orientation you're told to stick to the marked path and ONLY the marked path. They'll tell you that it's for safety reasons; and they couldn't be more right. Where there's a warehouse there's a forklift inside. And that forklift driver is usually driven by someone who gives two shits about your well-being; just so long as they get their delivery or pick-up taken care of. Your average forklift driver in a factory here makes around $20-22 an hour. On a weekend they're making time and a half, and worked holidays are double time and a half. You would assume that someone in such a well-paid position would do their best to keep that precious spot. It seems this isn't the case. I'll expand on this later. We walked into the Nissan department. The department is full of small welding stands where parts are hand-assembled and machine welded in place. There's even a hand-welding station for re-working badly welded parts. I'm taken to an open area located between the rear break room and a frame-welding machine. The rear of the area is lined with bins. Tags of green attached to the bins flutter in the breeze. The bins are stacked up to six high in some parts with each crate being almost five feet tall. We walk up to an older woman standing at a desk. Melissa taps her on the shoulder and she jumps. She turns around and the first thing I notice is her hair. A grey streak ran through her frazzled brunette hair. "Jerri, this is Devyl. Devyl, Jerri" I stick my hand out and she returns the shake with an impressive grip. Melissa leaves again. "Hi Devyl. Melissa told me about what happened to you on first shift. Let me tell you somethin'. That bitch Kelly is about as smart as a sack of horse poo poo. I don't even know how she got her job. I think she spends more time on her knees than workin', if ya catch my drift. Anyways, welcome to second shift! I run a pretty good crew. As long as you work for me, I'll work for you. And everything they taught you on first shift? Forget it; cause I'm gonna train ya right." She starts walking over to a solid metal table. I follow. As we arrive at the table, I'm introduced to the most beautiful woman I've ever seen in my life. She's tall. Probably between 5'10"-11". She has the most beautiful black hair with a vibrant blue streak running through it. She has on skinny jeans and a snug workshirt. My jaw drops. My pants tighten a bit. My heart skips a beat. She bends over to get some parts out of a bin and I nearly die when I see that perfect rear-end. Jerri introduces us. "Devyl, this is Kennedy. Kennedy, this is Devyl." I start chuckling a bit. Kennedy does the same. "What's so funny?" Jerri asked. I look at Jerri. I look at Kennedy. She shrugs. I look back at Jerri again. "Jerri, I know her. Kennedy is my girlfriend. We both put in applications at the same time, and she got hired a few days before I did. If us working together is gonna be a problem, you can move me to another area or department." "Y'all aren't gonna be makin' out all the time instead of working are ya?" I laugh again and shake my head no. "Not gonna be a problem.Work is separate from our personal lives." Jerri nods. "Well then she can show you what to do. I got a bunch of crap to fix from first shift anyways. Those idiots can't do anything right." She shook her head and walked back to the desk. Kennedy looks at me and hands me a ten ounce dead blow hammer. "Today, I'm gonna train you on these parts here..." She reaches in the bin and pulls out five long flat curved pieces of metal with four nuts welded to it. "These are called tailgates." she said as she laid out the five parts on the metal table. They're the part of the truck bed that the tailgate latches on to. What we're doing is checking the welds. It's pretty easy." She hands me five metal bolts. "Here's what you do. Take a bolt and put it in the first welded nut. Screw it in about four threads so it's in the bolt, but not through the part." I follow her instructions and get the first bolt in. "OK, you're doing good. Now put the other four bolts in the same nut on the other four parts." I get the bolts in the other four parts and grab the hammer. "Now, hit the left and right side of the bolt with a firm hit from the hammer. Not too hard, but don't be afraid to put some muscle into it." I go down the row of bolts striking each with a decent blow. On the fifth part, the bolt and nut go flying in the air and land near Jerri with a clinking sound as the bolt-nut combo skitters across the floor. Kennedy sighs and turns to face my new boss. "Jerri, we got another one". She walks over and looks at the part. She shakes her head angrily. Suddenly I feel like I broke it and it's all my fault. "Did I do something wrong?" I ask. "No no, you're fine. This is the third part out of fifteen that's broken. And these were all cleared by first shift to be shipped off for the assembly line." She points to a lime-green sticker the size of a large postage stamp on the side. It has todays' date and a few initials sloppily scribbled on it. "Bullshit. Kelly is gonna get everyone fired."Jerri is very very visibly pissed off. "I'm gonna tear Kelly a new rear end in a top hat tomorrow morning". I suddenly knew I had the best boss in the factory. So we continued to check these parts until the end of our shift. 10:30 p.m. rolled around and we all rushed to clock out and get home. The final tally of defective parts that were going to be sent out and assembled into Nissan frontiers? One hundred and fifty three. Now normally, if defective parts reach the manufacturer; they're caught before assembly and shipped back at the cost of the factory. a returned shipment can easily cost $40,000 if not more. However these parts are put directly into production of the tailgate and truck bed. For each one that fails final assembly (and those parts would've most definitely failed) the entire assembly line shuts down and the part has to be replaced by hand. This averages out to about $10,000/minute and the part takes approximately five minutes to replace by hand.
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May 16, 2015 09:48
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This thread is excellent.
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May 16, 2015 11:04
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Devyl posted:For each one that fails final assembly (and those parts would've most definitely failed) the entire assembly line shuts down and the part has to be replaced by hand. This averages out to about $10,000/minute and the part takes approximately five minutes to replace by hand.
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May 16, 2015 11:04
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I work in the press shop for one of the manufacturers you mentioned, this makes me thankful we're bastards about quality. For example the suspension parts we make (rear wishbone) we might punch 1400 in a run before we change tools, the first 5 parts made are inspected, then 5 parts from the middle of the run, and the last 5. All holes are counted(!), checked for burrs, go/nogo gauges are used to check all sizes and flanges, shock lines are compared to a master panel. If there's an issue during the run we stop, boot the tool out to be repaired. Funny story, the wishbone we make is identical both sides, until they have brackets welded in. a few weeks ago we had a defect reported from assembly, excessive force required to got a bush. 15 bad left hand parts in 1 hour, none right. Reported as a press issue. They refused to acknowledge it wasn't us, even going as far as claiming I was lying to the directors when I showed them one stack of pallets with one part number. I had to pull up their drawings that showed which part numbers go into the subassembly, funnily enough it did show the single same part built into both complete wishbones. Twats.
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May 16, 2015 14:01
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This is the best thread. 
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May 16, 2015 15:23
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Jerri sounds a lot like one of my favorite ever bosses. As abrasive as 50 grit sandpaper, doesn't take poo poo off of anybody (this sounds a lot like the toilet paper we have at work so far), swore enough to make a drunk sailor run away begging for mommy to make it stop, but she made drat sure to take good care of people who bust their asses. I have a similar boss right now. We regularly cuss each other out and yell a bit, but I get more hours than any other hourly employee, and he goes to bat for me and a few other people when poo poo hits the fan. I know drat well he argued with his boss to get me rehired when I reapplied, and also took a lot of poo poo from his boss when I tried to follow him to his "new" store last year. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 05:22 on May 17, 2015 |
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May 17, 2015 05:20
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Go Jerri. I like supervisors that are honest and loyal to their teams. If you are a solid worker they will defend you against management even at their own peril. The only factory I visit on a regular basis makes pizza crusts. Ever seen an 800lb wad of dough? I could start a thread but "Your pizza crust is going to fall apart, I should know; I work on the computers that are only tangentially related to producing them" doesn't sound nearly as interesting.
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May 17, 2015 12:30
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Gorson posted:The only factory I visit on a regular basis makes pizza crusts. Ever seen an 800lb wad of dough? I could start a thread but "Your pizza crust is going to fall apart, I should know; I work on the computers that are only tangentially related to producing them" doesn't sound nearly as interesting. tbh I'd read the hell out of that thread.
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May 17, 2015 16:51
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Oh man this thread is awesome. I worked in an aerospace factory for a few years but it was the exact opposite. Zero defect as close as we could since I worked in the NASA contractor part where everything was life critical, the PLSS for the EMU. Im looking forward to seeing the difference where profit is the motivating factor in the car parts type manufacturing.
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May 17, 2015 18:23
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tumblr.txt posted:tbh I'd read the hell out of that thread. You would never eat frozen pizza again, if it's remotely like any pizza place I've ever worked in. (actually it's probably a hell of a lot cleaner...)
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May 18, 2015 07:44
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some texas redneck posted:You would never eat frozen pizza again, if it's remotely like any pizza place I've ever worked in. It's actually pretty clean. They are held to some pretty strict standards and every time I go there I have to don the white scientist overcoat and hair net. 2 days a week the line is shut down and they clean it top to bottom. They only make the crusts (unfrozen) that you buy in single or two packs at the grocery store. I get lots of free samples and have made a bunch of pizzas with them, which have been very good, way better than frozen. Honestly the worst part about going there is the smell. I'm used to it, but I can imagine how much the employee's clothes would smell after a full day. I take that back, the worst part is dealing with their India-based ERP software company. I won't mention any names, but their initials are Batch Master.
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May 18, 2015 18:24
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Fart Pipe posted:Oh man this thread is awesome. I worked in an aerospace factory for a few years but it was the exact opposite. Zero defect as close as we could since I worked in the NASA contractor part where everything was life critical, the PLSS for the EMU. Im looking forward to seeing the difference where profit is the motivating factor in the car parts type manufacturing. Aerospace here too. We're currently under scrutiny because our scrap rate has reached 1.1% I worked at a job shop where we got a bigger bonus if we kept a scrap rate under 12%...
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May 19, 2015 05:04
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Gorson posted:Honestly the worst part about going there is the smell. I'm used to it, but I can imagine how much the employee's clothes would smell after a full day.
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May 19, 2015 09:31
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