Working days are here again...
Do you ever have one of those days at work where nothing seems to go right from the moment you walk into the joint, to the time that you leave?? Today was one of those days.
First thing this morning, I walk in the door about 10 minutes late, and the boss is waiting by the door talking to someone else. Oops. Sorry about that. I’ve been making a semi-habit out of being late lately, and I need to stop that, considering I used to get in here regularly around 7AM or even earlier. Regime change is required. I will work on that one the rest of the week.
Second thing this morning, sit down, turn the computer on, and damn, we have a broken part at a customer location. This is never a good thing, as when you make car parts that make the car go, and they break, the cars don’t go anymore, and this really pisses off your customer. To the tune of about 15 phone calls in the first 30 minutes of being at work. Try dodging and weaving your way around a broken part issue. It’s like tiptoeing through a minefield with clown shoes. It can’t be done. It can’t be done that is, until you get the part back, and prove that the customer caused this breakage and failure themselves instead of the supplier (that being me) causing it. This is what the case is going to be with this part, I know it. But in the meantime, I have the customer yelling at me from a distance. I hate it when that happens, especially through the phone. Hey, I understand, this is important, and I’m not taking it lightly of course, but there’s no need to cuss me out over the phone when we’re in a conference call. How unprofessional. Then again, most of the guys at Ford are what we like to call “old school” and they really don’t know how to interact with people in the real world of automotive suppliers. Because back in the day, Ford had their own companies who provided just about everything for them, so they DID actually have to yell at them. Because if you’ve ever worked for a large company where you get the bulk of your supplied material from a sister company, they are the worst suppliers ever. I say this because when you have a problem with the stuff they are sending you, they won’t do anything about it, they’re family. Screw it. It’s like the one bad kid at Christmas in your family that everyone ignores because he’s the only bad one, and if you ignore him enough, he’ll go away, or stop acting out. Same thing for sister companies. They suck. It’s really that simple. Anyway, the part that broke, not our fault. I can’t wait to shove that down their throat. By the time I get to do that though, Ford will have charged me 2 arms and 2 legs for a problem that was not ours, and I’ll fight with them for the next 3 months trying to get our money back. See, they’re not really in it for the quality aspect of things, but when they find a “problem” with a supplier’s parts, they can hit them with monetary charges, and this is what the brass at Ford like to see. They’ve actually mandated it lately. Charge suppliers as much as possible so we can start making the bottom line look better and better. I shit you not. They’re going to nickel and dime their way back into profitability. You’d think they would do this by producing a car that the American and global markets would want to actually purchase, but instead, they charge their suppliers out through the nose for crap like this. Is it any wonder vendors like my company want to do business with Toyota and other foreign car manufacturers who are now re-locating the US in incredible numbers? Nope. The foreign car companies have a much better business model. And while they’re cars are not very exciting, what they are is dependable, and highly rated, and the Japanese actually care if they’re making a quality product or not. This whole marketing campaign by Ford in the past, and currently, the whole “Quality is Job 1” is such a sham. If anyone ever asks me their opinion on a car purchase, I always tell them, buy Japanese. You might pay a little more, but damn, it’s worth it. Let me just relate a story about a big 3 product that a co-worker of mine purchased in previous years. Let’s say for the sake of argument someone I work with purchased a Chrysler minivan in the year 2000. By the time this minivan hit 35,000 miles (2004), it had had 2 transmissions removed and replaced, and was going in for a 3rd. Now, this is time and money folks. I had a 1998 Subaru Outback that had been driven over 175,000 and the only thing I had to replace in it was an alternator that cost me $125. Sure, the car died shortly thereafter, but most of that was my fault for not caring for the vehicle properly. I didn’t care for that thing at all, and I STILL got 175,000 miles out of it over 6 years. That’s pretty impressive if you ask me, compared to the Chrysler that dropped 3 transmissions in far less mileage than I had on my vehicle. Buy Japanese cars, you’ll be happy. And the best part about purchasing a Japanese car these days is that more than likely, it was made in America, by American workers. And also, a lot of the parts that were supplied for that vehicle were more than likely made in America. Take Toyota for example. They have manufacturing facilities in Kentucky, Indiana, California, Canada, and they’re opening one in Texas and Baja. They employ well over 120,000 American workers either directly at their manufacturing facilities, or at the companies that supply them in the USA. And, unlike some stupid American companies, if you don’t drive their cars, you can STILL park close to the plant and not in some satellite lot a mile away from where you work (Ford, Chrysler, and GM make their workers who don’t drive their products park a mile or more away from their assembly plants when they come to work, and then they have to take a shuttle to the workplace, but if you drive one of their vehicles, you can park very close by).
Anyway, this whole bad day at work continued in the afternoon as I got pulled into meeting after meeting for new programs we’re starting working on, and finding out how far behind I and my company are for these new programs. It’s scary. We have some stuff that’s starting in less than a month, and we don’t even have machinery in this facility yet. Usually, you need about 2 months just to get everything de-bugged and running well. I feel overtime coming into play sometime soon here. And damn, don’t you know, I don’t get paid for working over. I hate it when that happens. Then there were problems out on the manufacturing floor. Bad parts, part assemblies, and so on and so forth. It never ends. I swear. Working in automotive quality will make you old quick. I think I’m just about done with it for the most part. I need to look around and see what else is going on around the triangle and see what I might be able to find in my field, and not in automotive. I’ve just about had enough really. Then again, working here does allow for some freedoms that other jobs might not. The boss is pretty laid back about coming and going, which is nice. As long as you get your 9 hours in during the day, she’s good with it. For instance, I can come in at 7, and take off at 4. This is a good situation. Or I can come in at 8, and leave at 5. Or come in at 6, and leave at 3. You get the picture. Maybe I’m just not motivated enough to find another job right now. This one pays well, and the people are mostly OK as long as I don’t talk about anything important with them (such as politics), and the benefits aren’t that bad either. So maybe I’ll just stay for a little while longer, and suck off the teat of this place. I’ll see if they give me a pay raise this year, and if that rolls through, well, how can I say no? It’s just not possible.
Oops, phone is ringing again. I wonder who is going to be yelling at me this time. Automotive quality, that’s what it’s all about. When you do well, nobody calls to say, “Good Jorb.” But when the shit hits the fan, everyone is calling, and calling, and calling, and calling…
First thing this morning, I walk in the door about 10 minutes late, and the boss is waiting by the door talking to someone else. Oops. Sorry about that. I’ve been making a semi-habit out of being late lately, and I need to stop that, considering I used to get in here regularly around 7AM or even earlier. Regime change is required. I will work on that one the rest of the week.
Second thing this morning, sit down, turn the computer on, and damn, we have a broken part at a customer location. This is never a good thing, as when you make car parts that make the car go, and they break, the cars don’t go anymore, and this really pisses off your customer. To the tune of about 15 phone calls in the first 30 minutes of being at work. Try dodging and weaving your way around a broken part issue. It’s like tiptoeing through a minefield with clown shoes. It can’t be done. It can’t be done that is, until you get the part back, and prove that the customer caused this breakage and failure themselves instead of the supplier (that being me) causing it. This is what the case is going to be with this part, I know it. But in the meantime, I have the customer yelling at me from a distance. I hate it when that happens, especially through the phone. Hey, I understand, this is important, and I’m not taking it lightly of course, but there’s no need to cuss me out over the phone when we’re in a conference call. How unprofessional. Then again, most of the guys at Ford are what we like to call “old school” and they really don’t know how to interact with people in the real world of automotive suppliers. Because back in the day, Ford had their own companies who provided just about everything for them, so they DID actually have to yell at them. Because if you’ve ever worked for a large company where you get the bulk of your supplied material from a sister company, they are the worst suppliers ever. I say this because when you have a problem with the stuff they are sending you, they won’t do anything about it, they’re family. Screw it. It’s like the one bad kid at Christmas in your family that everyone ignores because he’s the only bad one, and if you ignore him enough, he’ll go away, or stop acting out. Same thing for sister companies. They suck. It’s really that simple. Anyway, the part that broke, not our fault. I can’t wait to shove that down their throat. By the time I get to do that though, Ford will have charged me 2 arms and 2 legs for a problem that was not ours, and I’ll fight with them for the next 3 months trying to get our money back. See, they’re not really in it for the quality aspect of things, but when they find a “problem” with a supplier’s parts, they can hit them with monetary charges, and this is what the brass at Ford like to see. They’ve actually mandated it lately. Charge suppliers as much as possible so we can start making the bottom line look better and better. I shit you not. They’re going to nickel and dime their way back into profitability. You’d think they would do this by producing a car that the American and global markets would want to actually purchase, but instead, they charge their suppliers out through the nose for crap like this. Is it any wonder vendors like my company want to do business with Toyota and other foreign car manufacturers who are now re-locating the US in incredible numbers? Nope. The foreign car companies have a much better business model. And while they’re cars are not very exciting, what they are is dependable, and highly rated, and the Japanese actually care if they’re making a quality product or not. This whole marketing campaign by Ford in the past, and currently, the whole “Quality is Job 1” is such a sham. If anyone ever asks me their opinion on a car purchase, I always tell them, buy Japanese. You might pay a little more, but damn, it’s worth it. Let me just relate a story about a big 3 product that a co-worker of mine purchased in previous years. Let’s say for the sake of argument someone I work with purchased a Chrysler minivan in the year 2000. By the time this minivan hit 35,000 miles (2004), it had had 2 transmissions removed and replaced, and was going in for a 3rd. Now, this is time and money folks. I had a 1998 Subaru Outback that had been driven over 175,000 and the only thing I had to replace in it was an alternator that cost me $125. Sure, the car died shortly thereafter, but most of that was my fault for not caring for the vehicle properly. I didn’t care for that thing at all, and I STILL got 175,000 miles out of it over 6 years. That’s pretty impressive if you ask me, compared to the Chrysler that dropped 3 transmissions in far less mileage than I had on my vehicle. Buy Japanese cars, you’ll be happy. And the best part about purchasing a Japanese car these days is that more than likely, it was made in America, by American workers. And also, a lot of the parts that were supplied for that vehicle were more than likely made in America. Take Toyota for example. They have manufacturing facilities in Kentucky, Indiana, California, Canada, and they’re opening one in Texas and Baja. They employ well over 120,000 American workers either directly at their manufacturing facilities, or at the companies that supply them in the USA. And, unlike some stupid American companies, if you don’t drive their cars, you can STILL park close to the plant and not in some satellite lot a mile away from where you work (Ford, Chrysler, and GM make their workers who don’t drive their products park a mile or more away from their assembly plants when they come to work, and then they have to take a shuttle to the workplace, but if you drive one of their vehicles, you can park very close by).
Anyway, this whole bad day at work continued in the afternoon as I got pulled into meeting after meeting for new programs we’re starting working on, and finding out how far behind I and my company are for these new programs. It’s scary. We have some stuff that’s starting in less than a month, and we don’t even have machinery in this facility yet. Usually, you need about 2 months just to get everything de-bugged and running well. I feel overtime coming into play sometime soon here. And damn, don’t you know, I don’t get paid for working over. I hate it when that happens. Then there were problems out on the manufacturing floor. Bad parts, part assemblies, and so on and so forth. It never ends. I swear. Working in automotive quality will make you old quick. I think I’m just about done with it for the most part. I need to look around and see what else is going on around the triangle and see what I might be able to find in my field, and not in automotive. I’ve just about had enough really. Then again, working here does allow for some freedoms that other jobs might not. The boss is pretty laid back about coming and going, which is nice. As long as you get your 9 hours in during the day, she’s good with it. For instance, I can come in at 7, and take off at 4. This is a good situation. Or I can come in at 8, and leave at 5. Or come in at 6, and leave at 3. You get the picture. Maybe I’m just not motivated enough to find another job right now. This one pays well, and the people are mostly OK as long as I don’t talk about anything important with them (such as politics), and the benefits aren’t that bad either. So maybe I’ll just stay for a little while longer, and suck off the teat of this place. I’ll see if they give me a pay raise this year, and if that rolls through, well, how can I say no? It’s just not possible.
Oops, phone is ringing again. I wonder who is going to be yelling at me this time. Automotive quality, that’s what it’s all about. When you do well, nobody calls to say, “Good Jorb.” But when the shit hits the fan, everyone is calling, and calling, and calling, and calling…
posted by giantcu92 @ 9:36 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
It's your job, but I say you can trade up.
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