It’s a karma smile today.
In 25 years of working with the rubber tired loader my company builds, I have never had an accident with one. A close call or two but never any damage.
When the powers that be decided that the machines for the US market should be built in the US, I was initially pleased because we would be able to control the quality and maybe put the kibosh on the SCNF requirements that are more of a hinderance than a help over here. Plan was that the project would be my baby.
It was decided from the first new person they hired that I wasn’t to be involved in the production process. Never mind that I had over 20 years experience in production and had run a production shop with 50 people in it before I started here. I was to stay in the field. Kind of pissed me off but on the plus side, I didn’t need to move to South Carolina. The company sent several new people to the factory in Italy for training. Mind you, I have never been there. Another sore spot.
In five years, not one machine has come out of the shop correct. They even went as far as having myself and one other field guy come in and do a final inspection. We rejected every machine and we were over ridden by management and the machines were delivered anyway. The field guys ended up receiving the brunt of the customers displeasure. Several of the machines were returned for a refund. We’re talking several hundred thousand bucks.
So, for the long lead in. Those trained in Italy still apparently haven’t a clue as to what they are doing. Yesterday, they were having problems getting a new machine to move. Someone did something and it suddenly moved, by itself. No way in hell is it supposed to move by itself, but it did…through three tool boxes and into a concrete wall. Not only destroying the toolboxes, damaging the wall, and the machine, the office on the opposite side of the wall belongs to the head of HR/Safety Compliance. No one was hurt, but The Sh*7 Has Hit The Fan, as production on all machines has ceased, all involved in production of the machine are now subject to drug tests, the state safety board was called in(BFD) and several folks may be looking for new employment.
I and the rest of the field crew are just smiling and chuckling among ourselves.