This is today's Dilbert strip:


http://elsmar.com/gif/dilbert2033334071120wv1.gif

This, or something very much like it, actually happened to me once. I was a newly-hired quality manager for an injection molding company. One day one of the inspectors told me that we needed some pens. I asked where to get them, and he told me that I had to go to the other end of the (large) building and talk to the receptionist. Thanks to the miracle of Google Maps, you can see where I was, and where I had to go to get the pens:

http://elsmar.com/jpg/screenshotbd1.jpg

I made the trek and asked the receptionist (whom I swear looked a great deal like the woman in the Dilbert strip) for some pens. "How many do you need?" she asked. "Oh, I don't know," I replied, "I suppose a few dozen." She looked at me like I was crazy. "A few dozen?" she exclaimed, "I can't give you 24 pens!" Confused, I said, "OK, how many can you give me?"
"Well, I can give you maybe three or four, I guess," she said.
"Let me understand this. I just came from the far side of the building just to get some pens, and you can only give me three or four? Are these gold-plated Cross pens? I just want some cheap Bic Stics."
"Sorry," she said, "but if we gave everyone two dozen pens whenever they wanted them, we'd go broke."

I accepted the three or four pens and hiked back to the lab. At lunchtime I went a few blocks down the road where there was an Office Depot, or Officemax, or some such place, and bought four boxes of Scripto stick pens for, if I remember correctly, $.84 (84 cents) each, or the princely sum of about $.03 per pen. I did a little rough calculation and determined that given the value of my time to the company, it cost roughly $5.00 for me to go to the other side of the building and back for four pens, putting their value to the company at $1.25 each, plus whatever they had paid for them to begin with.

When I brought this up to my boss (the VP of Operations), he said, "I understand, but we can't just be handing out pens all over the place, either." :frust::bonk::truce:

Jim, this is sooo funny, because I've seen it happen. We had one dept head that was very "frugal". Each dept purchases their own office supplies, because we are very big - over 1,000,000 sf under roof, another 800 acres outside. This Dept head would tell his clerk not to order pens but to go get them out of the supply of the other depts, so that his dept didn't have such a high overhead on office supplies!:mg:
:lmao:talk about robbing Peter to pay Paul!

This just came up last week -

We use duct tape to test nickel plating adhesion.
Whenever QC tries to get a roll of duct tape for the lab it gets "forgotten".
So they have to find the maintenance supervisor so he can open his locked cabinet and let them use his sole roll. That generally can burn 20 minutes of an inspector's time because he can be anywhere, including the roof.

(I "donated" one of the many rolls I have lying around the house)

At the company I previously worked we had a standardized office supply catalog for the entire company and every department was allowed to order for themselfes from that catalog. We had all supplies on KanBan (2 Bins, laminated card with Info, Material Handler was responsible to re-order) on the floor. But since too much stuff got lost, we moved the KanBan Rack to an inconvenient location (not locked, but you had to walk up stairs) and it got better. We actually also added cheap hand tools to the KanBan like small allen wrenches, certain sockets, duct tape, paint, grease, dust masks, gloves,...it was just cheaper that way then walking around searching. I probably bought 30 Tapemeasures over the time of 2 years, because they got 'lost', too. Then it got better, everybody probably had one at home. I think most of the 'lost' material was due to employees from different departments that came through my department, but that is hard to proof.

Now I am working in an 'old school' place: if you need something you steal it from somebody else, because the purchasing process is so cumbersome that nobody wants to do it. Also everything is ordered when we run out or if somebody happens to remember to order some. I try to change that but it is a slow process...

My :2cents:

Joachim

This had me rolling it's so laughable. We had a woman that always gave you a similar response when you asked for supplies...she kept the supplies in a locked cabinet, so while she was away I just took a tap and hammer knocked out the hinge pin and opened the cabinet from the side. It was funny to see she changed the lock combo numerous times because some of her precious pens were missing and eventually changed to a keyed lock. Seems idiotic to have to go to these measures to get paper and pens for the office but apparently it's a common thing.....

This had me rolling it's so laughable. We had a woman that always gave you a similar response when you asked for supplies...she kept the supplies in a locked cabinet, so while she was away I just took a tap and hammer knocked out the hinge pin and opened the cabinet from the side. It was funny to see she changed the lock combo numerous times because some of her precious pens were missing and eventually changed to a keyed lock. Seems idiotic to have to go to these measures to get paper and pens for the office but apparently it's a common thing.....

My own theory is that in most instances, someone is looking at accounts payable and asks , perhaps just in passing, why so much is being spent on office supplies. Rather than actually trying to come up with an answer, the person asked hears the question as a command: "Stop spending so much on office supplies!" And the idiocy ensues.

My own theory is that in most instances, someone is looking at accounts payable and asks , perhaps just in passing, why so much is being spent on office supplies. Rather than actually trying to come up with an answer, the person asked hears the question as a command: "Stop spending so much on office supplies!" And the idiocy ensues.I think that's true. That was so funny! Yes, it captures the human animal. Office supplies are the low hanging fruit of expenses. Perhaps everyone there needs to go to the neighborhood UPS Store for stamps and swipe one of their pens. Wait! Did I say that?? :notme:

It is funny...but also sad that after 20 years of ISO improving our processes, we still have these characters running free in our building. This does not happen at the better companies, but why does it happen at all?:cool:

PS: Last Sunday's Dilbert was very funny as well. Dilbert explained the "job of an Engineer" to a class of students on Career day...:D

True story (you just can't make this stuff up)

Our company only purchases cheap black pens. The owner stated that cheap blue pens get stolen, not the black ones.:rolleyes:

A blue pen around here is a rare sighting.

True story (you just can't make this stuff up)

Our company only purchases cheap black pens. The owner stated that cheap blue pens get stolen, not the black ones.:rolleyes:

A blue pen around here is a rare sighting.
That is usually because the cheap black ink pens are usually fine point and there are only a few folks that prefer to use a fine point pen.;)

I can relate to the previous posts.
Around 2 years ago, my plastic stapler fell off my desk and broke when it hit the concrete floor. At that time we had an accounting manager who wanted to save the company money. I asked our dept. supply person to add a $6.00 stapler to the next purchase requisition. She did, and it came back with the stapler crossed out. The accounting manager said to use someone else’s stapler. About a month later we tried it again and it got crossed out.
On my next trip to Big Lost, I saw a stapler on sale for $1.50 and bought it and it still works. This was the same accounting manager who changed our insurance benefits to save the company money but ending up costing all of us a bunch more in co-pays. Then she left the company...go figure

About 10 years ago the company I worked for issued all new employees a single black stapler. One black stapler, that's it only one and no more!!

As the newest employee in the department I got stuck in a double cubicle that I shared with the departmental printer. Well, you can guess how long my black stapler remained on my desk before growing legs and walking away. Well I was told a new one would not be issued, I'd had my one and if it disappeared too bad.

At that point I had two options swipe one from a co-workers desk, or buy my own. So off I went to the local Staples store and purchased a nice green Swingline. Then everytime it went astray, I walked around the department until I found my nice green Swingline sticking out like a sore thumb in a sea of black staplers.

10 years, and a few companies, later I still have that green Swingline sitting on my desk and it follows me to every new job.

A slightly different twist.

A few (quite a few) years ago, I was a test driver for Ford. At the start of the shift, we would take two pencils with us. We had paperwork we had to fill out during our drive. We took two, just in case we broke the lead on one, we had a back up. Well, at the end of the shift, we had a tendency to walk out with the two pencils. I have no idea of how much money that cost Ford, but they did talk about installing a pencil detector at the gate!

The post about "Swingline" stapler reminded me - the black Swingline stapler on my desk belonged to my predecessor who must have had trouble with it disappearing. As I sit here and flip it over, the name "NANCY" (not my name) is still legible - carefully written with a Sharpie on a label that is wrapped with clear Scotch tape. The "NANCY" stapler shall live on!!!

I have my stapler trained to shriek if it gets picked up by the wrong hand. Just kidding.

The post about "Swingline" stapler reminded me - the black Swingline stapler on my desk belonged to my predecessor who must have had trouble with it disappearing. As I sit here and flip it over, the name "NANCY" (not my name) is still legible - carefully written with a Sharpie on a label that is wrapped with clear Scotch tape. The "NANCY" stapler shall live on!!!


I etched QUALITY into the top of my swingline when I sat next door to the department copier room. I figured that if it did walk away, at least it would be a reminder for someone about our culture and customer satisfaction missions. Nobody took it after that, I now work in a different building and it still sits on my desk.