I'm a quality manager in a very busy (thank goodness) metal stamping and fabrication job shop. In the past few weeks I've been dealing with a situation with a customer--a major North American vehicle OEM--that perfectly illustrates the problems with American manufacturing in general.
It begins with me doing "due diligence" in contract review--going over a drawing for a new job to make sure everything is understood and we have everything we need to be successful in producing the product.
In reviewing the drawing, I see two things that need to be cleared up:
So much for the concept of Single Point of Contact.
I call the buyer about #1, and he says he'll send me the document. Excellent.
Now I have to deal with the design engineer, a task I'm not looking forward to. I spent nine years working in a vehicle OEM's design and development center, and I came to understand that beyond the education requirements, there are two basic prerequisites for becoming a successful and prosperous design engineer:
This customer has an online APQP tracking application, and customers are supposed to input information as the project develops. For example, we are supposed to acknowledge having all of the engineering information we need and that specifications are understood. Of course, the entries are timebound, and the system automatically sends dunning robo-email messages when something falls behind.
After a week or so of not having the document called out on the print, and not having the design engineer's explanation of his GD&T delusions, I received a phone call from the SQE urging me to update the APQP tracker. I politely deferred, citing the lack of important information. He said he would get back to me. He didn't.
Today, about two weeks after this all began, I'm in the same position I was at the beginning, only now I have our marketing project manager (the guy in charge of this customer's account) asking me why I'm behind in updating the APQP tracking. "Just close those things out," he tells me, "and we'll worry about getting the information later."
This ugly and sordid chain of events is, I'm afraid, absolutely typical. We're urged by our customers, on the one hand, to invoke a conscientious APQP process. At the same time we're stymied and stonewalled by the people who should be providing the information needed for both sides to be successful. "You must be sure that you have everything you need," they say, "but good luck getting it from us."
It begins with me doing "due diligence" in contract review--going over a drawing for a new job to make sure everything is understood and we have everything we need to be successful in producing the product.
In reviewing the drawing, I see two things that need to be cleared up:
- There is reference to a customer document that I don't have.
- There is a nonsensical GD&T callout that can't be resolved.
So much for the concept of Single Point of Contact.
I call the buyer about #1, and he says he'll send me the document. Excellent.
Now I have to deal with the design engineer, a task I'm not looking forward to. I spent nine years working in a vehicle OEM's design and development center, and I came to understand that beyond the education requirements, there are two basic prerequisites for becoming a successful and prosperous design engineer:
- You must be fundamentally incompetent in the process of transforming an abstract concept into cohesive, understandable specifications. "Design intent" is a secret that must never be divulged.
- You must never ever, ever admit that you are wrong about anything, despite abundant, irrefutable evidence to the contrary.
This customer has an online APQP tracking application, and customers are supposed to input information as the project develops. For example, we are supposed to acknowledge having all of the engineering information we need and that specifications are understood. Of course, the entries are timebound, and the system automatically sends dunning robo-email messages when something falls behind.
After a week or so of not having the document called out on the print, and not having the design engineer's explanation of his GD&T delusions, I received a phone call from the SQE urging me to update the APQP tracker. I politely deferred, citing the lack of important information. He said he would get back to me. He didn't.
Today, about two weeks after this all began, I'm in the same position I was at the beginning, only now I have our marketing project manager (the guy in charge of this customer's account) asking me why I'm behind in updating the APQP tracking. "Just close those things out," he tells me, "and we'll worry about getting the information later."
This ugly and sordid chain of events is, I'm afraid, absolutely typical. We're urged by our customers, on the one hand, to invoke a conscientious APQP process. At the same time we're stymied and stonewalled by the people who should be providing the information needed for both sides to be successful. "You must be sure that you have everything you need," they say, "but good luck getting it from us."
