S
ASTM specs - Need some creative thinking
I'm stuck in a box on this issue and can't figure out what to do.... we were internal auditing our Tech Services process yesterday and talking about Tech's participation in the Order Preview process, wherein tech takes a new order - which for us typically will have the customer outlining things like gauge range, mechanical range, chemistry range, etc - and the customer MAY also note at the end, "per ASTM spec E-XXX" or whatever. I asked the tech guy how he checks that and he says he has a copy of the ASTM spec, which led me to the question, "How do you know that copy is the most current version of that spec?" He couldn't say. He added that ASTM specs and others get updated but tech here did not routinely check to see if they had the current copy or not.
To further complicate this issue, as a cost-cutting method our corporate office decided last year or so that they would no longer purchase copies of the specs for each division, but that one person at corporate would be the "Keeper o' the Specs" and the company would purchase one CD copy - if anyone wanted a copy of a spec they email her and she sends a copy. In investigating this issue from yesterday I was trying to think of a way to ensure our guys are using the most current copy and I asked the corp person how often she gets updated specs - she reported 1-3 PER WEEK!!
I have "old school" metallurgists who can practically quote an ASTM spec for 1006 steel in their sleep and just plain ARE NOT going to cotton (that's a southern expression I can explain if necessary) to having to call corporate every time they review an order to make sure the spec they are referencing is current. It's not going to happen. So I have to figure out something else.
Any good ideas out there?? I am stumped..... :truce:
I'm stuck in a box on this issue and can't figure out what to do.... we were internal auditing our Tech Services process yesterday and talking about Tech's participation in the Order Preview process, wherein tech takes a new order - which for us typically will have the customer outlining things like gauge range, mechanical range, chemistry range, etc - and the customer MAY also note at the end, "per ASTM spec E-XXX" or whatever. I asked the tech guy how he checks that and he says he has a copy of the ASTM spec, which led me to the question, "How do you know that copy is the most current version of that spec?" He couldn't say. He added that ASTM specs and others get updated but tech here did not routinely check to see if they had the current copy or not.
To further complicate this issue, as a cost-cutting method our corporate office decided last year or so that they would no longer purchase copies of the specs for each division, but that one person at corporate would be the "Keeper o' the Specs" and the company would purchase one CD copy - if anyone wanted a copy of a spec they email her and she sends a copy. In investigating this issue from yesterday I was trying to think of a way to ensure our guys are using the most current copy and I asked the corp person how often she gets updated specs - she reported 1-3 PER WEEK!!
I have "old school" metallurgists who can practically quote an ASTM spec for 1006 steel in their sleep and just plain ARE NOT going to cotton (that's a southern expression I can explain if necessary) to having to call corporate every time they review an order to make sure the spec they are referencing is current. It's not going to happen. So I have to figure out something else.
Any good ideas out there?? I am stumped..... :truce:
