How long have you been visiting the Cove Forums? Vintage Cove!

[James Gutherson]

No need for apologies or peace energy (or are you on such a roll now that you can't stop )

I was in no way offended, in fact quite cuffed to be held up in the same light as JKRH (and I remember the aircraft pictures well). I just wanted to clear things up.

 

[Marc]

Laura M said:

Michael T has been around lately - said a few things a couple weeks ago.

Marc - do you know what happened to Don - he was full of wisdom on the hard core stats stuff if I remember correctly.

I haven't checked his website lately.

Don and I had a chat a few years back. Bottom line is his life changed dramatically. Don just sorta dropped out and got on with life, so to speak, but in another direction.

He did come back for a while - would stop in every couple of months - up until last year some time. I forget the alias he used. He never posted, just visited.

Don's web site is long gone and I don't have a valid e-mail address for him any more.

Don lived in Tennessee, as I remember.

That's all I know about 'what ever happened to...' Don.

 

[Jim Biz]

Just in Case

Not sure - if anyone noticed - but I'm still around
Not nearly as active on a daily basis - but I do check in every week or two to see what I may have missed.....

Have since "Changing jobs" a year ago January now been very very busy writing mauals and procedures for 6 different companies

(Changing jobs is what the wife calls it - not allowed to use the (R)etirement word .... main payback is I get to set how many hours I actually am productive and which days - I get to "Go play"

Everyone is providing such good info by the time I read the messages that show up I probably couldn't add too much to the conversation anyway

Never fear - tho
I'm watching energy & his big mouth bass (joke Bill )

 

[energy]

Re: Just in Case

Jim Biz said:

Not sure - if anyone noticed - but I'm still around
Not nearly as active on a daily basis - but I do check in every week or two to see what I may have missed.....

Never fear - tho
I'm watching energy & his big mouth bass (joke Bill )

I see you occasionally in the who's on line section, so I know you are still kickin! Still finding time for those horses, no doubt. Nice to see you again.

 

[marco kerssies]

How did you get started in Quality?
Via my school...

Did you slide in from inspection like me?
Cause i had to do a training period for my school to get a certain amount of points. This a small company here with only 5 people. So uhm its not big lol

I dunno if i stay in this branche cause i can go to other branches as well. Because i am also studying bank and insurances at my school.

 

[Mustang]

My history? My degree is in Psychology and Human Resources (and an Associates in Fine Art, but "starving artist" didn't sound like a good career), neither of which start out at much income. Got into AutoCAD through a company looking for someone who could learn fast. Got into database programming (FoxPro) at same company because I could learn fast. Got into Computer Support because I had a knack for it. Wound up at a Manufacturing Software company in Customer Service, hated the phone support part. I prefer hands-on. Went to a small stamping (the company and the products)plant as in-house IT support and database programmer. Got recruited into Quality to run the QS-9000 program by the then-manager at the same company because I am a good planner. I'm still trying to decide what I want to be when I grow up...

 

[mshell]

I started out as a production worker (10 years) and decided that I needed a little more from life so I returned to school. After school, I was hired for a position managing document control for a global organization (this allowed me to learn a lot about the QMS and ISO). I had a wonderful mentor as a boss (that also helped). Eventually, he left the company and I applied for his position as Quality Manager. I was awarded the position and stayed with the company until I was the only one left in the Quality Department for 250+ employees and the excitement was unbearable.

I then accepted my current position as ISO Coordinator for a smaller locally owned company.

I have grown quite fond of helping to improve things so I guess I will be in quality for a while (unless I win the lottery)

 

[Groo3]

I ended up getting a degree that was hard to use... Physics of all things... most jobs which were available fresh out of school were dead end jobs, just crunching numbers. As I was not in the top of my class (having been lost somewhere in the middle masses), I found that all the best positions were already taken. To pass the time till I found something better, I started working in a QC - Lab... Anyway, as that job started to get boring, I tried expanding my knowledge by asking management to teach me new things... I got a little training here and there, helping with the computer data entry, helping develop procedures and forms used in the QC Lab, got my feet wet with some internal auditing, and next thing you know... our company decided it was time to form a Quality Assurance department - focused exclusively on those things needed to get our site registeed (at that time, we were going for ISO-9002-1987 registration)... I was lucky enough to have my name mentioned in that 1st meeting, and got the interview... and next thing you know, here I am. Lucky for me, I even got to develop my own job description over the years ...

 

[ben sortin]

My father showed me how to use a micrometer at age 8. A washed up reliability engineer taught night school and glazed me over time and time again. I still remember the day I showed my first experiment (full factorial of course) to the boss and saved the company a ton of money. When the yearly FMEA review comes around I cook chili and everbody asks for the recipe. I miss first piece inspection and meetings with Dr. Deming and Stu Hunter. "Nowadays it just don't pay to be a good ol' boy."

 

[Rob Nix]

Like CarolX (except for the "having babys" part) and RCB I started in Quality at age 19, working as an assistant to the Quality Manager in a Plastic Injection Molding company (at the time I was getting schooled in Architecture like SteelMaiden). I knew NOTHING about plastics OR quality, but they hired me based on my adminstrative/organizational knowledge (translation: I could file things ). Six months later they forcibly retired the Quality Manager (a wonderful genius of a man who taught me tons in that short period) and I was thrown into the position, and kept it for 7 years (doing lab tests, q.enging, inspection, submissions, corrective actions, etc). In the late 70's I worked with a talented Ford guy doing capability studies the long/hard method.

Then I switched to a large metal stamping plant as SPC coordinator. After a year I was dumped into the Quality Manager position again. After 10 more years I moved on to a Special Machine Tool (D&B) company as a Quality Engineer. One year later, I'm the Quality Manager again! Finally, after another 7 years I landed the Quality Director position at another special machines comany.

Each time I left a company it was based on ethical reasons. Changes in management/ownership brought in new, unscrupulous, superiors with which I could not, in good conscience, work for. One even threatened to throw me and my "processes" out the window if I did not falsify a material certification .

Nevertheless, Quality has been a great field for me. There is a lot of variety and I've learned many, many things (along the way I joined ASQ[C], got a CQE and CRE, and was certified as a QS9000 Lead Auditor). I really enjoy problem solving, DOE, GR&R, R&M and all those other "analytical" things - and making a positive difference for my employers!!! Also, my peers (like all of you here) are the cream of the crop; people that have the proper balance (and a little OCD) and outlook on how things "ought to be done". My thanks for being part of such a distinguished league.