The Saga continues

[mowens]

I've bitched before about the incompetence of the people running this project I'm on and it just goes on and on. The latest kerflufal has to do with different people working on different engineering revisions of the same part.
Now, I get no instructions of any kind telling me what to work on or what rev level it should be. I have asked until I'm blue in the face.

So we've had a couple of meetings where this has been discussed. In a meeting yesterday, I was told that I had been using the wrong revisions on previous parts but it didn't affect the overall part. That was bullshit, btw. So we discussed how to make sure the programmers know what to work on and what revision it should be. It was like the line from Macbeth; full of sound and fury signifying nothing. No solution was found and the manager in charge of the meeting just talked about information flowing down. It doesn't do that.

So, I'm ready to start on the next part so I sent a mass email asking for the part and rev level. Silence. I asked an engineer I have worked with. Silence.

I just sent another mass email saying that my programming effort is on hold until I get the info I need. So far, silence.
I have a feeling it's going to be that way until the schedule starts getting tight and they ask for a status update and I tell them there is no status because you all refuse to do your jobs.

I have never seen such a clusterfuck. The only other one that comes close never made it this far.

[Incogneeto]

I've bitched before about the incompetence of the people running this project I'm on and it just goes on and on. The latest kerflufal has to do with different people working on different engineering revisions of the same part.
Now, I get no instructions of any kind telling me what to work on or what rev level it should be. I have asked until I'm blue in the face.

So we've had a couple of meetings where this has been discussed. In a meeting yesterday, I was told that I had been using the wrong revisions on previous parts but it didn't affect the overall part. That was bullshit, btw. So we discussed how to make sure the programmers know what to work on and what revision it should be. It was like the line from Macbeth; full of sound and fury signifying nothing. No solution was found and the manager in charge of the meeting just talked about information flowing down. It doesn't do that.

So, I'm ready to start on the next part so I sent a mass email asking for the part and rev level. Silence. I asked an engineer I have worked with. Silence.

I just sent another mass email saying that my programming effort is on hold until I get the info I need. So far, silence.
I have a feeling it's going to be that way until the schedule starts getting tight and they ask for a status update and I tell them there is no status because you all refuse to do your jobs.

I have never seen such a clusterfuck. The only other one that comes close never made it this far.

Document , Document , Document.

When the  Release.

Make sure you put a please respond on the e-mail.

Verify it was received.

CYA ,CYA ,CYA.

It can be frustrating.

[Incogneeto]

I've bitched before about the incompetence of the people running this project I'm on and it just goes on and on. The latest kerflufal has to do with different people working on different engineering revisions of the same part.
Now, I get no instructions of any kind telling me what to work on or what rev level it should be. I have asked until I'm blue in the face.

So we've had a couple of meetings where this has been discussed. In a meeting yesterday, I was told that I had been using the wrong revisions on previous parts but it didn't affect the overall part. That was bullshit, btw. So we discussed how to make sure the programmers know what to work on and what revision it should be. It was like the line from Macbeth; full of sound and fury signifying nothing. No solution was found and the manager in charge of the meeting just talked about information flowing down. It doesn't do that.

So, I'm ready to start on the next part so I sent a mass email asking for the part and rev level. Silence. I asked an engineer I have worked with. Silence.

I just sent another mass email saying that my programming effort is on hold until I get the info I need. So far, silence.
I have a feeling it's going to be that way until the schedule starts getting tight and they ask for a status update and I tell them there is no status because you all refuse to do your jobs.

I have never seen such a clusterfuck. The only other one that comes close never made it this far.

Are you still at "Boeing"??

I would title my e-mails "Boeing Starliner"  

[Jeff]

I have never seen such a clusterfuck

Damn.

Speaking of clusterfucks,
We're making a family of parts for a large well known company.
Prints specify dowel holes with an H6 tolerance making it a .0003" slip fit.
Also call out M10 tapped holes (no pitch). Their model shows the tap minor to be 9mm, making it an M10 x 1.

Called the customer, they said to make all dowels a light press fit, and the M10 tap to be M10 x 1.5
wtf?

THEN

on another part in that same family, 2 dowels not called out, measure 6mm on the model.
They said that since it's not called out, to make it a slip fit.

[Incogneeto]

We had a very large (for us) project.

Multiple difficult thin walled parts.

with double negative tolerances.

4.250 (-.0005 -.0007) and such some even weirder.

So why not 4.2495 +0.000 -.0002

I questioned it several times.

My Boss said "just do it."

Soo it was done Parts were delivered en Masse and the screaming started.

It was only $40,000


Boss comes up bitching. Grabs all the Mics and takes off to the Customer.

Out of the 200+ parts one was close to out.

After re-checking it was approved.

Come to find out it was their Mistake.

Should have been 4.250 +0.000 -.0002

But I made sure to DOCUMENT!!

For them the Choice was "Use them or Re-Order"

My Boss was Smiling.

LOL ..... Loc Tite!!!

[mowens]

Sometimes all you can do is smile.

[Jim at Gentex]

Sometimes all you can do is smile.

Yep.
As Incog said, at least you can go back to your email requests that went unanswered.

Years ago my bro-in-law got promoted to a management job at Emery Worldwide, which is now owned by UPS.
At his first management meeting, another manager walked in with a stack of printed emails and read receipts.
He asked him why he had them, and the other guy responded, "You'll see..."

He then found the majority of that meeting involved finger-pointing, and people defending themselves with hardcopies of their emails and read receipts.  
After that he understood.

Sounds like you may need to do the same to CYA. 

[Incogneeto]

Sometimes all you can do is smile.

Maybe so.

But Old Man They have these things called Storage Sticks? USB!!!

You can actually Put them on your Keychain.

I understand DoD As long as you don't store Critical info or Protected info.

You can Store some communications.

And if you don't want to leave with them Buy an extra pair of shoes for your Office.      

Nobody wants to put their hand in an old shoe.

[Newbeeee™]

Mike...SURELY, there's procedures?
Drawings and its revision, isn't a difficult thing is it. We've all been working with them for all our working lives

[Incogneeto]

Kinda Like being a Shoplifter.

If you don't hit the Door they can't accuse you.

[Incogneeto]

Mike...SURELY, there's procedures?
Drawings and its revision, isn't a difficult thing is it. We've all been working with them for all our working lives

You Worked at Boeing???

[Incogneeto]

Don't get me wrong.

These were 12' foot sticks and I could have 3 that failed.

Morning wake up and operator lack of Coffee.

I kept those separate.

Some small some Large.

The large found the scrap Bin.

Early in the day temps run small , afternoon Temps run Big.

Compensate.

But in an order this large and so Rushed It was FULL Inspection.

The Boss said I was two days behind.

I Smiled.

When you are young you want to Impress.

When you are Old..... You Do.

[mowens]

Mike...SURELY, there's procedures?
Drawings and its revision, isn't a difficult thing is it. We've all been working with them for all our working lives

I heard an engineer who's loaned in from another department make the comment that the company has processes and procedures in place to start up a new program and these people are ignoring almost all of them.

This is a weird situation. It's a research and technology project, but it's also a production project because we are building multiple units. I don't know where the people running it came from but they have no idea what they are doing, especially about carbon fiber composites. They spend lots of time on piddly details that are meaningless and omit some of the most important things, like NDI (non-destructive inspection) to check the integrity of the laminate. So they have these tight tolerances but no way to check them.
Complicating things is the fact that I'm strictly R&D and have no presence in the production systems and databases.

[gcode]

I asked an engineer I have worked with. Silence.

This is a typical CYA strategy.
If you don't make a decision, you can't make a mistake.
If you don't answer a question, you can't give the wrong answer.

[Jim at Gentex]

This is a typical CYA strategy.
If you don't make a decision, you can't make a mistake.
If you don't answer a question, you can't give the wrong answer.

Yup.
Then the next level is that you criticize and complain about all of the bad decisions made, and wrong answers given by others.

When you reach that level you have mastered the 'Fuck Up Move Up' career path strategy that has produced many of today's corporate CEO's who barely even understand what their company does, much less how they actually do it.