Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

[cheesy]

Something is still in the air, still don't know what, though.

As to the continuing saga of T-Mobile, I'm not the only one PO'd. One of the Sales guys had to drive forty miles from a job site to get enough of a signal to send a photo to the office.

Now, the Customer Service folks at T-Mobile have been as helpful as can be. They tried. They even sent me a Cell Spot, kind of a mini cell tower, that's supposed to tie into my wifi router. My ISP and the Cell Spot couldn't play well together. My ISP told me that they could not open the ports needed to make the Cell Spot work except through port forwarding. Port forwarding doesn't work with the Cell Spot because it's not wifi and does not have an IP address. I was pretty much told that I'd need to purchase my own router to make the Cell Spot work. I may do that in the future, but I'm not doing it because some moron at work decided to change mobile carriers. So, the Cell Spot is being boxed up and returned.

I'm going to keep pushing to get my number back with AT&T but if that isn't successful, I'll just tell the drones at work that if they need to contact when I'm working from home, it will have to be via email.

[cheesy]

OMG, Beaufort actually did the right thing. Not with T-Mobile, I'm still screwed there. Nope, but UPS Freight dropped and damaged a new machine before delivering it to the customer. I drove out to Cleveland to look at it Tuesday. A couple grand worth of damage that we are holding UPS to.

Normally, Beaufort would send me out with a bunch of parts to fix it. I held that the customer paid for a new machine, they should get a new machine. And...Beaufort agreed with me. So, we don't have another new machine on hand but have two on order. We are, however, shipping a recently refurbished machine to them in to use in the meantime until their new one arrives.

[cheesy]

I have been quiet here but lots and lots of drama this past few weeks.

The new machine shipped to NYC back in February still isn't working. This time it's Tier 4 emissions stuff of which I know nothing, plus a wonky alternator which may be causing the emission codes, and a leaking cylinder. Last week, I got with our new PA to set up an account with the local JD equipment dealer and an appointment because new corporate rules won't let me use the AMEX card for third party field service anymore. There must be a PO or it's not getting done.
So, the new PA tells me that JD needs the engine serial number. I don't have it, you guys do. It's either on the PO for the engine, the build sheet for machine, or the Sales Order. So, stupid me figures it's done.
No, I get out to NYC to meet with the JD people and find out no appointment had been made because no one from Beaufort got off their asses to look up the serial number. They still expected me to get it for them. I called my boss and ripped him and it went up the chain of command from there. The PA was called on the carpet and was pretty much determined that she is unqualified for the position. Which is what those of us who have to work with her told those who put her in that position.
We finally get an appointment set up, which isn't until next week. So, I have to postpone everything I had planned for next week and be back in NYC instead. This was a waste of two grand. I told my contact at the customer that they should be charging us storage fees.

The platform truck in Denver now has two service guys, a sales guy, and two engineers involved in getting it corrected. I won't go into the debacle with the PTO other than to say the service guys were right and the CE put another nail in his coffin.
Apparently, whoever made the hydraulic hoses at Beaufort used 2-wire crimp fittings on 4-wire hose, unnecessarily skived the hoses, and did a lousy crimp on top of all of it. Hoses blew left and right. Photos were sent to me and after shaking my head, I told those involved that every hydraulic hose on that truck is now suspect. And they agreed.

So, I told you all that to tell you this. We are still getting orders for large, very expensive machines. All of those orders are now being farmed out and will not be built in Beaufort any longer. There are four of the 360 loaders in the pipeline in Beaufort. Once those are finished, production will be moved back to Italy. Final set up will still be done in Beaufort, but on a much smaller scale.

The move to Beaufort was mainly to have control over production and QC. What we will now have in the future is a larger, more inefficient version of Elgin. Glad I won't be there to see it happen.

[cheesy]

How's this for irony? I mentioned yesterday that every hydraulic hose on the platform truck in Denver was now suspect. The CEO told the guys to pack it up and go home, he's sending a tractor trailer and bringing the truck back to Beaufort. Again.

I wasn't involved in the call but my cohort gave me the gist of it. Trent was on a tear with Al, the CE, the QC guy, and the Production supervisor. New Prod Super starts on Monday. All hydraulic lines on the truck are to be replaced with Eaton GH-781 hose and fittings, as was spec'd.(Someone's head is on the chopping block for using Weatherhead). All test procedures and results are to be documented, like we did in Elgin. Apparently, what little was done on this truck was falsified.(Another head on the chopping block).

I had my own talk with Trent yesterday, regarding the machine in NYC and the on going fiasco with T-Mobile. After we finished up, he said he was on his way to lunch and had thought about having a beer with his lunch, then said no. I changed his mind.

Trent told Jason that he is planning on meeting all of us field guys, sales and service, off premises in the near future. He feels that we're the only ones that have been honest with him.

[cheesy]

Oh, man. It took some help from John Deere but I finally got the machine in Staten Island fixed. This week was my fourth trip dealing with it. Figure $1500-2000 every time I come out here. I had everything fixed but some engine codes. Long story short, the pressure and return lines on the DEF pump were crossed. As I know not an effing thing about DEF systems, I didn’t know what to look for. But when it was pointed out to me, it was so obvious the even Stevie Wonder could have seen it. Especially when the hoses are marked for the correct positions.

Now, it was obvious that all the time the machine was in Beaufort, it was only idled. If it had been run at 1800+rpm for at least forty minutes like required for testing purposes, it would have thrown the DEF and Engine Derate codes. Another nail in the QC guys coffin.

[bogieboy]

wow..... was the engine/exhaust installed by beaufort guys or did it come as a drop in crate package? i am going to assume that it was beaufort, but deere has had some slip ups lately as well on the QC side of things...

[A1R 250 bob]

Mr. Cheesy,

Reading your comments causes me nightmares. I do not miss industrial manufacturing very much at all.

[cheesy]

Originally Posted by bogieboy

wow..... was the engine/exhaust installed by beaufort guys or did it come as a drop in crate package? i am going to assume that it was beaufort, but deere has had some slip ups lately as well on the QC side of things...

It was Beaufort. They also mounted the DEF pump upside down.

Where Deere outfit in Beaufort screwed up is they were checking some other engine codes earlier. The computer interface is right next to the DEF pump and no one noticed it was upside down and plumbed wrong.

[cheesy]

Well, the continuing story...I guess we are going to have a long heart to heart with the Deere outfit in Beaufort regarding the engine set up and inspection, if there was supposed to be any. I know when we do a new Duetz engine install, the Duetz people have to do an on site inspection and testing before they'll sign off on the install. Bogie, you'd know more about this than I would.

On a positive note, I am no longer part of T-Mobile. It took two weeks to get the final bit of info I needed from our PA to get my number ported back to AT&T. Once I had it, the porting only took five minutes. Back with my Kyocera mil-spec phone that has service in every room of Cheesy Manor.

[bogieboy]

I really dont have a clue Monsieur Fromage....LOL i havr never dealt with a third party install of a Deere engine myself, the shop i work in primarily centers around lawn and garden up to compact utility tractors.... not the OEM engines or ag stuff....

[cheesy]

You're lucky then.

[cheesy]

Have you ever had the chance to watch a new manager make an absolute fool of himself? I didn’t get to see it but I sure got to hear about it.

So, new production manager has his own style. He has also inherited a mess so he’s trying to fix it. He has a daily fifteen minute meeting with the crew that everyone on the floor is required to attend, even the Service guys. He asks a lot a questions of everyone. He gets to one of the Service guys and asks why it takes so long to get stuff done. I guess he didn’t want to hear about constant interruptions and part shortages. The new PM tells the two Service guys that he will be in their department to give them some “Direction”. I heard about it and I was “Oh, sweetie. Don’t do that.”

Service is not part of Production. Service is a separate entity. We just occupy space in the building. If we had our druthers, Service would still be in Elgin, IL.

One of the guys called Harold. My understanding is the new PM was white as a sheet and very quiet after Harold got done with him.

[cheesy]

The Official Cheesy Farewell Tour starts today. Off to Puerto Rico this morning with a 1st class upgrade. This Short Timers Disease is pretty cool.

What's not so cool is that, as a company, we are beginning to circle the drain a bit quicker. Jason was down in Beaufort for two weeks to supervise testing of the returned truck. He got down there and found that the truck hadn't been moved from where it was dropped off three weeks ago. Also, critical parts that were requested before the truck arrived in Beaufort had not been ordered.
Harold, and his lack of spine, told Jason to ask Purchasing to order the parts and Jason went ballistic. He told Harold that the only way he would do that was if he got a huge raise and about twenty people were fired. And he cut his two week trip to two days.

I went out to see a local customer about a new piece of equipment that didn't work out of the box. I'm looking at it and something isn't right. I ordered some replacement parts AND the engineering drawings for those. Sure as shit, there is an error in the drawing. Oh, boy.
I point these out to Harold. He hems and haws and started to say "Well," and I went ballistic. I told him I was tired of his head in the sand BS and ignoring problems until they go away. Either he does something about it or Jason and I will.

Can't wait for that first rum drink tonight.

[cheesy]

The trip to PR was a success. I was glad to see some good friends I hadn’t seen since 2018 and I think they were glad to see me. Our Spanish speaking sales rep came along, which helped a lot because my second language is supposed to be French but it’s actually swearing. I got some issues sorted on their high rail crane I could have taken care of over the phone but for the language problem. That took all of ten minutes with Eddy interpreting between Carlos and myself. Carlos and I go back at least twenty years, when Tren Urbano was just a construction project. We’re good friends who have somewhat of a language barrier but Carlos taught me how to appreciate PR for what it is.
The other guy there I know well is Orlando, who Carlos works for. Orlando has never missed a meal and knows the best places in San Juan to eat. And Eddy and I did that with him. We both ate way too much.
It did turn out that the one guy we needed to see had gotten himself canned for reasons I won’t go into, other than you thought you knew somebody...We instead were introduced, by Orlando, to the woman who has taken over the Purchasing Dept. Orlando introduced Ed as our Sales Rep who has been helping for about 13 years, then introduced me as our head mechanic who has been working with Tren Urbano since the first shovelful of dirt was turned. I was quite surprised when I got a hug. She has been there since the beginning, too. I asked her if she was one of the idiots standing in the steel shipping containers during the many thunder storms, and she said she was the Idiot in Charge and remembered me calling them a bunch of nitwits, then sitting in my car during the storms. She said I was probably the smartest person there that week.
I had hoped that no one would mention the one machine there that is thorn in my side and I damn near made it. Today it was brought up. Crap. The machine is an obsolete 2001 tamper that is a pain for replacement parts. I think I am the only guy in the northern hemisphere that can work on it. I lucked out that I didn’t have my pressure gauge nor my manual with all my notes with me. It does mean that I am coming back in August. Dirty thankless job but someone’s gotta do it.

[Sport Rider]

always fun to go to PR. I've been there a number of times on business.