Anyone got any Cautionary Tales for Christmas? Needn't be to do with Christmas, but should be about welding or allied trades in one form or another, and should be true, although names/places can be changed to save embarrassment. There'll be some tales that make this one seem tame, no doubt, but it'll do to spin off with. Set in the late seventies, last century (Jayz, this makes me feel old...), in a factory in the East Midlands.
I worked at a place that amongst other things made seats for truck cabs and tractors, generally to a good standard.
They ran a three-shift system for welding the seats, although there was only ever one guy working on night shift. (Wouldn't be allowed now, but it was then; all he had for company was the night-watchman who was supposed to look-in every couple of hours to check he hadn't fallen asleep or electrocuted himself).
Night-shift was unpopular amongst guys who had families or girlfriends, and shift-swapping was allowed, so pretty soon just one FNG (Fairly New Guy) had swapped around to do all the night-shifts. I'll call him Charlie, although that wasn't his name. He was a bit of a strange guy, and some said his girlfriend worked nights too, although in what capacity we never did find out. He came on at 10 PM, the evening inspector checked his first jobs and then left at 10.30 PM, and the morning inspector came on at 6.30 AM and inspected the last jobs Charlie had done before he left at 6 AM. (By now the old hands amongst you are getting the drift...).
Questions soon got asked because after a couple of months on nights Charlie was knocking out almost half again as many seats as the average welder on day-shift, and as it was mostly piecework he was making nice folding money for those days. The night-watchman reported he had often found Charlie working through his half-hour 2-2.30 AM break, so everyone shrugged it off for awhile, and called him a scrat. Then Management began to take notice, and brought in the Time & Motion people to time the day shift, and the Union got involved because there had been no change of process or machines, and Brother Charlie might just have been an exceptionally hard worker. The Time & Motion people knocked a bit off the price, the Union threatened action, and unofficially told Charlie to ease up a bit.
He took no notice, and feelings were running rather high when Volvo Sweden solved the mystery by sending back a consignment of several thousand truck seats across the North Sea, together with a letter in impeccable English asking if we had any test rigs, and if so suggesting it might be a good idea to use them now and then. If we had no rigs they suggested a blunt cold chisel and a big hammer for testing the penetration of our welds. Seven seats of about forty tested at random had quickly fallen to bits on their test rigs, so the whole lot got sent back. They also pointed out the coding on all of the failures was the same, so can you guess who this was traced back to?
What a scream! The day-shift welders peed themselves laughing, and news spread very quickly throughout the factory, as it was the biggest cock-up for some time and these were always good for a laugh. It was a good thing Charlie was on nights, as life otherwise would have been unlivable. It was bad enough when he ran the gauntlet of clocking on and off. Blokes would wait for him with badly-tacked bits of scrap tube, and ask his opinion on the weld, and break it in half, screaming with laughter as he hurried past with his head down, swearing.
Even in those days you could lay on a nice-looking cold bead very quickly with a mig, and Charlie had obviously found out how to do this to perfection. His first jobs of a night had been good for the evening inspection, and his last ones likewise for the morning. But in between he had been turning out crap like nobody's business, and as he had stacked it all high in metal pallets with the stacker overnight ready for the paint shop, who on morning inspection was going to go to the trouble of pulling out a seat from the middle of the stack and put it on a rig? Much easier for inspection to pick up one fresh from the welding bay and try that, of course.
The Company held an inquiry, and the Union expressed disgust and didn't help him much - understandable under the circumstances. Charlie was suspended after the inquest, and given the choice of the sack or doing remedial work at basic rate for many nights to come. He chose the latter because he wanted to continue doing nights. He was not alone at night from then on: a Night Superintendent was appointed to overlook the factory, and Charlie got special attention; and several interesting little fiddles that were going on overnight in other different departments sadly came to an end.
Moral of the story? It must be that if you're going to make a weld, make a good one, even if it takes a bit longer. Otherwise you'll be found out sooner or later, and it won't always be on a test rig when it happens.
It also illustrates the vulnerability of the piecework system when there is no inspection present.
I worked at a place that amongst other things made seats for truck cabs and tractors, generally to a good standard.
They ran a three-shift system for welding the seats, although there was only ever one guy working on night shift. (Wouldn't be allowed now, but it was then; all he had for company was the night-watchman who was supposed to look-in every couple of hours to check he hadn't fallen asleep or electrocuted himself).
Night-shift was unpopular amongst guys who had families or girlfriends, and shift-swapping was allowed, so pretty soon just one FNG (Fairly New Guy) had swapped around to do all the night-shifts. I'll call him Charlie, although that wasn't his name. He was a bit of a strange guy, and some said his girlfriend worked nights too, although in what capacity we never did find out. He came on at 10 PM, the evening inspector checked his first jobs and then left at 10.30 PM, and the morning inspector came on at 6.30 AM and inspected the last jobs Charlie had done before he left at 6 AM. (By now the old hands amongst you are getting the drift...).
Questions soon got asked because after a couple of months on nights Charlie was knocking out almost half again as many seats as the average welder on day-shift, and as it was mostly piecework he was making nice folding money for those days. The night-watchman reported he had often found Charlie working through his half-hour 2-2.30 AM break, so everyone shrugged it off for awhile, and called him a scrat. Then Management began to take notice, and brought in the Time & Motion people to time the day shift, and the Union got involved because there had been no change of process or machines, and Brother Charlie might just have been an exceptionally hard worker. The Time & Motion people knocked a bit off the price, the Union threatened action, and unofficially told Charlie to ease up a bit.
He took no notice, and feelings were running rather high when Volvo Sweden solved the mystery by sending back a consignment of several thousand truck seats across the North Sea, together with a letter in impeccable English asking if we had any test rigs, and if so suggesting it might be a good idea to use them now and then. If we had no rigs they suggested a blunt cold chisel and a big hammer for testing the penetration of our welds. Seven seats of about forty tested at random had quickly fallen to bits on their test rigs, so the whole lot got sent back. They also pointed out the coding on all of the failures was the same, so can you guess who this was traced back to?
What a scream! The day-shift welders peed themselves laughing, and news spread very quickly throughout the factory, as it was the biggest cock-up for some time and these were always good for a laugh. It was a good thing Charlie was on nights, as life otherwise would have been unlivable. It was bad enough when he ran the gauntlet of clocking on and off. Blokes would wait for him with badly-tacked bits of scrap tube, and ask his opinion on the weld, and break it in half, screaming with laughter as he hurried past with his head down, swearing.
Even in those days you could lay on a nice-looking cold bead very quickly with a mig, and Charlie had obviously found out how to do this to perfection. His first jobs of a night had been good for the evening inspection, and his last ones likewise for the morning. But in between he had been turning out crap like nobody's business, and as he had stacked it all high in metal pallets with the stacker overnight ready for the paint shop, who on morning inspection was going to go to the trouble of pulling out a seat from the middle of the stack and put it on a rig? Much easier for inspection to pick up one fresh from the welding bay and try that, of course.
The Company held an inquiry, and the Union expressed disgust and didn't help him much - understandable under the circumstances. Charlie was suspended after the inquest, and given the choice of the sack or doing remedial work at basic rate for many nights to come. He chose the latter because he wanted to continue doing nights. He was not alone at night from then on: a Night Superintendent was appointed to overlook the factory, and Charlie got special attention; and several interesting little fiddles that were going on overnight in other different departments sadly came to an end.
Moral of the story? It must be that if you're going to make a weld, make a good one, even if it takes a bit longer. Otherwise you'll be found out sooner or later, and it won't always be on a test rig when it happens.
It also illustrates the vulnerability of the piecework system when there is no inspection present.
hum, i wear those too....
