Scrapyard madness

[DAPPH]

As I said if it is skipped in the correct channels there can be no come back on the company scrapping it.

One ISO company I know of does not have one iota of any materials fixings or fittings put into a job that has not been specifically ordered for the contract , as liability insurance demands it .
Even to the scrapping of all jigs & gismos the tackers & welders use on a project.
It used to be that such aids were kept on shelves in a set aside caged area & the lads went in it to see if they could use or modify something to help them in the construction of the project. Everything was scrapped and all lockers & under work benches were cleared of tons of jigs & aids to prevent falling foul of ISO rules & regs .

Image fitting mild steel bolts left over from a previous job in a place where high tensile steel ones are stated in the design and the mild steel ones sheer off killing half a dozen or more people . The financial risk is just not worth it . Same with selling unused or used stuff the lability for safety is still in place against the seller of the goods. Centre Parc scrap all their hire cycles each year because of this .

 

[Seadog]

As sensible as it is, in many respects, the law of unintended consequences means that the levels of waste are astronomical, and this is in a society that is "trying" to become ecologically friendly. Surely there has to be room for some compromise.

 

[DAPPH]

In our litigious times sadly no.

 

[TechnicAl]

Its Accountants, once the write off (depreciation) is complete its no longer an asset...it becomes a cost and they dont like costs so better to scrap it than sell it.....if they sell it theres tax to pay and VAT and its more paperwork.

 

[Climber]

Its Accountants, once the write off (depreciation) is complete its no longer an asset...it becomes a cost and they dont like costs so better to scrap it than sell it.....if they sell it theres tax to pay and VAT and its more paperwork.

Exactly that, it's business. When a piece of equipment is bought it will be depreciated over a certain amount of years until it's worth nothing on the books. Once this happens, it's served its useful purpose as far as the business is concerned and it's time to start again. There is (sadly) no point in anyone spending any time on getting a few hundred quid for something that could simply be scrapped.

 

[Robotstar5]

Exactly that, it's business. When a piece of equipment is bought it will be depreciated over a certain amount of years until it's worth nothing on the books. Once this happens, it's served its useful purpose as far as the business is concerned and it's time to start again. There is (sadly) no point in anyone spending any time on getting a few hundred quid for something that could simply be scrapped.

I saw that when I worked at Rover, during one of the shutdowns a man came round with a clipboard doing the annual asset checks and he told me the plant value would be written down a percentage each year and after 10 years was worth zero on the books. He was checking one of the Metro underframe transfer welding lines at the time which had cost 7.5 million each in 1979

Apologies for poor image quality, it's a scan of a print taken with a compact camera even though we couldn't take cameras on site

 

[earthman]

Do you get the feeling that the people who are in charge at these companies have no idea on how to use these machines?

 

[TechnicAl]

When the assets are written off it makes some Companies vulnerable to take overs and buy outs. Some will buy things to maintain the value of the Company, even if its not really needed....I found that often resulted in nice offices with fancy chairs and plush carpets rather than nice equipment for making stuff....but thats the old cynic in me....it often got me new shoes though (to prevent me walking on the new carpet in my mucky shoes)....

I also once got a new suit when I was introduced to some important customers who wanted to meet me....The MD "here is Al, hes a bit scruffy but he knows his stuff"...ME "cant afford suits"...........afterwards told to go get a suit on expenses......they soon gave up on that one though

 

[Stingray]

I was in Singapore a few years back and We asked a local company to make startup/lay down heads and A&R heads for the project, the local company asked us to come over for a chat and view their facilities, they had a small shed that was like a graveyard which had a lot of non CRC Lathes, Mills, etc. I asked if they still used a 80 tonne Geka Ironworker and Bridgeport Milling machine, the guy said no as most of their work is CNC and they do not do any structural work and never use the ironworker, I asked the director of the engineering company if He would throw these two lovely items in with the deal if the heads were a little bit more expensive, He agreed to this but I would need to arrange something from My side, I spoke to a few people that were in a position to authorise this within My company but it never happened, annoying thing is that it was the oil company that were paying for the heads and the more expensive they were the more profit we made, I thought it was a win win arrangement all round but apparently the pen pushers could see this...

 

[WorkshopChris]

Do you get the feeling that the people who are in charge at these companies have no idea on how to use these machines?

Once upon a time the man at the top was in his 50's and had worked his way up to board level from an apprentice, he could do or had a good idea of exactly how the company worked. Now you go to university to do a management degree and parachute into whatever business pays well, you have no clue how anything or anyone works, they are just numbers on a spreadsheet.

 

[TechnicAl]

One of the reasons I dislike Accountants so much

When we were taken over, the stick electrode factory in Sheffield were told they were going to invest in new equipment....to be honest we didnt really need it but we had to go along with it...In truth they sent us a load of scrap that had been removed from other factories all over the world...we had to update it and make it work...we had a budget to do this....We knew that all this "investment" would increase our costs and if they ever wanted to shut down a factory it would put us at the top of the list. Their argument was that we would improve output and the extra output would easily cover the increased costs...this was at at time when the sales were falling year on year, and not just us. The sales of stick electrodes has fallen every year I have been involved and I started in 1977...So we knew we were heading for closure.

The confirmation came when we "inherited" a new oven. It was a continuous one with a chain conveyor that carried the rods through....we started to install it and soon realised that it was bigger than the building.......they had sent drawings showing where it should go....but they had drawn it smaller to make it fit...we were determined so we altered it and made it fit and then we made it work......that was 1995....they closed the place in 1997.....I think we were supposed to be blamed for not making the most of this oven, but we did.

Our products were then made in Holland and Spain....both factories were higher cost but also had stronger employment laws that protected employees....the extra production inherited from the UK would spread their costs wider. I had almost 2 years travelling to both factories almost every week to supervise the transfer.

They had us dismantle some of the equipment and some was sent to Mongolia (honestly).....Ten years later I had a phone call at home from one of the Engineers in the Head Office. He told me that this equipment had been sent and installed but they had never been able to make rods with it. He also asked if I would go over and help them. He didnt know that I had been made redundant 6 months earlier....

 

[zzr1200]

I worked on a major rebuild/refurb of one of the capitals stations the overall waste allowance priced into the job, so I was told was £80,000,000 (10%) of the total contract price...

There was loads of stuff missing

At the end of the job they had even lost 3 x 20ft shipping containers used for site storage, no one knew where they had gone!

Plus about 80, 8 x 4 x 1inch thick road plates...

Just part of the write it off mentality...

Its just figures for the accountants, I'll bet if it was their own money it would be different...

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

I worked on a major rebuild/refurb of one of the capitals stations the overall waste allowance priced into the job, so I was told was £80,000,000 (10%) of the total contract price...

There was loads of stuff missing

At the end of the job they had even lost 3 x 20ft shipping containers used for site storage, no one knew where they had gone!

Plus about 80, 8 x 4 x 1inch thick road plates...

Just part of the write it off mentality...

Its just figures for the accountants, I'll bet if it was their own money it would be different...

At least the stuff that disappeared was put to use rather than the scrap heap.

 

[zzr1200]

At least the stuff that disappeared was put to use rather than the scrap heap.

True there was loads and loads of wasted materials but some of the stuff that when missing was unbelievable something like 400+ Hilti Drills the only drills they had handed in at the end of the job were dead ones.

The company I worked for billed them for 45+ control boxes for electric scissors alone, over the course of the 4 year contract and that's without all the other access companies equipment on site.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

This behaviour is probably based on bitter experience unfortunately. I'm sure there will be a story somewhere about some sort of crazy liability claim against the company insurance after someone bought something and then claimed it wasn't fit for purpose....etc etc etc.

My philosophy is that no good deed ever goes unpunished!

 

[LewisT]

I was working in a hospital about a decade ago that was transferring to a new one, they had a central stores warehouse to send all the stationary printer paper ink cartridges toner back to no one cared and the majority of it ended up in the bins. That was only in the offices heard stories of much pilfering in all the other areas.

 

[Mick Annick]

When I started out in transport all of the concrete mixer bodies were removed and scrapped when the truck reached the end of it’s life (i.e. written down to zero by the accountants), likewise when I got into car transporting, they were always cut up - both in order to suppress any competition...

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

Wait until you see what the MOD send to be scraped. I posted about it in the past. It was shameful what was being cut up.

Worse is the companies supplying the MOD, that is nearly criminal.

 

[pressbrake1]

Big business madness
I worked at plc sized machine shop.
Manager had the men chuck 2ton of titanium and phosphor bronze in the general rubbish skip to promote clear vision and tidiness

But there was no money for a air regulator...

 

[Tinbasherdan]

Wait until you see what the MOD send to be scraped. I posted about it in the past. It was shameful what was being cut up.

Worse is the companies supplying the MOD, that is nearly criminal.

Been there, got that t shirt