Wake up you complete idiot

[Morrisman]

Sounds like you might have been under the same misapprehension we used to work under here - we assumed we had engineering buyers placing our orders for components, both proprietary items and for our own drawings.

As proven many times, we seem to simply have order placers who have absolutely no idea what they are trying to buy, and even less idea if the price they have been quoted has any hint of sensibility in the real world . . . I suspect a few of our suppliers have also realised this, and for the sake of few tins of Quality Street once a year to keep those order placers placing orders with them, simply think of a number, double it, promise to deliver it by the agreed date . . . and something nearly what we wanted arrives a week or two after we expected . . .

And then there was the times the buyer couldn’t find what we had ordered, didn’t understand what it was anyway, so they would find a suitable ’alternative’……

eg Oil filters, for Kaiser screw air compressors, they’re 4 feet long, 8 inches diameter. Three months we had been waiting, and we’re down to our very last filter, and our whole operation would be shut down, $750,000 a day in lost revenue……

Resupply day arrives.…… …..and a case of car engine oil filters turns up.
They had nearly the same part number on…..

 

[Robotstar5]

20 years ago a guy I worked offshore with ordered 200 pop rivets from a well known online store. The order was done through our company, as usual, but they didn’t seem to think anything unusual about one guy ordering 200 packs of rivets, with 100 per pack, and approved and processed the order.

I still have a few hundred of the 20,000 rivets that arrived, in my workshop, as probably do several of the other guys I worked with at the time.

When I worked at Rover I ordered 10 off each cable lugs of about 8 different sizes, purchasing ordered 10 bags of 10 each size!

And then there was the times the buyer couldn’t find what we had ordered, didn’t understand what it was anyway, so they would find a suitable ’alternative’……

eg Oil filters, for Kaiser screw air compressors, they’re 4 feet long, 8 inches diameter. Three months we had been waiting, and we’re down to our very last filter, and our whole operation would be shut down, $750,000 a day in lost revenue……

Resupply day arrives.…… …..and a case of car engine oil filters turns up.
They had nearly the same part number on…..

Another one from Rover, we were getting very low on pistons for the K series engine assembly line, luckily 5 pallets arrived in time, until we opened them and found each piston had a nice "Ford" logo on I always wondered if Dagenham received a batch of K series pistons.

 

[Erie Fred]

I was a young apprentice working on a small motor assembly line, 90vdc 1-3 hp units, we made 40 a day.

Mid 1980's back when Fedex was expensive airfreight.

We ran out of the cast aluminum end bells, boss paid dearly to have a crate of them IIRC 1500 lbs air freighted
over night.

Sat in receiving for qty (3) days as the clerk was a jerk, and only received in order....

I was instructed by my boss to get on the forklift "But I don't have a license"...
"I don't care, drive up to receiving, and get this crate and come back here with it.....there will be a very angry clerk
running behind you, but pay no attention to him...."

And he was right on all accounts. That clerk was mad as Yosemite Sam.

 

[Robotstar5]

I was a young apprentice working on a small motor assembly line, 90vdc 1-3 hp units, we made 40 a day.

Mid 1980's back when Fedex was expensive airfreight.

We ran out of the cast aluminum end bells, boss paid dearly to have a crate of them IIRC 1500 lbs air freighted
over night.

We had similar with some seat frame parts made at our sister company in Brazil, they normally came by sea, but due to local supply problems we started to run short so the company had to pay to air freight a batch to the UK. Another time all the managers were watching an app tracking the container ship to see if it would dock before we ran out of parts.

 

[Cobbler]

When I worked at Rover I ordered 10 off each cable lugs of about 8 different sizes, purchasing ordered 10 bags of 10 each size!



Another one from Rover, we were getting very low on pistons for the K series engine assembly line, luckily 5 pallets arrived in time, until we opened them and found each piston had a nice "Ford" logo on I always wondered if Dagenham received a batch of K series pistons.

Did they fit?

 

[Erie Fred]

Did they fit?

First On Race Day....I'm sure they fit just fine.....

 

[Morrisman]

A workmates' son damaged his wheely bin, as the council wanted a fortune to replace it he went onto ebay and found two for a few pounds, brilliant. Then looked at the head of the page where it said 'model railways'.

My daughter’s wheelie bin blew away in a recent storm, never to be seen again. The council sent a replacement a few days later.

How a big blue bin can disappear in a street full of terraced houses is beyond me, it’s not really the sort of thing people steal.

 

[Bullet2012]

 

[RWD3M]

RAF Lossiemouth, circa 1981 if memory serves, there was a large fire in supply squadron destroying amongst other things, many spare parts for the incumbent Jaguar and Hunter aircraft. The fire began in the crew room on the night of a p155 up (no surprises there!) but was fortunately brought under control by the airfield fire fighters before the entire building was engulfed.

Following the repairs, they (the suppliers) decided that they would go down the disposable paper cup route for the tea bar instead of unhygenic (often cracked and rarely cleaned) ceramic mugs and ordered 1000 paper cups. What they (yes, the suppliers!) hadn't realised, was that the D of Q (Denomination of Quantity in MoD speak) was already 1000. Sure enough, a million paper cups duly arrived!!!

 

[colnerov]

I briefly worked with a civilian storeman/driver who worked in an MOD stores previously, they fairly regularly assembled kit for 'special operations'. He also had a knack for interrogating the parts system. One day he was called in to the COs office and asked
"Did you request a helicopter?"
"Yes?"
"Why?"
"I thought it might help?"
"Well I've cancelled it" with a half smile. "Don't do it again, on your way." Apparently they'd phoned to check they had facilities to unload it.

 

[m_c]

And then there was the times the buyer couldn’t find what we had ordered, didn’t understand what it was anyway, so they would find a suitable ’alternative’……

eg Oil filters, for Kaiser screw air compressors, they’re 4 feet long, 8 inches diameter. Three months we had been waiting, and we’re down to our very last filter, and our whole operation would be shut down, $750,000 a day in lost revenue……

Resupply day arrives.…… …..and a case of car engine oil filters turns up.
They had nearly the same part number on…..

At a previous employer, somebody asked the service controller to order in some screw compressor service kits for stock.
A few days later, a wooden crate arrives and out of curiosity I ask why two airheads have been delivered.
Turned out he'd been given the part number for the airhead, so he just ordered 5, but the supplier only had two available, and his response was "I thought they were a bit expensive for filters".

 

[Robotstar5]

I briefly worked with a civilian storeman/driver who worked in an MOD stores previously, they fairly regularly assembled kit for 'special operations'. He also had a knack for interrogating the parts system. One day he was called in to the COs office and asked
"Did you request a helicopter?"
"Yes?"
"Why?"
"I thought it might help?"
"Well I've cancelled it" with a half smile. "Don't do it again, on your way." Apparently they'd phoned to check they had facilities to unload it.

Back in the 80's a chap I knew through the Land Rover club worked for BT and found everything BT used had a part number so he ordered a Land Rover, but due to the cost the order went to his manager for countersigning, he declined

 

[Erie Fred]

Back in the 80's a chap I knew through the Land Rover club worked for BT and found everything BT used had a part number so he ordered a Land Rover, but due to the cost the order went to his manager for countersigning, he declined

Should have ordered it "One piece at a time".....

 

[Cobbler]

Should have ordered it "One piece at a time".....

I remember back in the early 70’s, someone working for Jaguar I think it was stole a complete car bit by bit & assembled it at home. From what I recall he got caught when he tried to register it, he made up a fictitious chassis number & someone in DVLC realised the numbers were out of sequence.

 

[500e]

That sounds a bit like the speed bump build on the entrance to our offices, spec. in mm, but built in inches over the weekend, total chaos on Monday morning, no-one was aware of them being built. I watched one car completely air-born, & Mercedes truck hit the prop shaft center bearing mounting & ripped it clean out of the chassis,

Speed bumps Somerset CC think this is acceptable, I have been told "nothing wrong" would think not measured 12 inches above the road surface
Verge on edge of rhyne collapsing due to traffic trying to miss it

 

[Erie Fred]

Looks like you could do a Joey Chitwood impersonation if you got the speed up a wee bit....
FF to 2:45

Chitwood said he always used stock cars, no special tricks other than the ramp to get it up on 2 wheels.

 

[Cobbler]

Speed bumps Somerset CC think this is acceptable, I have been told "nothing wrong" would think not measured 12 inches above the road surface
Verge on edge of rhyne collapsing due to traffic trying to miss it
View attachment 436338

@500e hit that at speed & I would think it would tip you over into the drink! Surely that is unsafe in that position so close to the edge.

 

[Onthespotwelding]

Bit late to the party! I use regal paints it’s good stuff

Skip and Container Paint

Regal Skip and Container Paint is a tough, long lasting, fast drying, semi-gloss primer finish made on high build alkyd resin. Manufactured in our factory.

regalpaint.co.uk

 

[500e]

Totally agree it started with wet weather and wind a tree started to lean the road heaved a bit as tree fell it got worse.
Complained instead of cutting tree down and removing root they tarmacked over I complained pointing out that made it worse so they built a tarmac ramp one side, traffic is by passing the highest bit by driving on verge which is now collapsing into rhyne, complained again they say it conforms to requirement!!!! Phoning Monday