OT: Hound dog problem management.

[TConnolly]

An industrial salesman was making rounds out in the farm country and he stopped at a farm house to ask for directions to a local factory. The old farmer gave the needed directions and since he didn't get many visitors he jawed with the salesman for a while. Every few minutes a lazy old hound dog on the front porch would lift his head and let out the most pitiful moaning howl and then put his head back down. Finally the salesman asked the farmer, "Whats the matter with that dog?" The farmer replied "Oh, he's just laying on a nail in the porch." A few moments later the dog moaned again and the salesman asked "Well, why doesn't he move?" The farmer replied "The nail hurts him just bad enough to make him howl, but not bad enough to make him move."

Today I saw a perfect example of this in action. Rather than rod out a clogged heat exchanger that was causing an over-heating problem, Bubba the hound dog slapped on a loud F.S. warning horn and a temperature switch. So now not only does the operator know he has a problem that he can't do anything about, something he already knew, he now has to put up with the buzzer.

I bet someone uses a pair of wire cutters on it before the weekend. I just hope whoever does it doesn't get electro-zapped.


What other examples of hound dog problem management have you seen with respect to our field?

 

[Stationmaster]

I once heard a supposedly true story about a construction site years ago... An OSHA inspector visited one day and concluded that all of the equipment should have back-up alarms (this was apparently before they were so prevalent). EVERYthing. All the bobcats, cement trucks, tractors, forklifts, pickups, dump trucks..... EVERYTHING! So the construction company complied. On the NEXT monthly OSHA inspection a DIFFERENT inspector determined that the site was now too noisy and that all of the employees would have to wear hearing protection. Ugh.

 

[godfrey]

I've seen more than one broken car tail light covered with red reflective tape.

 

[surferb]

Those first 2 stories are great! Keep 'em coming!

 

[leitmotif]

Are we allowed to get political???
Criticize the government??

Dan Bentler

 

[surferb]

Big Brother is watching - keep it tasteful...but if it's funny...you have my vote

 

[bernie_carlton]

Many years ago I visited a plant running a machine we supplied. The production floor was literally caked with dust. One control cabinet which had been outfitted with blowers and filters to cool it was standing with its door wide open and a floor fan blowing directly into it. They said it was too difficult to keep the filters clean. On the same machine a vacuum pump was also encrusted with dust. The motor got so hot that the nylon fan blade MELTED. Do you think they would at least blow off the motor? No, they wanted a stainless steel fan to be mounted to the motor!

 

[leitmotif]

I have posted elsewhere on management fallacy on cabinets cooling fans filters with respect to the dust challenge. They have same vein as Bernies post.

The first tool used in many plants with dust is the air gun. Works great moves a bunch of stuff on the floor. It also moves a bunch of fine stuff into the air so you can sweep it up later or blow it again - all over the place again.

Yes I know the management refrain "vacuums take too long"
If you cannot afford to do it right in the first place how many more times can you afford to do it wrong?

Air guns should be used when all else wont work.

Dan Bentler

 

[Andybr]

Dan.
I am sure you have worked in the Food industry. Surely you are aware that anything which can be done with a few cubes of air can be done better with a few hundred gallons of water.

 

[leitmotif]

Andy
Oh yes they do - stand back with hose and keep pouring water on it until it looks clean
- but at least with a hose the stuff goes down the drain
then they spray a foamy stuff to kill the bugs n bacteria
AND the honored American tradition of out of sight out of mind down the drain is honored. The other thing about this is it is good job security for electricians.

Dan Bentler

 

[silva.foxx]

Dan.
I am sure you have worked in the Food industry. Surely you are aware that anything which can be done with a few cubes of air can be done better with a few hundred gallons of water.

Snap! I was on top of a machine once when a hygiene guy at the food factory chased a pea, yes a small green pea, from one side of this machine round to the other side and further to the drain... how many gallons? Also the hygiene guys used to bag the motors, general bin bags, then start up the machines leaving them enclose the motors! Try picking molten plastic off a hot motor when you need to replace the burnt out unit!

I also worked in a napkin factory, lots of airbourne paper dust resulted in a constant haze and settlement on motors and panels. Air guns where used to clean up as vacuum cleaners got clogged plus needed to be emptied!

That hygiene guy was tops!

 

[leitmotif]

How could I have been so stupid to overlook that vacuums need to be emptied. My gosh think of the time savings with air guns.

On other hand the dirt and dust you just push around and reloacate with air gun is trapped in vacuum (must be cause you gotta empty em) and you are finally rid of it. Of course if the vacuums dont get the dust then the air filters in the HVAC will catch it UNLESS they took those out because they kept plugging.

I thoroughly PO'd a guy doing washdown at food plant when I took his hose away and gave him a scrub brush and bucket of water he whine and cried about if for weeks. I got chewed out for that one.

Yes they fried one or two motors when they put plastic bags on em before starting the machine and hosing it down. Its all kinds of fun cutting that plastic off the shafts and drive gears with water dripping down your neck because the motors are always under the machine.

Dan Bentler

 

[Stationmaster]

Several decades ago the phone company I worked for at the time decided to build a new, high rise building. It was to be right next to their old building and AS such, directly in line with their existing microwave transmission signal to another city. Since the new building would block the old transmission route, it would have interrupted all the communication between two large cities. The solution would be to build a RELAY tower that WASN'T in-line and divert the signal through IT. Problem solved. Clever those engineers.

So they planned everything out, right down to the last detail, construction time tables, cut-over dates, etc.,etc., and started construction.

About eighteen months before the relay tower was to be completed, (long after the engineers had completed THEIR work, taken their bows, patted each other on the back, propped their feet up, and lit up their cigars)......ALL THE COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE TWO MAJOR CITIES WENT DOWN!

The engineers had calculated the COMPLETION date of the new high rise, but failed to take into account that the steel skeleton would be the first thing to go up, and that IT would block the existing microwave signal!!!!!!



The only thing they could do was remove the offending steel, suspend construction on the new high-rise, and work like CRAZY on the relay tower.

Never heard a final cost figure, or who got FIRED, but the building got built (eventually), AFTER the microwave circuits got re-routed.....

Stationmaster

 

[Oakley]

Never heard a final cost figure, or who got FIRED, but the building got built (eventually), AFTER the microwave circuits got re-routed.....

Stationmaster

No one was fired ... the offending engineer was promoted to manager!

 

[Stationmaster]

No one was fired ... the offending engineer was promoted to manager!

I don't know about THAT, but it wasn't long afterward that "microwave ovens" began showing up in retail stores.....

I wonder how the steel workers warmed up their lunches?