Keep Vendors in Check

The quality of the products purchased from anyone should be checked periodically. This keeps the suppliers and vendors honest. It shouldn't be that way but it is. I'll give you an example of a very big headache that occurred due to a supplier/vendor.

I was working on a fine paper machine and shortly after an outage a mysterious diagonal curl started appearing in the sheet. The thing with diagonal curl is that it's easy to diagnose but difficult to cure. The curl had not been there prior to the outage so it must have come from something that was changed out during the outage. The problem is that there are lots of the things changed out during an outage. So after a week or so of investigating the cause of the curl still couldn't be identified. The problem was that the curl was moving. It wasn't always in the same position. So whatever was causing the curl had to be a moving part. On a paper machine everything moves. So the next step was to send in the corporate engineers. The were as puzzled as the rest of us. Another week passes and still no answer. Next some paper machine experts are brought in, they are the ones that built most of this particular machine. They also supplied some parts that were routinely replaced. By this time it was about time for another outage. The paper machine is taken apart and things are be changed out as normal. Then an old machine tender is looking around at some of the headbox parts. He picks up the lexan sheet and notices something. He says, "these sheets feel flimsier than normal." He tells the machine manager who then tells the paper machine experts. They experts say no it can't be the lexan sheets, but for argument sakes lets put in a new set. Note that they supply the lexan sheets. So the machine is started back up and the diagonal curl is still there. A few days goes by and the machine tender keeps saying he thinks its the lexan sheets, there's something wrong with them. Finally the machine manager finds the old lexan sheets which had a few pieces broken off and says to put them back in. This takes about an hour and a half or so. The machine starts back up and the curl is gone. Hmmm.... The paper machine experts call back to their home office and are told that some changes to the lexan sheet production process had been made but that shouldn't have affected the sheets. After hearing of this change the mill manager makes a call and lets just say that they went back to the old way of making lexan sheets.

So trust your operators when they say something isn't right. And just because they say they're experts it doesn't mean they're always right.