Minor rant thread. Post your rants o' the day here!

Me: I need O rings like this drawing but for other certifications that I have to get, along with the normal one, here is a new drawing. They all have to be from the same supplier.

Procurement: OK can we just order from that drawing?

Me: I mean, maybe, but they will need other certifications eventually and they need to come from the same supplier

Procurement: Fine, then you need a new drawing.

Me: yeah, I have one. here it is. Again.

Procurement: Fine, do they need other certifications? Can we just buy the regular ones?

Me: Yes, but they have to be from the same supplier, and I have to get additional certifications. Please pick a supplier and order a few hundred of each.

Procurement.....

Me: Have you ordered them yet?

Procurement: No, we're trying to find one that meets the additional certifications.

Me: Right, I need to get that certification once you get them.

Procurement: Oh, are you changing your mind again? Now you want them ordered like the normal O ring drawing but from the same supplier?

Me: Right, that's what I said... nevermind. yes. I want that now.

Procurement: But how can I find them with this other certification?

This has been three weeks so far.

In reply to tuna55 :

That's why I only correspond in email or text.

When somebody says, oh, I didn't know that, or you should have told me that, I can easily highlight when and where I did. I'm a stickler for communication in the work place for a reason.

In reply to Scotty Con Queso : 

We signed a contract for a year. After that I bought what I needed from https://diypestcontrol.com . It cost less than what we were charged per month and has lasted for a few years. 

Peabody said:

In reply to tuna55 :

That's why I only correspond in email or text.

When somebody says, oh, I didn't know that, or you should have told me that, I can easily highlight when and where I did. I'm a stickler for communication in the work place for a reason.

All of that is via Email, and the procurement guy insists on adding fifteen people, including multiple VPs

Traded in my wife's Pacficia for a VW ID.4 this past weekend and it's now sitting at VW waiting to get battery modules replaced. All under warranty so I'm not mad or anything but dang you'd think we could have had it a week before it needed some work. 

In reply to tuna55 :

Www.callapg.com

Datsun240ZGuy said:

In reply to tuna55 :

Www.callapg.com

I wish.

I, a senior product development engineer, cannot communicate directly to any vendors.

ReconDad has been in the hospital in Salt Lake City for the past week. The original plan was to get him ready for discharge by Monday. Yesterday afternoon, everything went south on us. Current plan is discharge to a skilled nursing facility in Ogden, and call the shots from there. He may improve, but Doc says it's not likely based on his age and health issues. 
 

E36 M3. 

tuna55 said:

Datsun240ZGuy said:

In reply to tuna55 :

Www.callapg.com

I wish.

 

I, a senior product development engineer, cannot communicate directly to any vendors.

 

At all?

That may be the stupidest thing I've heard. How do you discuss what product would best fill your needs without talking to the people who actually supply them? 

Toyman! said:

tuna55 said:

Datsun240ZGuy said:

In reply to tuna55 :

Www.callapg.com

I wish.

 

I, a senior product development engineer, cannot communicate directly to any vendors.

 

At all?

That may be the stupidest thing I've heard. How do you discuss what product would best fill your needs without talking to the people who actually supply them? 

The procurement guy will literally take my Email to him, copy the text, and send it to the vendors. Then he takes the vendors response, copies their text, and Emails it to me. In the rare instance I get in touch with a vendor, it is under supervision of the procurement guy. This goes for all of our department, not just me. Their VP tried to get me fired for calling a vendor.

In reply to tuna55 :

What a cumbersome way of doing business. 

I guess it's to keep the kickbacks to a minimum or at least keep them for upper management. 

In reply to Toyman! :

I have worked in a Fortune 500s Vendor Management department before. We were under a different umbrella than Procurement. 

It actually worked well, but there weren't really any silly rules like don't let individuals contact the vendors. We just needed to be copied on 75% of it, because 90% of the time there was something redundant going on and we didn't want to pay for the same thing twice. 

tuna55 said:

Peabody said:

In reply to tuna55 :

That's why I only correspond in email or text.

When somebody says, oh, I didn't know that, or you should have told me that, I can easily highlight when and where I did. I'm a stickler for communication in the work place for a reason.

All of that is via Email, and the procurement guy insists on adding fifteen people, including multiple VPs

Even better.

My second email would be clarification. There would not be a third.

Peabody said:

tuna55 said:

Peabody said:

In reply to tuna55 :

That's why I only correspond in email or text.

When somebody says, oh, I didn't know that, or you should have told me that, I can easily highlight when and where I did. I'm a stickler for communication in the work place for a reason.

All of that is via Email, and the procurement guy insists on adding fifteen people, including multiple VPs

Even better.

My second email would be clarification. There would not be a third.

Then nothing would ever happen. He wouldn't order anything. It would be perceived as my fault.

In reply to peanutpckrupper :

Ok. I know this is harsh, but you have an electrical problem on a German car. This is the definition of predictable. 

In reply to tuna55 :

i've worked at a company like that before, and it was incredibly frustrating. I always assumed it was to protect the procurement department from becoming irrelevant (if i can talk to vendors and order parts, why do I need procurement?) but it only served to drive me crazy, cause so much headache, and delays because my email to a vendor gets filtered through another person with other emails, vacations, bathroom breaks, etc

budget_bandit said:

In reply to tuna55 :

i've worked at a company like that before, and it was incredibly frustrating. I always assumed it was to protect the procurement department from becoming irrelevant (if i can talk to vendors and order parts, why do I need procurement?) but it only served to drive me crazy, cause so much headache, and delays because my email to a vendor gets filtered through another person with other emails, vacations, bathroom breaks, etc

Yup, or the guy is annoyed so he obfuscates the meaning of the message, or pretends he cannot understand the requirements. In my naivity when I started here I wanted pricing on a bunch of different materials for a 1/8" pin.

Me: I need a 1/8" dowel pin x" long in materials A-J

Procurement: I can't do that without a drawing

Me: OK! Here is a drawing of a pin, can you give me a quote in materials A-J?

Procurement: The print doesn't show the chamfer on the end which is typical for stock pins, please add it.

Me: OK there is a chamfer on the model now, can you get a quote in materials A-J?

Procurement: The chamfer needs to be dimensioned and toleranced.

Me: I really don't care, and nobody is saying on their prints online what the chamfer is, and I can't call and ask, can you just get a quote in materials A-J?

Procurement: I need a print to get quotes.

Me: OK, here is a revision with a chamfer toleranced so widely that they can't miss. Can you please get a quote with materials A-J?

Procurement: I cannot get a quote since the materials are not on the drawing.

Me: OK, here is a revision with a note showing materials A-J. Can you please get a quote with those materials now?

Procurement: No. Please revise with each material as a seperate part on the drawing.

Me: OK, here are ten parts on the same drawing. Can you please get a quote for each?

HR: Tuna55, please report to a special meeting with us. procurement has reported you for making unnecessary and burdensome revisions to drawings and asking them to quote each one.

That actually happened.

A downburst happened in the middle of doing a small project. Tools are soaked, I'm soaked aaaannnd... now the sun is shining brightly and the humidity is off of the charts. 

In reply to Recon1342 :

Man, I'm sorry to hear that.

In reply to tuna55 :

See, now I'd see that as progress.  You're trying to be a productive and useful employee and you're being hamstrung by someone being an officious chunderhead.  And now you have a way to explain the situation.

Appleseed said:

In reply to Recon1342 :

Man, I'm sorry to hear that.

Thanks, amigo. That means a lot to me. 

He's been dealing with congestive heart failure since 1998. His LVAD has been implanted for almost 6 1/2 years now, and the right side of his heart and kidneys are finally wearing out. 
 

I love him beyond words, but he just don't have a lot of gas left in the tank. 
 

Still, not a lot of folks out there that can say they made CHF their bitch for almost 30 years...

In reply to tuna55 :

I've covered this with a large OEM before - if I buddy up with an engineer and convince him to write me in the print or general specification I can sell or overcharge for my parts.  

Maybe buy the guy something or send him some cash? Ethical? No, but your system protects from this. 

In reply to tuna55 :

That is absurd for commercially available parts, and a complete waste of company resources. 

Recon1342 said:

ReconDad has been in the hospital in Salt Lake City for the past week. The original plan was to get him ready for discharge by Monday. Yesterday afternoon, everything went south on us. Current plan is discharge to a skilled nursing facility in Ogden, and call the shots from there. He may improve, but Doc says it's not likely based on his age and health issues. 
 

E36 M3. 

Well E36 M3 that sucks.

Happy thoughts and mojo sent your way

In reply to Recon1342 :

Very sorry to hear that.  Please keep us posted as you are able.  Best of luck and medical science to you folks.