Bob the customer engineer said, “We can’t have cars explode or crash if the part design is insufficient.”
Fred, the engineer at the company that hired Zack to manage their program said, “Didn’t you think the design was sufficient before you had us cut tools?”
“It passes the test requirements,” said another engineer.
“What kinds of measurement are you trying to have us do?” asked a manager.
“Environmental chamber testing to the federal specs AS-423.”
“That test is fifty years old and doesn’t apply in the new world of five dollar gasoline.”
“And a heavier population –”
“Oh it’s heavier because the aging demographics - Boomers are not like they were in the nineteen seventies when they were twenty, people just get bigger as they get older and there are still a lot of boomers.”
“Whoa Bob and Fred, can we get back to the time-line? What is the problem again, other than the AS test?”
Bob slapped his hand on his desk, “The parts shouldn’t flex like this when I bend them in my hands. They shouldn’t wiggle like this.” He held the parts too close to the conference room camera, but the blurry out-of-focus image still showed excessive movement.
“The load requirement is fifteen pounds with two millimeters of deflection.”
“What’s the load of this wiggling?” He shook the part, his hands flexing much more than the part.
Bob said, “I don’t know, but if I show this to the chief engineer or the platform VP we’ll get killed. I can flex it in my hands; both of those people can flex it. It just doesn’t say Quality.”
The indoor-outdoor carpet ground sharp against Zack’s bare feet as he fidgeted, “Let me suggest: is there a way to develop a new specification?”
Fred said, “How do we write that spec up? No wiggling when Bob tries to bend it? How heavy of a hand? A guy’s or a girl’s set of hands? Under the light of a full moon?”
Zack said, “Hold on a minute, Fred. Let’s see what Bob suggests. I know the whole project was quoted at passing AS-423 test requirements, but we could be ok with a minor tweak. I’ve seen you adjust other products I thought we would be dead in the water on and you came through. We can figure this out.”
“Fine.”
Zack asked, “Bob, can you measure the amount of flex you’re seeing? Fred and his team can back calculate the load you’re applying.”
Bob said, “Yeah, I can do that … here. I have this bracket on my desk with a scale and I can move it … four millimeters.” Bob grunted. “If I really push then I can bend it six. But that’s hard; I dented my finger – ouch! Anyway, Fred, figure out what load I’m applying to get four millimeters on this current sample and design for that load so we don’t have any flex.”
“Can I get a millimeter or less flex as the new target?”
“Yes.”
Zack said, “Thanks, Bob.”
Bob said, “Sorry guys, I have to go to another meeting,” and he clicked off the conference call.
Fred said, “Zack, what is it with those guys? We designed to their spec. Now we have to add more metal and design time to match these migrating requirements. That will cost money and time.”
“Fred, we have a little time if we can run a Saturday at the tool shop. I’ll call the Sales team later to have them update their quoting assumption list.”
“Yeah. We need that updated.”
Zack’s email icon flashed. A note from Bob’s supervisor arrived. He opened the email and read the note thanking him for diffusing the issue.
“Fred, you have everything you need to continue with the design?”
“Sure, but my boss is suggesting we fudge the test data.”
“Fred, we can’t do that.” Zack scratched his head, “We need to redesign the part so it passes the test, the new test.”
“That will take too long.”
Zack looked along his time-line. It looked bad. “But we’re going to have to do that. Can you convince the tooling house to prioritize this part? They’ll know that we can send a lot more business to them, and if they don’t think of it themselves, you can suggest that idea to make sure.”
“Fine, that’s the right thing to do. I’ll have my team work on it.”
“Thanks, Fred.” Another flashing icon lit up the bottom bar, “I have to go. An emergency conference call with the plant.” Then his cell phone started buzzing. It was Lydia.
“Those are never good. Bye Zack.” Fred clicked off.
Zack answered the phone, “Hi Lydia.”
“– Do you remember who to give money to for the kids’ science project?”
“No. I didn’t see the email come out.”
“What do you mean?! Didn’t you see the email? Is all you do is drop-off and pick-up the kids? You don’t talk to anyone? What are you doing?”
“No. I don’t get them. I mean the emails. I looked,” his finger rolled the little wheel on his mouse and the screen of emails scrolled up off the monitor. “Nothing here from Gale.”
“I don’t believe it.”
“I can’t help who they send it to. I’m trying to get some work done here too,” Zack watched the blinking icon at the bottom of his computer screen demanding attention, “What was on the email?”
“I’ll forward it to you. I don’t have time for this –” Lydia’s pager buzzed, the angry insect sound cut across the phone signal, “I need to go – it’s … the web group … Oh, there’s a special supplier review dinner at the local hotel tonight, don’t wait up, bye –”
“Bye.” His screen flashed another mad icon. Zack linked in.
“Zack! This is Amy. The plant will be down since they are short of parts.”
“Why the shortage of parts?”
“The car plant changed both their product mix and their overtime hours. We have three days of the base model but none of the premium version!”
“Ok. Where is Holly?”
“She’s tracking down the shipping containers.”
“Then get everyone on the video call. If that plant goes down they charge us ten thousand dollars a minute.”
“Talk with you soon.”
Zack slumped back in his chair, which creaked under the stress. He pulled off his headset and tossed it on the desk rubbing his forehead. Then he sat forward and punched at his phone. They answered the phone in mid ring.
“Ah, yeah?”
“George, you hear about the shortage?”
“Yeah. I can’t believe they did that.”
“It’s because their vehicles are selling. Good problem to have. They are maximizing revenue by only making premium vehicles available.”
“And that’s why we’re short. No warning they shifted course again.”
“In five minutes Holly and the team will be together.”
“Good. I hope your guys in China are ready.”
“It’s 3am there, Zhi Wu will be awake.” Zack checked his wrist watch to confirm the computer time icon. He had to go pick up his kids soon – too soon.
“He’s a great guy. We just have to get the rest of them cranked up.”
Zack asked, “By the way, did the Mexico group get that quote done yet?”
“No.”
“We have to have that soon if we want to fill the pipeline beyond next year. Azure Motors isn’t refreshing their fleet much for the next few years – economy projections.”
“If they don’t get it done tonight then I’ll make the numbers up myself. I don’t want to do that, but we have to make our best guess. Last time I was only 1% off their numbers after they spent two weeks at it.”
“My other line is ringing … Crap, it’s Phil at Azure Motors. He’s going to want an eight-step-corrective-action. They know our capacity, they only paid to tool us up for three thousand a week, they know how to add that up and that we’ll be short. Doesn’t take rocket scientists.”
“But they don’t care. They have ten suppliers right behind us that are s
alivating at getting our business.”
“Bye. In three.”
Zack hit buttons on the phone to hang up and dial another number from a lookup tab on his monitor. He brought up his Internet conference package on his computer. Attendees populated the sidebar and continued filling and scrolling up the page with each new add. The pace seemed frightening.
Zack could not believe all the people just added. Names he recognized from all over Azure Motors from Engineering to Purchasing to the Labs and the plant. “This isn’t just us now.”
The phone and the conference system attendees merged with a little click and then through Zack’s headset he heard “… Everyone, we have to get this solved. Supplier lead? …”
Zack touched the button on his microphone headset, “Yeah, we’re here.”
A disjointed voice from a conference room deep in the corporate Purchasing department asked, “Where are we with inventory? The line guys have exactly a hundred –”
Another voice broke in, clanking sounds in the background, “– negative. We have twenty five parts now. The schedule scroll says the twenty-sixth vehicle needing to fit that part will pass that station in fifteen minutes.”
A different voice from the Purchasing conference room asked, “Why has the mix changed so much?”
“We only watch the scroll. All that kind of stuff happens in Marketing.”
“Marketing, what is going on?”
Silence.
“Marketing? Is anyone on line from Marketing that can tell us what happened?”
Someone released a crackling phone from mute, “– Yeah, we had a big fleet order come in. Nothing exceptional about that. Did the plant lose some inventory? Miss the re-order points in Purchasing?”
The Purchasing conference room came up, “Supplier, you know we expect a certain level of safety stock in all parts at all times. I’ll need you to fill us in on what the situation is – and what happened.”
Zack expected some Sales person got a big bonus for that last minute order bump. He knew everything was always the supplier’s fault. Even a screw-up at the vehicle manufacturer that caused a problem – the supplier was beat on because it was easier politically among the warring factions inside the manufacturer. Zack asked, “Holly, how far away is the courier?”
“Five minutes. He has two-thousand and five hundred parts on his truck.” Her voice faded and then returned, “Now he is pulling up to the security gate at the plant, his truck cab is orange if you look for it.”
Zack asked, “Can he get priority through the dock?”
The plant conference room growled, “Albert, what’s the way to get them through the dock the quickest?”
“I’ll send Murray. He’ll get them through and rally the fork truck crew. The area supervisor is on the dock ready with his radio to dispatch material direct to the line.” The sound of a radio switch snapping in and out of noise suppression responded with some garbled response. “Yeah, Murray is flagging the security team and he’ll have them back into the Fast Ramp.”
“That should get us through the end of the shift?”
Holly said, “Yeah, that’s two days worth at the new-current build rate.”
Zack noticed how Holly had stressed the new build rate. He watched the conference call attendance drop. Most of those people had another two or three of similar calls going on at the same time. He knew over twenty five thousand to thirty thousand parts went into the making of the average car, truck, or sport utility vehicle. If any single part, for any reason, had a problem once a day over the course of a year that meant a hundred of these calls a day. That was one vehicle platform; often the large manufacturers had dozens of products. The potential issues became mind boggling in a hurry. He was amazed cars worked as well as they did as frequently as people relied upon them.
A new voice, the demanding tones of a solid middle manager came through from a new location “Good for today. What about root cause? How did we get in this problem? Are we short of tools? A breakdown in order systems? Technical problems?”
Zack watched the second hand twirl on his watch wondering how close he could press the time. His car was outside the garage and he’d already finished shoveling snow away from it. He could last a few more minutes if he walked fast when picking up the kids.
George said, “Tools were built to plan. Manufacturing is keeping up with the scheduled build rate –”
Zack said, “The assembly plant build mix changed yesterday. We’ve been reacting and air-freighted those twenty-five-hundred parts at our cost, but how can we get a bit more notification? The flights go up over Anchorage from Shanghai as that is the shortest distance to Detroit – the flights take time to arrange, too.”
“You can’t. You just have to deal with it. I hear production control is scheduling the next four Saturdays now. Do you have enough raw materials?”
“Are you sure you don’t have more base models in the pipeline? We have a lot of safety stock for the base model and our people are checking the inventory forecast screens on your website three times a day.”
“No. We all have to suck it up. You can store extra safety stock. Of course if an engineering change goes through that obsoletes any stock parts.”
Zack said, “Well. We won’t have a root cause other than the mix change. Holly pulled another rabbit out of the hat to keep the plant running today, scheduled customs on a few sub-components before the parts even arrived. Otherwise, customs would have held us up and then shut your plant down. That would have been a nightmare. Such good luck will eventually run out.”
George said, “We’ve talked with purchasing to fund more tooling but you know how they worry about the economy so we limp along. Zack and Holly have been keeping us all alive through the design changes, the manufacturing process improvements, and the shipping subtleties. But problems are ahead unless we get some sort of relief.”
The manager voice said, “Zack is it? I’d like to get an update from you every four hours until we get this supply situation back on track. Can you do that? Then we only need to get this team together again if the supply gets too narrow. This way we can monitor it closely.”
A pop up message appeared on Zack’s computer from Lydia, “Remember, I have a doctor appointment next Tuesday. Don’t think that means I can pick up the kids.”
Zack typed quickly, “Yep, it’s still on my calendar.”
She replied, “Why are you not at the school picking up the kids yet? Hooked on a television show? Did I wake you from a nap?”
Zack said to the call, “– Sure. That’s doable.”
“OK, Thanks everyone.”
Zack clicked off the conference system, glanced at the side of his desk where a small winery flier sat amid pictures of a vineyard. A moment remembering the warm fields, escape. Then he grabbed his coat and keys and left the house to get his children.
Zack walked fast up the hill after squeezing his car into a narrow street space. He made this trip every day and knew where to balance distance of parking with his distance of walking and which cut the most time. The first warning bell rang over the school hill as he hurried across the street. He still had to go down another sidewalk, passed the fifth graders wearing safety patrol bands, and then to the general walkways in front of the school to receive the kids as the final release bell rang.
Zack watched for his two children as the flood burst open the exit doors with their pent-up excited pressure as the thin strands of teachers and administrators released them.
“Daddy!” Noah trotted out of the sea of colored coats and bobbing hats, “I saw you first!”
Zack laughed, “I think you did! Where’s your sister?”
“She’s back farther in the line with the other little kids.”
“I see her.”
Grace pushed her way across the heavy tide, a bulldozer of a little kid in her puffy red jacket, “Hi Daddy!” She wrapped both arms around Zack’s leg and squeezed tight.
“Everything go OK today Grace?”
Grace nodded.
“How about you Noah?”
“Yes! No homework.”
“That’s always a good thing to hear.” Zack grabbed their little hands and turned, “Ok, let’s keep together.” Zack moved carefully to keep the two children out of the churning undertow and safely get them away from the school building to his car.
Noah asked as the other kids and parents thinned out, “Did Grace play with my game cartridge this morning?”
Grace yelled, “No I didn’t!”
Noah asked his sister, “What did the Scarlet Roller do?”
“Escaped from the tunnel,” she skipped in her little shiny black shoes.
“Dad! She played with my game cartridge!” Noah hit Grace’s shoulder and Grace punched back hitting Noah’s jaw.
“Hey-hey-hey. Stop that.”
“– kids will be kids.”
“Hi, Felicity.”
“Zack, wait until they are teens. I have both extremes, Tommy in Grace’s class and my oldest, Amanda, just graduated.”
“Ah, probably.” Grace and Noah wiggled in Zack’s grip of their jackets like fish out of the stream. “I forgot you have an older daughter.”
“Two marriages will do that,” Felicity laughed. “If you need a babysitter sometime, Amanda is great.”
“I’ll keep her in mind. See you tomorrow, Felicity.”
Felicity waved, “See you tomorrow at the parent pen.”
Zack said quietly to his children, “The two of you need to behave and get in the car. It’s cold out here in this wind and we are not arguing. If you too cannot share and behave I’ll have to put that game up so no one can play.”
Noah slid into the car and said, “Fine.”
Grace spun herself and dropped snugly into her safety seat. The red puffy jacket compressed in wailing protests of micro air blasts while Zack buckled her in. Noah already had his belt on. Zack sat and took a deep breath before twisting the keys in the ignition. He drove back home.
Cabernet Zin (The Southern California Wine Country Series) Page 2