Skip to main content

I can see the writing on the wall

After 20+ years working for a small company, I just don't think I'm cut out working for a BIG company.

Yesterday, Becky forwarded me some revisions to our quality policy manual suggested by our new owners, Precision Castparts Corporation (PCC). Now normally changes to our quality policy manual aren't a big deal, but in this case it involves export and foreign national visitor policy, which I don't think belongs in our quality policy manual.

By including that in our quality policy manual, it provides additional fodder for an auditor to find fault with our quality system. Why not just have a separate export and foreign national visitor policy outside of the quality system?

Well, what a surprise! We already have one of those [and I didn't even know]. Still Becky thinks it needs to be in our quality policy manual because of this and that which I'm not going to get into here. She also said Carlton Forge Works (CFW) is putting it in their quality manual.

So? What does that have to do with the price of tea in China? Just because CFW is doing it, doesn't mean we should.

And that's just one issue. Besides the fact payroll is rumored to be going to PCC headquarters in Oregon, we are having to implement whole new procedures for dealing with finished goods inventory etc. and reporting that information to the powers to be at PCC on a weekly basis.

Now I've worked for big companies before. Republic Steel, my first job after 3 years in the Army, was eventually bought out by LTV, and later went out of business when all that work was sent overseas to Japan and China. After that was Cameron Iron Works, which has since been gobbled up by PCC as well. But neither of those companies compared in scope to the size of PCC at $8 billion per year. (To put it in perspective, the company I work for does about $20 million per year.)

Fortunately none of what has been going on has affected me too much, sans having to update our quality policy manual, but I can just invision what havoc it is going to wreak on our accounting, shipping and outside processing departments.

At least Becky seems to be enjoying this all. She is right in the middle of the transition, and is the go to person for everything we need to do. Who knows, by the time this is all done, she may even be the next GM [or president] of Arcturus Manufacturing. I'm just not sure I'm going to be around to see it all through.
Labels:

Comments

Patricia G said…
Just remember to live life, not their life. Sending awesome energy your way.
Now living in San Antonio :)
2:18 PM
Becky said…
Change is good and sometimes change isn't necessary at all and after digesting all this most of it probably won't even apply to us. I am a little concerned at the amount of companies they have purchased recently. I hope they haven't bitten off more than they can chew. Or we end up like the Walmart of aerospace.

And the only thing I'll be the GM of is a yarn store, but thanks for the vote of confidence.
1:55 PM
Marc said…
You never know!

Two months ago, I never would have guessed this would have happened. Then we didn't think anything would be finalized until the end of the year. But now we've already been asked to modify our quality policy manual and payroll is [rumored to be] going to Oregon.

So who knows what will happen next for sure. Only time will tell. We shall see!
2:40 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fatigue! Part II - Maybe it is real?

Or it's actually Motivational Deficiency Disorder, MoDeD (pronounced Mo-Dee-Dee) for short. In a report this week by Roy Moynihan who reports for the British Medical Journal Austrailian scientists may have come across the reason for extreme laziness . The condition is claimed to affect up to one in five Australians and is characterised by overwhelming and debilitating apathy. Neuroscientists at the University of Newcastle in Australia say that in severe cases motivational deficiency disorder can be fatal, because the condition reduces the motivation to breathe. Neurologist Leth Argos is part of the team that has identified the disorder, which can be diagnosed using a combination of positron emission tomography and low scores on a motivation rating scale, previously validated in elite athletes. "This disorder is poorly understood," Professor Argos told the BMJ. "It is underdiagnosed and undertreated." Who knew? Maybe I have MoDeD, from my attempts to become a...
Post a Comment
Read more

My concerns reaffirmed today

When I was first diagnosed with MCL, I pretty much read just about everything I could get my hands on, I attended various conferences, and I talked to anyone who would listen. One of the most important lessons I learned, and which I've mentioned numerous times before was No one cares more about you than you. But in addition to that, I learned to fear the drug Doxorubicin , AKA Adriamycin, Doxil, Hydroxydoxorubicin, or more affectionately the Red Devil. Besides being a deadly chemical, as is the case with most chemotherapy drugs, it is one of the few chemotherapy drugs known to cause permanent heart damage. I even heard Dr. Sandra Horning , a noted Stanford lymphoma specialist, state at the first lymphoma conference I attended in LA, there was no evidence Doxorubicin provided any added benefit to chemotherapy protocols. This was music to my ears, since Doxorubicin is very common in most lymphoma treatment protocols. And even though Dr. Horning has since changed her tune [which my sk...
Post a Comment
Read more

Tacitly condoning racism?

I learned something very discouraging in my current events class yesterday, there are a lot more racists and bigots out there then you may think. They may not admit it, or they'll claim otherwise, but when someone says they place the blame for what happened in Charlottesville on both sides, or better yet, they don't know where the blame lays, then they are condoning the action of the white supremacists groups, and in my book that is a racist/bigot. The truth is, there should be no doubt where blame for Charlottesville lays. It lays with the white supremacists, neo-Nazi's, KKK, etc, plain and simple! The hatred, bigotry, and misogyny displayed and espoused by these groups, coupled with the tacit approval of President Trump needs to be confronted at all cost, and history tells us so. If only the Jews, in pre-WWII Germany, had confronted the Nazi's in the same manner, Hitler might never have risen to power, and we would not be looking at the prospect of a  third anti...
Post a Comment
Read more