I'm a consultant to a couple of tier four companies.
I could write all night about the horror stories I come across, these are a couple of my favourites.
A product made to the approved drawings does not work when used in an assembley. Consequently it is rejected by the production qc and returned. My client redesigns on site with the tier two design office it and gets the new design appproved. The new design then gets returned because it does not match the drawing the qa function has. Another series of meetings and they agree to accept the redesigned piece. After 10,000 pieces supplied they get rejected as they no longer meet the specs on the original drawing which did not work, and according to their QA the revised design was only valid for the 10,000 pieces, at the same time that the good pieces were being returned their production director was screaming for the pieces his QA was sending back.
another:
524,000 pieces supplied ok since Jan this year, one was found without a fillet. We had to do a full 8D analysis on causes and remedial action - (yeah right
)
another:
Client takes four months to look at a prototype then telephone on Tuesday to say they need 5000 on Friday for a production trial. (delivery time two days as it's international)
another:
Production director of client on phone screaming he wants pieces delivered immediately as the line is waiting. Unfortunately the design has not been finalised or approved by his design office (or priced).
And lets not forget their requiring cadmium based treatments as per their specs and then rejecting products treated with it as it's now against eco policies.
They ***** about QS/TS paperwork but obviously never look at it as they are the prime cause of nonconformance 90% of the time.
Their definition of:
productivity: Cheapest price.
productivity improvement: price reduction
How about the latest policy of placing orders for say 5000 pieces a week and then only paying (90 or 120 days or worse) AFTER they take it out of stock and use it.
The only solution is treat it like a game and try and find customers in other industries.