And Now It Can Be Told...

Last year I took a position of Maintenance/Automation Manager.
It was a good job.

I was responsible for 6 presses and the robots and other associated equipment, including facilities.
In the first year I brought major savings to the company and contributed greatly to the automation of the processes.
We grew to 8 presses.
Each press has ovens associated with it to heat the steel blanks to 1600 degrees Fahrenheit to press harden the stampings.
This was our core business and we were excellent at it.
GM considered us a preferred supplier.
There was an engineering group that was responsible for bringing in new equipment.
They didn't communicate with us much.
They designed three robotic welding cells that were delivered at Christmas.
(They were over engineered. Too complicated.)
No training, no ramp up, no back up plan.

I have spent the last several months trying to make everything run.
The engineering group quit.
I was in the plant night and day.

There were allegations that my midnight weld tech was smoking dope so HR enthusiastically fired him.
My afternoon and dayshift techs didn't like working 12 hrs 7 days to cover.
So they quit.
I hired others, and after a while THEY  quit.

The company is Korean owned and someone thought it would be a good idea to bring a couple techs from Korea to help.
It might have worked if they spoke english.
Or knew what they were doing.

My boss, the Director of Operations hired a "weld engineer" who I recognized as not equipped for the position. I once did the work myself.
GM and Chrysler also criticized his work, but that wasn't enough. I told my boss on a few occasions that this wasn't sustainable and that his refusal to spend money for good help was killing us.
The weld engineer needed to report to someone who knew welding. Me.
He and I agreed to a plan.
Then he reneged.
Then he told me I misunderstood.
I went to his boss under open door.
His boss told me I hadn't misunderstood because he was aware of the plan.
I had a closed door meeting with my boss where I accused him of lying to me.
He said he hadn't lied, he'd changed his mind.
I told him that he should have informed me of the change of plans as they affected me.
I spent 80 hrs on three shifts a week keeping the place running.
I worked the four day July Fourth weekend each day to cover absenteeism.
The overtime was required because of customer rejections primarily due to the weld quality.
I want to emphasize that I complained to the president about this more than once.

I was continually cleaning up mistakes made by the weld engineer (who was involving himself in programming) and the Koreans who wete on the midnight shift, which sufffered greatly.
Scherie and I were praying for relief, even if they fired me for continually complaining about the stupidity.
July 5th, I awoke after working the weekend, and God clearly let me know that I would be terminated that day.
I was relieved.
And they did.
The guys and ladies who worked for me expressed their regret at my leaving.
Two managers and a quality engineer have quit since and so has the Director of Ops.

God has given me a peace that He will take care of Scherie and I.
He has.
I start my new job a week from Monday at more pay, fewer hours.

Scherie and I are on our way to Connecticut to visit our son Scott whose sub is in port.
I'm burning off the vacation I was owed and could never take.

I've discovered I have a work "jones".
The first couple weeks, I was in withdrawal,  dreaming of being in work situations.
That's gone now.
Now I look forward to working with new faces and new processes.
God is good.