Bad day at work, what could go wrong did!

[ToolGuy]

So yesterday was the worst day of work in my career ever! A very large shipment, a $5,000+ kit going to 800 dealers was supposed to start shipping for arrival by Wednesday. This is nothing new and what my company does. Sounds easy right? Well it all started on Monday evening. I get a call from my Program Manager stating the plant is asking who is covering the freight on this shipment? It was supposed to be 14 semi truck loads. I tell my PM we are and it is stated in the sales order. (why no one looked at the sales order is beyond me)Later that evening my PM calls me at home and says the plant cannot find 20 of the smaller kits going into 20 of the larger kits, what should the plant do? I tell them the kits must ship with or without these 20 smaller kits. If we do not get all the kits to the destination by 8-6 that would not look good. He calls me back in an hour and states the plant will look all night for the kits if needed. So yesterday rolls around... This is were it gets very ugly! Two of the 14 truck loads get delivered to the wrong address. The company that received them changed the address so it was not that bad of a thing since the people who saw the trucks were responsible for the kits and could have easily sent the to the correct address. However, the 350 lbs kits were stacked three high thus the bottom kits of course got crushed! The plant says yeah we knew about these two wrong addresses! (well why did you not call the trucks back?) Some of the kits had container lids others had cardboard draped over the tops and strapped down. Not the way it was supposed to be! (plant stated we ran out of lids but again, no one told me this)This facility took out and inspected a kit to find 15 items not there out of 120. Now I knew a few items would not make the kit but not 15! I also gave and instructed the plant to insert a letter stating which items would not be in the kit. This letter was not there! Finally my boss and I called the facility that got the first two truck loads and told them to send all the kits back and we would correct all the mistakes. We also stopped building any kits until all the details are sorted out So we get to pay shipping again thus eating our margin away more... This was only a multi million dollar sale! (plant in the meantime tells me guess what, we found more lids to use)The facility that got the kits and the mistakes had to report to the customer on what happened. In this case my company was a supplier to the customer so it really was not our customer but it was new business for us and something we wanted to cultivate. This customer emails everyone including a customer that IS ours because the vehicle the kits are used for is really a joint venture with our customer and the customer we are a supplier too. It is a brand new launch for that customer as well. This really set off many people and basically we can kiss good bye any new business with the new customer in the future! Boy what a mess up and it still is not over because once all the kits are once again ready to ship, the plant has to follow thru in doing that! AND we have not shipped the 200 for Mexico yet!Our VP happened to be in my building yesterday and is going to the plant today. Unfortunately I doubt anything really will happen though since we are running a lean staff at the plant to begin with.And to top it off, last week a truck blew over in the wind on the highway and guess what? That very truck contained plastic cases to be used in this shipment! Made front page news in that state as well! Of course this had to happen! Surprised a truck did not burst into flames, I was waiting for that one to happen next. So here I am today left holding this mess and I am the one that has to face to customer now and in the future! Sorry but I had to vent, maybe some of you have been in my shoes before?

[Whelan]

At least it's not your fault so the blame can't fall directly on you. Otherwise you could be up the creek.

[Kari]

Yep, I'm in your shoes quite a bit...when our warehouse gets a huge incoming shipment, it takes time to sort it out, and in the meantime, I can't get to the ornaments I have to pull to be personalized and sent to customers. As of yesterday I had about a week of orders waiting to be filled but luckily finally got caught up yesterday. Don't you love it when everyone else acts like they don't care and the customer is breathing down YOUR neck?

[NibCrom]

Well my job is nothing like yours, but I've been having the worst week ever at my relatively new job. Things seem better today, so maybe things will go better for you to. Have a better one!

[ou.grizzly]

That can be very frustrating and there is only so much one can take in one day or pertaining to a specific situation.Can look on the positive, more than likely the same mistake will never be made again. What is great about life is that there are 365 days in a calender, that means everyone gets 365 chances every year!

[BlueCrush]

I feel your pain!! I am a Project Manager for a packaging and display company and have to deal with multiple time lines for multiple products that all need to be completed and ready to ship at the same time to multiple addresses. It can be very frustrating when material is late, printing plates are late, production is running behind, shipping can't find all the parts to send to assembly, and assembly doesn't have enough temps to get it assembled and ready to ship. It gets even worse when some of the product gets outsourced or we are waiting for outside product to come in that just gets packed or even assembled with the final product before it needs to ship. Most of the time as long as we stay in close communication with the customer everything gets worked out even if the product ends up being late to the customer. Occasionally the customer will request a credit on the current order or a discount on the next order.

[jimincalif]

It happens. Best thing you can do is use it as a learning experience. Things like this point out where the gaps are in your systems, processes and people, giving you the opportunity to address them and prevent something similar happening again.Around my shop, when this comes up, my partner and I like to say "we have an opportunity for excellence".

[BlueCrush]

Quote, originally posted by jimincalif »It happens. Best thing you can do is use it as a learning experience. Things like this point out where the gaps are in your systems, processes and people, giving you the opportunity to address them and prevent something similar happening again.Around my shop, when this comes up, my partner and I like to say "we have an opportunity for excellence". Ha! When something doesn't go as planned we call them "Opportunities" also...lol

[ToolGuy]

Yes eveyone is correct here. I suppose when you care about what you do you take it to heart too. The hard part is the disconnect in buildings. I am in MI and the plant is in MN.I offered to go be a part of the build but was told "no we built the training kits and know how these go now". The head of the plant also told my boss when we closed for the first week of July we would be in fine shape for the mass shipment in Aug.

[engineertwin2]

Yep, this stuff happens. Sorry it happened to you. When developing a large project, we develop a Project Plan that includes risks, associated contingencies and likelihood of risk. It includes all types of hairbrained possibilities, but believe it or not, some of them have occurred and we were (surprisingly) ready to react.From a customer service point of view, you are caught in the middle between shipping a product on time or complete. At my place of business, we always prefer a complete product. The letters were a good idea, but it may have been a the point you needed to write them and put them in yourself.Sorry this had to happen, but "opportunities" abound.

[BlueCrush]

Quote, originally posted by ToolGuy »I am in MI and the plant is in MN.Wait!....What.....is...the...company....in....MN...callled??

[ToolGuy]

I will PM you, do not want to list it here...

[engineertwin2]

So, how did it go? Did heads roll? Did you get it straightened out?