Your Sunday Evening 2016 Pro Bowl ‘For God’s Sake Get A Life And Do Something More Worthwhile’ Live Blog

Very early this morning my phone rang. My contact asked me to come to the factory immediately and that a car will be on the street to grab me. I usually walk. So I expect its something bad.

Turns out that the translator left for Tokyo and one of our customers is flipping out. So I sit in the phone meeting and listen to the US guys basically insult my supervisor. I finally lean over, hit the mute and ask if Tanaka-san trusts me. He nods yes.

“Alright gentlemen. First of all, we speak English over here. So the slurs stop now. Second, we sold you two motors with the assurance they would both last 6 years. The first motor last 9 years, the second last 8 and a half. You took it upon yourself to get the motors serviced on your own. Now the motors have failed after three months. This was against our technical advice”

“Wait…who are we talking to”

“FOCUS! You chose to instead of spending $100k USD for 6 years of uninterrupted service to go to a fly by night motor shop. We cannot fix what you chose to destroy. What are you paying this shop? Is it less than what we would cost?”

“$100k for a motor rewind is insane. We aren’t paying THAT!”

“You are incurring an unplanned shutdown every three months. That is four months a year. 24 unplanned stoppages for this site. Those stoppages are costing you MUCH MORE than $100k. By my estimate, each shutdown affects you to the tune of $400k. Why do you run your mill like this?”

“Okay…who is this?”

“JSD-san”

“There is no way I am authorizing $100k for a single motor rewind”

“I know Bill-San (I actually have met this guy before as I have been to their site for work). As shift manager (he was bullshitting Tanaka-san that he was the head of production), you aren’t authorized to spend any money. When you gentlemen get together with people that can actually make decisions for your facility, feel free to contact us again. Until then, we cannot help you”

“ITS YOUR MOTOR!”

“No Bill-San. It stopped being our motor when your company decided to rip it apart and destroy it. Call us when you are ready to approach this problem like adults”

I then hung up. Tanaka-san was frantically trying to follow the conversation and when I hung up, he got wide eyed. I told them they will call back soon and be in a better mood.

15 minutes later, they called up and informed us a PO was on the way for both motors to be rebuilt at our Nagasaki facility. I then slept in the factory prior to the start of the workday. Now…they REALLY don’t want me to leave.

The best part of my job is when I get to piss off assholes.