AED          Quality Procurement at Addlestone        (updated on 27 Aug 2006)

For the uninitiated reader, the word "Quality" means "Fitness for purpose".  This is the meaning in the phrases "Quality Control" and "Quality Assurance". An example often given is that a Rolls Royce is NOT a quality car for a jobbing plumber, but it may well be so for the Managing Director of a multi-national company.

When I worked for Plessey Displays at Addlestone (near Weybridge in Surrey), I became part of a small team of Quality Procurement Engineers.  I was the principle electrical man as I had experience in a variety of electrical fields.  The other two chaps of the team dealt mainly with mechanical matters.  We all travelled to various factories in Britain, Europe and the USA.   Much of what I inspected was outside my technical experience, but I wasn't expected to be able to assess the technical suitability of the items I saw, rather, to see that they were broadly in line with the order and were going to be shipped to the final site suitable packed.  This led me to learn a bit about the packing industry, including some technical aspects that are not widely known.  For example, I doubt whether the reader of this essay knows what atmospheric pumping means.  I'll cover this below.

The clever technical requirements were handled by the Plessey Engineering Department.  There were some very bright graduate engineers who designed the overall systems.  I worked for Plessey Displays.  They were a sub-division of Plessey Radar.  The main radar equipment such as the scanners were designed and built on the Isle of Weight.  Our little part of the firm just built and tested the display equipment.  And some of that was quite clever too.

When our little division became quiet, the three of us were put on to this Quality Procurement of Plessey Airports.  That part of the company was on the same site in an adjoining building.  Plessey had obtained some contracts to build several airports in Francophone Africa.  A small team of Frenchmen were the top-level inspectorate for the final customer (an African government).  So I saw a few French engineering drawings and learnt a little about French engineering.  I have a high opinion of the French, they have a lot of nuclear power plants in France and there has not yet been a disaster in that country.  The Yanks, the Brits, The Russians, The Japanese; they all have had cockups that risked life and limb.  The Russians, of course, were the most spectacular at Chenobyl.

I mentioned the French above.  On one of my trips to outer Paris, the French laid on a woman translator.  She was a bright lass who specialised in technical translation for electronics and ballistics.  It is not always realised that technical translation is almost like another language.  Just think of the odd meanings of ordinary words that relate to different trades.  In bricklaying, for example,  "a stretcher" , "a header" and "a closure" all have special meanings.  Listen to a plasterer talking to his apprentice and you will find many common words with uncommon meanings.

My first visit to the USA was to accept some radio equipment that ITT Fort Wayne were installing inside equipment cabinets.  I was appalled to find the way that the radios were earthed in their cabinets.  The ITT engineers thought that I was being excessively fussy when I said that I could not possibly accept the way it had been done.  The mains wiring including the earthing to the radios was by way of a plug-and-socket, but the plug was of a type that the earth-pin swung back and forward on a pop-rivet hinge with a spring to allow the earth-pin to be flipped back when the three-pin plug was entered into a two-pin socket.  We got over the problem by adding an extra earth wire that could easily be unbolted when the radio was to be removed from the cabinet.  The USA is very blasé about electrical safety, probably because 110 volts is not nearly as dangerous as 240 volts.

I went to Swords in Dublin to accept some telephone equipment.  The promised delivery was three months from placing the order, but turned out to be nine months late.  I suppose that's Ireland.  I wanted to ring Addlestone from that Dublin suburb but after a hour's wait to get the call through via the operator, the firm used a teleprinter to call Addlestone and ask them to call me.  International STD then only worked from Addlestone to Swords but not in reverse.   But nowadays Southern Ireland is as fully up to date as any other country in Europe.  My visit was in the 1980s.  It was similar when I worked in Damascus, STD one way, the operator the other way.

My last visit to the States was to a real bunch of cowboys.  The factory was near Detroit, and they were selling plasma displays.  So many were found to be reject when delivered to Addlestone that I was sent out to try and find why.  When I reported on returning the Addlestone that it appeared that the company were buying rejects from a big company who made the units, and were reselling them as perfect, I don't think I was believed.  They sent out a more senior chap who was vitriolic about the directors of the company when he spoke to me on his return.  On that trip I was booked into a hotel that had a suite of rooms at a lot cheaper than a single little room on the outskirts of New York.  The Plessey US Sales Manager gave me a tour around NY including a ferry trip that included the Statue of Liberty.  I put a new film in my camera as we crossed the water near Stratton Island and made a boo-boo of it.  I lost a lot of what should have been good snaps.

I said above that I would cover "atmospheric pumping".  I do this in another essay on page AEL.  Just click on this link to read the essay.