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Thread: Excellence

  1. #1
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    Excellence



    The other evening I slouched in front of the telly and was watching a program.........it grabbed me

    It was on BBC2..........Grand Designs

    Was about an aged couple from Surrey who purchased a house from Germany......company called Huff

    The house cost them 450 000 Euros

    Huff do not like the house to be referred to as a Kit Home, but thats what it was.........it was manufactured in Germany in a state of the art high tech factory. You could literally eat off the floors in the German factory, it was a squeaky clean operation.

    The whole operation was logged and timed by Huff to the half hour. Day of the erection arrived, at precisely 5am the juggernaughts from Germany pulled in with their cargo after an overnight trip from the factory in Germany.

    Guess who wasnt there? The British contracted crane company. The crane pulled in at 11 am.......driver was lost!! Half a day lost

    Never mind........The Germans began to work, the entire crew was German. Each knew his task........the erection went like clockwork.
    The house was to be built in 6 working days. Day three it poured.... The germans worked in the rain ......regardless

    They brought with them a vehicle with everything on board, every last screw and bolt. Nothing was missing. Everything was there and in its place

    Day Four.......The whole house was up.........complete......finished.
    Throughout the install process the workers ensured that everything was level, the quality aspects were meticulously adhered to, no half measures here.

    The workers packed up their kit, they even cleaned and polished their vehicles, and then they left

    Four days to put up a house.......and what a house it was.......Just sheer beauty, it was staggering

    The BBC producer said......" If Mercedes built houses......this is what they would create"

    What am I getting to by relating this.......

    I am talking about excellence........How we can aspire to be like Huff in our industry, whether we are an engineer working for ourself or a large company manufacturing, it does not matter.

    we can rise as high as we want to, or stoop to the depths, Let us be critical of ourselves, let us not weaken and become defensive when others point out our faults.

    We too can be the Huff of the refrigeration industry in our own individual ways, the way we talk, the way we work, the way we plan.



    Think about it
    Last edited by Abe; 31-01-2004 at 06:13 PM.



  2. #2
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    excellence

    yes aiyub im afraid not everyone adopts this methodical attitude towards there work.In the uk especially moral in places is low, tax is spiralling into robbery.Living,property expenses etc rising all these factors add to the equation.
    But yes i know what you mean.
    regards mark

  3. #3
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    grand designs is on channel 4 !

    therein your whole argument is based on a falsehood and you should immediately retract the whole of your post and apologise unreservedly just before tendering your resignation

    yours

    lord hutton..

    or

    merc's 'used' to be well built -and indeed the 600 etc are

    however the lower range 200 series have suffered from very poor quality and their image as been somewhat dented

    so, if you want to sell one or two fridges a year -sure, make it the best

    but,if you want to sell millions then,..... (ooppss i nearly mentioned LG then....;-)

    cheers

    richard

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    excellence

    Did anyone see the episode when a state of the art flat roof was installed the theory was that the roof holds rain water on the surface and protects the expensive membrane against the sun.This too was installed by german fitters and yes first drop of rain it leaked.
    Iam in no way critisizing anyone my only point is that we are all open to uncontollable situations.Please do not take offence anyone.
    regards mark

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    hi aiyub,
    dont underestemate the brits, some ten years ago a british company had built not far from where I live ,a power station based on gas turbines. most of the workers were irishand yours truely got to install two air condition units in the offices and control room.

    most of the time I've spent there, I was walking arround with my mouth open, amazed by the quality, speed and the way the work was done.

    everybody knew their place and job perfectlyand the supervisers were checking every finished part to see that it was done perfectly.

    what can I say, I just loved to watch them work.

    they have finished two months earlier then planed!!!

    what I am saying here is that its not the germans, british,irish dutch or whatever. its the people behind the project, from the general manager to the gofor. its comitment to sucsess and to exellance.

    any one can do it with the right program.

    we are in a complete different episode, most of the time, we come after someone else and have to repair somethind we never knew exsist.

    when we get to do a new job, did reality ever mached the plans?
    I've never seen one.

    what left for us to do is watch and enjoy watching others doing such beautiful work.

    some other time I will tell you how an american contractor have built a millitary air - base in one year with with potugees workers.

    he sold me all the tools for RAC which I use today.
    quality- what a lovely word.

    chemi

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    Last summer I installed Korean air conditioners, you know the ones Richard??? The Skoda argument

    This year I am thinking...........
    Im going to switch brands to a Japanese make
    Why??
    I had few niggly probs with Korean
    With both product and supplier

    These probs cost me time and money........Call Backs
    It cost me....... Credibility

    Problem is how do I quote more and explain benefits to customer to purchase more expensive product, in a market now being saturated by cheapos installed by all and sundry.

    But Ill be doing myself a favour selling a product which is synonomous with Quality, I can install it and forget it.

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------

    Indeed, Grand Designs is on Channel 4

    Good thing youre not the Defence Lawyer Richard, you would have cut the case to shreds.

    Those guys that raided the Millenium Dome and nearly got away with millions.......well there sentences have been cut

    Why........

    Because Judge fell asleep for part of proceedings

    We now have lawyers who scrutinise the paperwork
    Even the minutest flaw will destroy the case and the defendant goes free, including defendants done for murder

    Why go to University for 3 years, get into debt, bust your nut when.......

    You can buy a fake degree for 200 Quid ??

    There is always an argument for the other view
    There is always an alternative

    I guess now I tend to agree.......that normal rules dont necessarily apply in this age

    Not everyone wants to pay super duper high prices for the best job

    Not everyone wants perfection

    People want the work done.........at cheapest cost to themselves, they want functionality

    Ahhh.......Back to the drawing board!

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    as japanese make the most reliable air-conditioners, I think you should find the way to explain your custo.mers what is the real difference and let them decide.

    common sense will win. japanese air-conditioners will be cheaper in the long run. korean are basicly chinese

    chemi

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    excellence

    Anyone fimiliar with the a/c manufactures AMENA guess who makes the compressors?

    MITSUBISHI


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    Aiyub,

    we only sell and install japanese h/walls and ducted systems, at a slightly higher cost then the guys down the road who install korean and other garbage as you mention.

    most of our work comes through repeat business and word of mouth from a job well done, people even wait for us to install their air sometimes waiting a month or more because they want the best... according to them

    our commitment to customers is fairly high, we always make sure they are happy with the job when we are finnished and if there is anything they would like us to do regarding the installation etc before we leave.

    we have sold air cond's to people then their brother then sister, cousins parents... and we are never short of work. the only callbacks we get about units not working properly are only simple ones like oldies pressing the wrong buttons on their remotes - so we quickly go through that with them again so some checks on the unit again to ensure functionality and they are most happy dont hessitate to call if you encounter any further problems... these are mostly followed by a call thanking us, and how soon soon can you install another in the lounge, family or bedroom as i cannot believe how good this thing works!

    the main difference between a good job and a bad job is the extra 5 minutes taken to make sure everything is done correctly.
    "Old fridgies never die, they just run out of gas!"

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    Originally posted by Bones
    Aiyub,

    the main difference between a good job and a bad job is the extra 5 minutes taken to make sure everything is done correctly.
    This was a good quote Bones. I will print it out.

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    no worries peter, i'm full of all sorts of stupid un-important information mostly lol
    "Old fridgies never die, they just run out of gas!"

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    Thumbs down

    sorry peter and bones,

    absolutly do not agree!! I asume that most people who write here, are doing a good job and, there is a hint in bones words
    about qulity work of others.

    if you install a second best unit and doing a real super perfect instelation, you are more likely to be calld again.

    it will not happend if you, in the first place, install the best.

    your words bones: "we only sell and install japanese" why?
    cos you dont want that call!!

    think about it.

    chemi

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    Originally posted by Bones
    Aiyub,

    the main difference between a good job and a bad job is the extra 5 minutes taken to make sure everything is done correctly.

    This was a good quote Bones. I will print it out."
    Chemi, I think I explained something wrong.
    The quote Bones gave, I saw it in another perspective as you think I saw it, looking back to the story of the technician I worked with and installed an orifice 5 instead of a 3 and then turned in the overheat spindle some turns: some technicians do repairs and installations always in a hurry cause there is a lot of work to do and labour cost is expensive and sometimes because they have the wrong attitude to be a good technician.

    But it should save time and money if some of them should stay 15 minutes longer on the site and watch a little bit longer working pressures, if temperatures are going down, look in the meantime to the oil sight glass, look perhaps to the oil sight glass of another compressor while waiting for temperature drop, test an oil safety device despites the fact that the call was not for the OSD, measure currents and so on... This will in the long term save money and time.

    I think that was what Bones meaned with his quote.

    I told my technicians in the past that after the explanation of the customer what he thinks was wrong with his installation and what problems he encountered that they better should think 5 minutes before connecting gauges, measuring temperatures and so on. Sit down some time, think and start then.
    That they try to find through the story of the customer a possible solution for his problem and then going to the installation and pinpoint as accurate as possible the problem.
    That's a good technician in my vision not the one who changes parts and hopes that the problem will be gone. If not, they change another part. Like this, I can fix a jet engine.

    I remember when I started refrigeration in my first job, when I came back, my boss asked me what was wrong and if I said, oh ….I found a leak on a TEV , repaired it, and recharged it, his next questions where then always something like,…. Oh, what were the high pressures (hadn’t measure them), temperature of the liquid (measured them neither), enough oil in the compressor (didn’t look to it), sight glass green (yeah green, light green or more yellow..?), looked to the other compressors(that was not the reason why I had to go there..), and very useful.. have you shown the leak to the customer and explained what the problem was and what you have done to ensure that this will probably never will happen again in the future and pinpointed perhaps other possible problem with his machines?

    This takes time, cots money , more then needed to repair it in the first place but that 's what a customer likes. This is additional time that saves money and bind clients.

    And I agree completely that it isn’t worth to install rubbish; therfore we only install Mitsubishi and Daikin for airconditioning.
    And i must say, we have les troubles with Daikin. There is sometimes a littl thing with the Mistu's, no big things.
    Igf we have to be sure that we want to install the most silent outdoor unit, then it will be a Daikin. Mitsu's have always that 'humming'.

    But I can imagine that if someone’s business is going slow for ever what reason that may be it's very challenging to go to the cheaper brands with perhaps larger margins, but they're sure finally that they gave the job with the cheaper product. You need the money to live. I did it when I started business long time ago.

    And there will always be peoples who want to buy the cheapest, not the best, or not the good after sales service.
    Last edited by Peter_1; 02-02-2004 at 08:24 AM.
    It's better to keep your mouth shut and give the impression that you're stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.

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    well chemi, it is not good for business to get called back to a job weather it is your fault or the fault of the machine.

    to put it simplily most cheap systems do not work here very well, possibly due to poor installation mostly. as we are the service agents on most systems i go to systems and get to look at the butchery and errors... but also machines that just 'die', we refuse to 'personaly sell' these problimatic systems to our customers, but we still install them for people who have bought elsewhere and would like them installed (new).

    i would rather install 3 good systems then 1 or 2 that are cheap and nasty to begin with and have to make several trips to that system to sort it out (this is costing us money, we could have had 2 or more other jobs or installs completeted), all because you only spent $1000 on the unit... if they need to spend $1500 or $2000 to get a proper unit that is going to perform the job "they want" then i will quote that, labor would be no different, only quality as long as you explain to them the difference.

    the customer only see's you and the companys name you work for on your shirt and truck, and i dont know about you but if i get bad service at the supermarket or buying a car etc you tell your friends about it so they dont get caught too. - the old 1 tells 2, 2 tells 4, 4 tells 16... so it is no good shooting yourself in the foot.

    we have started installnig a cheaper line with slightly bigger margins for those who cannot quite afford a japanese system and who just want air as cheap as it gets. we installed several a few months back and they performed well in the 40' heat, so we are keeping them on for a while.

    about the quality of work, whatever you do must be working since you have been in business for 30 years - i just started my 3rd year of apprenticeship this year and when i started, i said to my boss who was connecting hoses here and throwing gadgets over his shoulder etc... what are you doing? how did you know that you replaced the right part? "cause i'm good he said" i said to him well i have learnt nothing from this job or the last, i'm only interested if you explain to me, why your doing that, why you changed that .. go through the whole diagnosis problem with me, this was when i really started learning, he even asks me what i think now lol.

    i might take an extra 5 minutes here or there then our other techs but i'm not the one who gets called back because that fridge stopped again, or the evap is leaking water again. you have got to love your work, and you have got to be interested in learning something new always, sure i make mistakes we all do, but it is in my best interest and customers best interests to fix asap and ensure it doesn't happen again there or on another system in the future.
    "Old fridgies never die, they just run out of gas!"

  15. #15
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    hi bones,

    I've read with a lot of interest, you are at the same age of my son ( ****, how time flies!) and I will tell you what I tall him.

    1. be the first to give even if you dont get anything in return.
    2. listen, think and then speak!
    3. never be the first to jump " I know" even if you do.
    4 .respect all humens regardless their colour.
    5. try to learn every day a new thing.
    6. get as many girls as you can before you get married.

    it goes on but you will accuse me of being sentimental which I'm not.

    your boss is a complete idiot for saying what he said.
    teaching is an art!!

    my wife's uncle lives near melborne, if yoy are in the neighbourhood let me know.

    in any situation, try to make the best job possible and dont look at your watch. from that reason I never wear one to work.

    learn to tell between good and best and go for it.

    and most inportant, keep yourself healthy.

    chemi
    Last edited by chemi-cool; 02-02-2004 at 05:54 PM.

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    installed a hyundai split today... had a leak on the suction line service valve, wonderful machines lol... connected indoor pipes ran them under house, out and onto the unit a little bit of mucking around. connected suction pipe and 20 seconds latter POW... the quatre tube cap went flying bugger i thought, i hope this has got some gas left in it, tightend service ports finished piping vacuated, moment of truth... YAY some gas! kicked the machine over pressureswere fine, cooling worked great.

    your advice is fairly good chemi, i live by 1 to 6 already however 6 is currently in a holding pattern as i have had my current g/f for 4 years this year...

    i stopped waisting money getting drunk every friday and saturday night about a year ago and have saved 10k already not bad since i'm on apprentice wages, only got smoking to quit now not that i smoke that much, but it still adds up and is ment to be bad for ya so they say.

    never been to victoria, cops are ruthless for targeting speeding there, 3k's and hour tollerance and $110 fine... might get there sometime in the future, plan on seeing much of this great country i live in before i pass, bugger going over seas at the moment

    i have to wear a watch otherwise i miss lunch... and i still get paid the same if i work through it or not, so i may as well stop refuel then take off again :P
    "Old fridgies never die, they just run out of gas!"

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