[BC] horns

[WFIFeng@aol.com]

In a message dated 05/29/2005 3:27:38 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
Robertm at broadcast.net writes:

> WFIFeng at aol.com wrote:
>  
>  > Don Kimberlin could tell you some incredible War Stories about some of 
the 
> 
>  > absolute absurdities that went on behind the scenes at Ma Bell. Stuff 
that 
> will 
>  > curl your toes.
>  > 
>  > Willie...
>  
>  
>  so tell us why and support your opinion.

I wish Don was on these lists! ;)

He told a story some years ago about a generator in some small, somewhat 
remote switching station (I forget the details) that failed because a $3 capacitor 
in it's electronic governor failed. He went down to investigate, while Ma 
Bell went into high alert mode.

Ma Bell ended up sending a 150Kw genset there, having it scream away under no 
load, while another set was enroute from hundreds of miles away... and having 
a multi-person conference call with high-level engineers "just in case"... 
and ended up costing something like $3 million. Meanwhile, he made a trip to a 
local electronics store and bought the required part to repair the existing 
genset. He then installed it... but they didn't want him to test it, they had 
their "big shots" on the way... well, he "accidentally" bumped the main kill 
switch, and the now repaired genset sprang to life, functioning perfectly.

The bigwhigs on the phone debated briefly what to do next, and still insisted 
that the 150Kw(?) unit keep screaming away unloaded, and the other one stay 
on the road, enroute to the site.

It's been a long time, so I forget many details of the story... but this 
about covers the basics. A $3 part ended up, in the end, costing $3 million... 
because they had to follow those outlandish, inefficient, and ineffective 
"proceedures"... kinda like the nonsense of the detailed operating instructions for 
the proper use and feeding of pushbrooms. <:P

Oh, and he also told of the brand new parts that would arrive every year, for 
replacement of the existing ones... being sent to storage... YEAR AFTER YEAR, 
while the old parts stayed in service. The shipments kept coming, 
year-after-year, because it was "PROCEEDURE". Those new, unopened boxes went into 
storage... Rather than change proceedure, this went on year after year... to the 
point that they either  had to build bigger warehouses to hold it all, or start 
throwing it into the dumpster. BRAND NEW, UNUSED parts... going to the dumpster, 
because there was no more room to store them!!!

Such incomprehensible waste!

Willie...