Re: RoboHelp Baby

[Peter Neilson <neilson -at- alltel -dot- net>]

Does anyone know what it is about the purchasing department function 
that causes this situation to be so common?  I have seen similar kinds 
of incompetence at a major manufacturer of electronic test equipment, at 
MIT, and at a major computer manufacturer, all over 20 years ago, and I 
am not surprised to see that the situation continues.

Problems in quality are well understood.  In many companies the 
manufacturing section hounds the quality department to pass bad product. 
 The cause is the belief that the quality of goods as manufactured is 
"good enough" and that the inspection merely gets in the way of 
production.  Quality is told to keep their noses out of the way, and to 
stick to making statistical reports.  As a result, a lot of honest 
quality engineers have quit or been fired several times.

But what's going on in purchasing?  Are the buyers being judged on how 
little money gets spent?  Or on how much stuff they can buy through 
"approved" channels rather than as special purchases?  I've seen many 
cases of common (and thus incorrect) parts being substituted for 
desperately needed special parts.  Five-percent resistors were commonly 
substituted for precision resistors, presumably because they were so 
much cheaper.  Engineers took to buying certain parts out-of-pocket and 
getting reimbursed out of petty cash, with a faked receipt if need be.

At MIT, I found that central purchasing had acquired a whole shi*load of 
number 2B and number 3H drawing pencils in error, and was sending these 
to any department that needed regular number 2 or number 3 pencils. 
Complaints were rejected with, "Sorry, that's what you get."  I went and 
bought my own pencils at the campus bookstore, and didn't even ask for 
reimbursement.

At the computer manufacturer, the printing of books was placed with 
companies that did not have facilities to effect correct production, 
against the express request of the book production manager.

What forces are actually at work inside purchasing?

Dick Margulis wrote: