Bob's Stupid Tax Series, #3

Plasma spraying – a variant of thermal spraying

Bob runs a thermal spray coating business somewhere in the eastern USA. Thermal spray coating seems like it could be useful, but I don't know of any specific applications. I suspect it is used mostly for industrial applications and not so much in consumer products. I don't remember how I got onto this but it seems like a fairly esoteric business with serious practical applications. Anyway, every once in a while he sends out a newsletter, and this one is a pretty good story.

BOB’S STUPID TAX SERIES 

Stupid tax:  A situation where the actions of an individual (me) that directly results in a cost of money, time, or pride to fix.  I also call it “tuition”.  Paying “tuition” can lead to “intuition” and wisdom…..IF you chose to. 

#3 - LISTEN TO YOUR CUSTOMER 

TUITION:  Another story from my Chromalloy days.  I was promoted to manager and had a young coatings engineer working for me.  We had a plasma spray process that the Coatings Department was developing for a new part.  This engineer was bright and very energetic.  Somewhere along the way he discovered parameters for the plasma that used Argon as the primary gas and Helium as the secondary gas. 

We also had a sales guy that was wise and well connected to the customer.  He also did a fantastic job of keeping production schedules and development projects on track.  We had won a new job with this customer.  In the early stages of process development, we were all on a telephone conference call with our customers coatings approval engineer.  This engineer really understood coatings processes and he had certain preferences.  Their specification did not define which primary and secondary gases we should choose, but he had a personal preference for Argon/Hydrogen and did not like a Argon/Helium combination. 

My engineer that worked for me wanted to use the Argon/Helium, even though the customer suggested Argon/Hydrogen.  When we asked the customer if it would be a problem for us to use the helium his response was “You can use any parameters you want if you meet the specification requirements.  But I am strongly recommending that you use Hydrogen”. 

If you remember from last weeks story, I had a great deal of respect, not to be confused with fear, for using Hydrogen.  So, I decided to support my engineers desire to develop the helium parameters. 

Part of the customers requirement was to cut up an actual part and correlate the results from that to test coupons we used.  My engineer proceeded to coat samples and actual parts and complete the submittal package.  Everything passed through our Lab and we submitted it to the customer.  It got rejected.  It was based on a subjective interpretation of the metallography. 

So, my engineer proceeded to revise the parameters and resubmit.  Guess what?  It was rejected a second time!  Again, for subjective reasons. 

Round three, same result. 

By now I am starting to get heat from the Production Dept. because, if we didn’t soon get the approval, they were not going to be able to meet the customer delivery deadline.  I wanted to be a great leader and support my engineer and not let the Production Dept dictate our timeline.  Besides, I just knew we were close, and the next submittal would surely pass. 

The next day the wise salesman came in my office and closed the door.  He asked for my permission to speak frankly with me.  (Did I mention he was good with people?)  He proceeded to explain that there are times you listen to what your customer is saying at a level deeper than just the face value of the words spoken.  He also told me that we will never get a package passed using Helium and if we submitted a package with the same exact results, but using Hydrogen, it would pass right away. 

The next submittal, we used Argon/Hydrogen, and it passed the first time. 

CREDITS EARNED:  Listen to you customer…they just might know what they want! 

MY WISDOM TO YOU:  Listen twice as much as you talk!  And, as the “wise” salesman said, to listen to people at a level deeper than just the words spoken.  Many times customers will not/cannot come right out and say exactly what you need to do to get an approval, but they usually do want to make it easy and will drop big hints….if we just listen. 

600 Airport Rd
Suite 201
Washington PA 15301
USA