Thermal Spray Communications

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In a previous post entitled “A thermal spray mindset”, I had kind of taken you, my esteemed reader, into a philosophical excursion into developing a thermal spray mind set that keeps you focused on the various aspects of thermal spray coatings. As I reflected on it deeper, I found something I observed years ago in a fairly decent sized thermal spray coatings facility that I believe is more apt to be discussed now ( but should have been implemented long long ago ). That is dealing with the building of walls, not just cardboard and plaster walls, but thick concrete walls between the various thermal spray departments, especially thermal spray quality, thermal spray engineering, sales and thermal spray R and D sections. And I am sure this situation still exists in a majority of thermal spray coatings facilities worldwide. And this is not simply a forum to complain, I also have a proposal at the end of this article to address this nasty business practice. The situation goes as follows. The people in the R and D division which may really be a big division or simply an engineer and a technician with one dedicated thermal spray booth lived and worked in their own world. They would attend industry seminars and go to conferences and were supposed to be up to date with the latest and greatest in thermal spray coatings developments. They developed and tweaked parameters and worked on fancy applications and so on. Then there were the thermal spray quality people with their six-sigma charts and other statistical process control data that thought they were the policemen of the thermal spray operators who in their minds were out to sneak through substandard hardware. ( I am not saying that checks and balances are not necessary; that is the reason the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government have independent oversight of each other; but this mind set that I am going to catch you sneaking through a bad part needs to go out the window. ) Then there were the engineering and sales people that had the mindset that they were holier than everyone else and that they were smarter and more in touch with the customer than the other “less brilliant” people in the shop. Of course, how could you discount the production folks, who had the mindset that if they did not put out the hardware day in and day out in the hot and often uncomfortable booths, sweating their armpits off ( LOL ), none of the others would receive a paycheck and that while the others may think they know their stuff, it is the production people that walked the walk and did “ more paw and less jaw” ( a familiar expression from Michigan, USA ).

This nonsensical mind set needs to be changed in EVERY thermal spray coatings facility throughout the world. And guess who can implement this change: you guessed it – the highest levels of management alone can alter this behavior and “tear down the walls” as Mr. Ronald Reagan put it succinctly. A simple move can resolve this problem. Every month, each department is given a turn for a very short period, say half an hour on a Friday afternoon on the third Friday of every month, wherein they can communicate what is new and exciting in their own fields. This is to educate everyone else within the company as to what is going on. For example January the R and D department speaks for half an hour, February engineering speaks; March is quality, April is sales and May is production and back again in June is R and D and so on does the cycle repeat. This will not only enable everyone to stay in touch with the other teams’ findings and achievements but also build better bonding. One thing that has to be clearly specified is that this cannot turn out to be a complaining and rock and stone throwing session aimed at each other; rather a session to update on the new developments and improvements that will hopefully help the thermal spray organization. As in everything else, a little bit can go a long way, just like the longest marathon starts with the first step.