A somewhat unscrupulous supplier

In many areas of the business life, including Penetrant Testing, we may rely upon our suppliers … until one of them, (a rarity for sure), make us think the other way.

In the '80s, a supplier had got a bad reputation due to his "flexible ethics".

In our small PT world every one hears about every trouble met by others: word of mouth is better than any cell phone or "social network" to let others know that this or that supplier is not that much reliable. Maybe this could make some think twice before going on "the wrong side of the road".

Here three of his exploits, among many others!

First exploit:

A request for quotation of a PT line, the fluorescent penetrant and the dry developer being applied through an electrostatic gun. The line was designed to check aircraft gear box casings.

Competition was tough and two competitors went to the final step; as there was no technical difference, the lowest price won.

Within the very first days after the line‘s commissioning some dubious traces of corrosion were seen in the oven, then flash rusting was detected on the surface of the parts after inspection. The deception was easy to detect by using … a small magnet! Steel used in this line was a carbon steel, not a stainless steel.

Carbon steel is far cheaper than stainless steel able to withstand corrosion. The end.

Second exploit:

This same manufacturer supplied a waste water treatment installation for a PT line based on activated carbon. He supplied the 400 kg (ca 881 lb) of carbon needed for the filters.

When the activated carbon went to saturation the user asked the supplier to fill the filters with new carbon while getting him rid of the used carbon. Perfect maintenance … except when the user got the invoice: 450 kg (ca 992 lb) of new carbon.

"Why did you charge 450 kg of carbon when only 400 were supplied for the commissioning?" the user dared ask. The supplier argued that 450 kg were also used then, but the user had an easy task when showing the first invoice to prove that only 400 kg were used.

Third exploit:

Again this same supplier.

A company had a need for a magnetic field meter.

The buyer made some phone calls to several would-be suppliers. This was still the time when a quotation on phone was enough to buy such equipments. The process is different now. Nowadays buyers require written, detailed quotations with the date and the name and signature of the person who sends the offer. This lowers the risks for misunderstanding.

Let us go back to our example.

This same supplier got the order as being again the lower – bidder.

When opening the box he received the customer had a surprise: the meter, yes, was in the box. Along the Operations Manual. But no trace of the Hall-effect probe, of the batteries or rechargeable battery/recharger, of a transport case or of the verification/calibration certificate.

When asked on the phone about the strangeness of this situation, the supplier frankly explained that the price as quoted was for the meter alone without any of the "accessories"; the customer may then tick in a list of optional equipments:
• Tangential or axial Hall-effect probe.
• Transport case.
• Batteries or rechargeable battery + charger.

As a matter of fact these options did not come for free!

Further the verification certificate could not be done for the meter alone, but for the meter + probe system.

The customer had been tricked by his supplier: he had to separately order the "options", and, as a last result, the now ready-to-use meter cost him more than if he had ordered it from any of the other suppliers.

THE END OF THE STORY?

As it could be anticipated this supplier is no longer doing business in the NDT field. But elsewhere, maybe? And could it happen that a supplier does similar tricks now? The answer is an unambiguous "YES"!!

In the '60s a UK Company had a motto: "For every surface treatment problem, there is a product xxxxxx" (trademark we do not display).

Engineers and Commercial people in this Company had made a "translation": "With every surface treatment product xxxxxx (trademark we do not display), there is a problem".

This anecdote is there only to remind everyone that problems met in workshops may be due to the suppliers/manufacturers as well as to the users.

Our idea in these documents is NOT to target anyone, but on the contrary to bring to your knowledge some interesting cases which may prevent you to duplicate the same mistakes while performing Penetrant Testing (PT) or Magnetic Testing (MT).

All the ministories you will read are TRUE. We think they will be helpful:
• First as examples of specific technical --or non-technical-- requirements or peculiar problems.
• Second to let you see that the problems do not always come where you think they should come from.
• Third so that users feel free to ask for help from people (the experts) who may know more than they do.