Page 65 - MY STORY

I made contact with the manager of QA and told him that I

had the authority to approve the return of the plate to
TIMET, only if it was indeed defective. On the other
hand, if there was no defect, the rejection would not be

approved and NAA would have to keep the plate.

“No problem,” the QA manager said, “we definitely saw

defect indications in the plates and have marked those
locations carefully.” I told him I would be in-plant that
same day to review their findings.

After reviewing their ultrasonic scan records, and the

condition of plate, I was pretty well convinced that their
“defects” were merely indications of a change in grain
flow pattern and I offered NAA QA folk a challenge. I
said “If you’re so darned sure this is a defect why don’t

you cut open the plate at the marked location(s). If just
one defect shows up on any plate, I’ll authorize the return

of the all the plate for full credit. If the metal is
defect-free, the plate belongs to NAA, and you’ll tell your
buyer to cancel the rejection request.”

They were so sure of their ultrasonic inspection capability
that they agreed to the offer, and when the plate was

sliced open – well, there was no defect – just good solid