29 replies to this topic

[M Greenaway]

Fire away, ask me anything, prepare to be underwhelmed !!

[Simon]

Steady on Martin, your turn doesn't officially start till Monday.

Go on then…

As you're quite a new member it would be nice to get to know a little about you personally. So tell me how old are you? Where do you live? What do you do for work and leisure?

Regards,
Simon

[M Greenaway]

Sunday mornings are a bit boring arent they !

I am a young slip of a lad at 36 years of age.

I live in the beautiful, expensive, but somewhat career limited North Devon - unless of course you want to be a surf instructor.

For work I am a Quality Manager, I shall respect their privacy and not name them here, however I am an engineer and work in manufacturing.

For leisure I play rugby - still !

[Simon]

I am a young slip of a lad at 36 years of age.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You know I had presumed you were a good deal older. The internet has the power to confuse; I often get calls from people who think we are a multi-national corporation. And not a man in a shed.

For work I am a Quality Manager, I shall respect their privacy and not name them here, however I am an engineer and work in manufacturing.

Can you say which industry?

For leisure I play rugby - still !

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Union I take it.

Regards,
Simon

[M Greenaway]

Yes Rugby Union - a fine sport, and a great excuse to get out of the house, clobber someone, and drink vast amounts of beer.

In very generic terms I guess you could say I am in the mechanical engineering industry - is that close enough ?

I also had a brief stint in the electronics industry, however I am essentially a mechanical engineer.

Funny you thought I was older - what gave you that impression ?

[Simon]

Funny you thought I was older - what gave you that impression ?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You know Jim.

BTW did you watch the cricket, if so what do you think of today's game and the series - if not well...

Regards,
Simon

[M Greenaway]

Yeah the cricket was good, I am not a big cricket fan, in fact I pretty much hate the sport, if indeed you can call five days stood in a field a sport ! But this test series has been good, I mostly just watch the last hour or so, when it actually gets exciting.

[Simon]

Anyway how did you get into quality and what are your plans for the future?

[M Greenaway]

Weeehelllllll.....................

Like many others I did not know what I wanted to do after leaving school and was therefore 'advised' to get into engineering due to my strengths in maths and sciences, and probably because I also did design technology and technical drawing at O level also - funny really, to be honest I didnt have any great interest in engineering but chose these types of subject as they seemed more interesting at the time than RE, or PE studies, history or geography.

Anyways on taking this career advice I did an OND in Engineering, followed by a HND in Mechanical and Production Engineering at Plymouth Polytechnic.

On leaving polytechnic the first job I was offered was at a local company in the quality department. Starting in the inspection area then moving to the standards room and getting involved also in calibration. At this time I was also introduced to ISO9001 quality systems, and was internally trained and conducted a couple of internal audits.

This job came to an end after only 12 months when I was made redundant along with a third of the workforce at this company. I then did a brief stint in design - of packaging machinery (interesting ?), and temped at another factory on the shop floor - things didnt seem to be going too good at this point.

Following this I landed a job at a very small local light engineering company that were implementing ISO9002 (or BS5750 Part 2 as we used to know it as), they took me on on the strength of my 12 months previous experience in quality, which looking back was a bit of a gamble for them - but I was cheap ! I will never forget the interview, my head was covered in bandages due to having 15 stiches in my left ear from playing rugby - perhaps thats what swung it - sympathy.

Anyways I set up the system and gained the company ISO9002 certification at the first attempt, not bad I thought for a 22 year old know nort !

Stayed there for a few years then moved to another larger company, ironically that also made packaging machinery, again as a quality engineer. The role here was mainly QC, and i did not enjoy the role or the company, however the product was superb.

Moved again to another 'quality engineer' job, this time my role was primarily the companies quality systems auditor - this is where my experience and knowledge of quality management systems really started to take off, and I guess the point in time when I thought I had better make the best of this quality career as it seems I was becoming 'type cast'. Enjoyed the company and the role very much, also at this time started to look beyond ISO9000 type quality systems, and started to question/critique the ISO9000 model and certification process. Around this time started reading up on wider quality concepts, and found having read Demings Out of the Crisis and The New Economics that this guy made far more sense than the ISO9000 standards.

Also became as Associate Member of the Institute of Quality Assurance at this time, which I guess was my first exposure to the likes of Jim Wade, through articles in Quality World - very much enjoyed the realisation that ISO9000 was not the be all and end all of quality assurance, in fact in many peoples minds (including my own) did little to either assure or improve quality.

Moved again to a QS9000 company that also had an ISO/IEC17025 accredited test lab, very interesting exposure to these types of quality systems and company cultures that have to go with them. To my mind QS9000 was a far superior quality system to ISO9000.

Moved again back to an ISO9001 environment around the changes/transition to ISO9001:2000. Small electronics company that was mainly manual assembly, which did not have enough scope I felt to keep my interest, not to mention a poor culture.

Blagged a first class honours degree in Mechanical Design and Manufacture at this point, and now I am quality manager at another company rebuilding a quality system that has been left to deteriorate over the last 2 years.

Like you my plans for the future are really non-existant, I often feel the urge to leave quality and do something totally different - if I knew what I think I would jump ship tomorrow.

[Jim Wade]

Re age...

Watch it, ST!

I'll have you know that Martin's age and mine are quite close.

Well, to be more accurate, our ages each contain two digits, the sum of the two digits in each case is about the same, and if you take the mean of our ages you'd get the same figure in whichever order you take us.

[Simon]

Re age...

Watch it, ST!

I'll have you know that Martin's age and mine are quite close.

Well, to be more accurate, our ages each contain two digits, the sum of the two digits in each case is about the same, and if you take the mean of our ages you'd get the same figure in whichever order you take us.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sorry Jim. You know when you get the perfect ball sometimes you just can't help dinking it into the net.

With it being Bank Holiday Monday in the UK questions have been a little sparse today, hopefully better tomorrow. I've been to see Thomas the tank engine and his friends at Skipton. Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway It's a beautiful part of the world, had a walk down to Bolton Abbey - very pretty. Steam trains are great!

BTW older members may be interested in the 1940's Weekend later in September.

Martin apart from reading QW do you get anything else out of the IQA...I mean do you partcipate?

Regards,
Simon

[Franco]

Tell us something about your family and the place where you live Franco

[M Greenaway]

Simon

No I get little else from the IQA - our local chapter is pretty poor at organising events, I have offered to assist but my offer was met with a somewhat apathetic response.

Franco

I am married with two children, boys aged 9 and 6.

North Devon is primarily an agricultural and tourism area - the beaches are superb when the sun shines. Cream teas are a local delicacy, along with pasties (although they are of more cornish decent).

Its a nice town and quite a nice area, we dont seem to get the problems that larger towns and cities have.

[M Greenaway]

See - I knew you would be bored

[Franco]

Its a nice town and quite a nice area, we dont seem to get the problems that larger towns and cities have.

Any picture of the area ?

[yorkshire]

What do you find most frustrating / rewarding about the people you work with?
What is your favourite rugby song?
Do you agree that Rugby League is just for wimps?

[M Greenaway]

Here is a web cam over my town

http://www.bbc.co.uk...ry_webcam.shtml

not very pretty really

Here is a web cam of a beach just up the road

http://www.eyeball-s...ve_webcam.shtml

it does look much better in real life

and another

http://www.eyeball-s...uk/croyde.shtml

and another

http://www.eyeball-s...k/saunton.shtml

PS - I dont surf !

What I find most frustrating about people are those that are always 'too busy' to do anything and dont understand what the quality system is and what processes are, and dont recognise their responsibilities for 'quality'.

The only thing vaguely rewarding is the pay cheque.

I dont have a favourite rugby song, and yes rugby league is for wimps and for people who can only run in straight lines into brick walls.

[Franco]

Here is a web cam of a beach just up the road
it does look much better in real life

I hope it does

[M Greenaway]

Well if there are no more questions I will just randomly ramble on about myself.

Lets see....

Oh yes as a lad I was very much into scooters, proper ones you know, made in Italy, out of steel, manual gear change.

I still have my Vespa and recently re-sprayed it, if I have figured out this posting lark correctly a photo should be below:-

 30_04_05_1202.jpg   44.61KB   63 downloads

Its a PX200 and took me on many adventures in my late teens/early twenties, to many British sea side resorts, including Oban in Scotland (which took 19 hours riding over 2 days), and also Dan Haag in Holand.

I recently 'upgraded' if you like to a Piaggio (makers of Vespa) X9 which is a 500cc single cylinder four stroke automatic, and is a lot of fun to ride and to be honest so much better than a Vespa - photo also attached hopefully:-

 23_01_05_1301.jpg   42.56KB   70 downloads

My involvement in scooters also got me into Northern Soul and Tamla Motown music, and I have a reasonable record collection of some quite rare 45's.


Now come on - that is interesting isnt it ??

[Simon]

My involvement in scooters also got me into Northern Soul and Tamla Motown music, and I have a reasonable record collection of some quite rare 45's.
Now come on - that is interesting isnt it ??

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes it is. Even though I live reasonably close to Wigan Pier, Northern Soul passed me by. I saw a clip of Wigan pier on our local news a couple of months ago; I don't know why it was on but the dancing was amazing; spinning, jumping in the air and doing the splits on landing. It looked really cool. The kids were obviously all on speed or something.

Did you used to do all the dancing and stuff? And were there any good clubs in Devon?

Simon

[M Greenaway]

Hello Simon

It is more Wigan Casino than Wigan Pier, but yes Wigan was the mecca for Northern Soulies before my time sadly - cant believe you missed it on your doorstep !

The music and dancing is fantastic, and Wigan Casino was actually shut down due largely to the drug taking going on at these allnighters - as you guessed, yes you do need drugs to dance all night like that, which I do not condone, and have certainly never taken part in (apart from the odd draw on a 'funny fag' in my youth).

I am no great dancer myself, being a 17 stone 6'5" rugby player I am sure you can imagine my dancing abilities - better at drinking, listening and watching.

There are local pockets of soulies that occasionally put on do's in the area, but obviously nothing compared to the big venues up north.

[Simon]

It is more Wigan Casino than Wigan Pier, but yes Wigan was the mecca for Northern Soulies before my time sadly - cant believe you missed it on your doorstep !

Oh yeah Wigan Casino. I told you earlier I was a punk and I think it was around that time wasn't it.

I am no great dancer myself, being a 17 stone 6'5" rugby player I am sure you can imagine my dancing abilities - better at drinking, listening and watching.

Ouch poor Vespa; you're bigger than me man. So what are your top ten songs Martin?

Simon

[M Greenaway]

Wow top ten songs is always a tough question as I love loads of songs, both Northern/Tamla, and a lot of other stuff which I now listen to.

I will give you a Northern/Tamla top ten:-

1) Do I Love You (Indeed I Do) - Frank Wilson
2) Time Will Pass You By - Tobi Legend
3) Sweet Thing - The Detroit Spinners
4) The Who Who Song - Jackie Wilson
5) What - Judy Street
6) Better Use Your Head - Little Anthony and the Imperials
7) Turning My Heartbeat Up - The MVP's (I think)
8) Under Your Powerful Love - Joe Tex
9) Goodbye Nothing to Say - The Javells (I think)
10) The Night - Frankie Valli

I could think of millions more (if I could remember the titles and artists !)

[Simon]

Wow that's amazing; going by name alone I don't know any of them; although I'm sure I'd know one or two of them if I heard them. What about your not Northern Soul or Tamla Motown top ten?

Simon

[M Greenaway]

Hopefully if I have worked theis fangled interweb thingy out attached is a RAM file of Frank Wilson - Do I Love You, you will need Real Player though.

This song was an obscure demo on a Motown label from way back. I believe that only about 3 original demo copies have ever been found, one of which was recently auctioned and fetched (if memory serves me right) approx £15000 quid.

 Frank_Wilson___Do_I_Love_You_Indeed_I_Do.ram   72bytes   63 downloads

Unfortunately you might recognise this tune from the recent KFC commercials - which is a crying shame that such a fine and rare soul tune became the theme music for greasy fast food !!

As for a top ten of other tunes, again that is very difficult as I now listen to all sorts.

I do love Ace of Spades by Motorhead, which is probably the complete opposite to the Northern Soul music I love.

Current stuff I like is mostly Coldplay, also like the Kiezer (?) Chiefs. Was well into Oasis, loved the old Madchester stuff like Stone Roses (I am the resurrection must be in my top ten), Happy Mondays etc.

Oh forgot to mention that I saw the Four Tops on 3 occasions back in the early nineties - absolutely awesome, Levi Stubbs has got to be the greatest soul singer of all time. Had he died in a plane crash in his twenties he would have the notoriety of Otis Reading.

Edited by M Greenaway, 02 September 2005 - 07:59 AM.