? Scrapping a Bike | Main | Second night of Triathlon Training School ?
May 14, 2006
Quality is an unfinished process
In August of 2005, about nine months ago, I talked about the lack of caring that I found in my volunteer activity. But actually after all this time, I have not accomplished changing anything. Today I was working at the shop and a new customer was supposed to be returning today to pick up a bike a couple volunteers had been setting up for her. So I decided to look it over to make sure it was ready. Here is what I discovered:
Front Derailer:
Not tight on the seat tube and too high.
Not shifting into the large chain ring.
cable end frayed.
Bottom Bracket loose.
Back wheel out of true, rubbing on brake pad.
Front wheel off center, spokes rubbing on fork on one side. Washers were used on one side to adjust for a speedometer device but it was over-compensated.
Front brake too loose and brake lever went all the way to the handle bar.
Both wheels had tube stems sticking out at a severe angle.
Front wheel rim strip was broken.
I fixed most of these problems and told her to bring the bike back for free repairs if she runs into any further problems. I used to look at these issues as a matter of 'not caring' by those doing the work. But now I'm thinking it's a matter of 'not knowing' how to fix a bike so it's really fixed and not admitting to 'not knowing'
Because A person really would not send a bike out in this condition knowing it's not fixed properly would they? I don't think this is the case because these people do feel good about the work they do. So this is my failure. I have not implemented a good education program or quality checking program for volunteers work, for everyone's work. Everyone's skill levels should be brought up and checks have to be made. I want to buy a bike that actually works and is safe, so this has to be my focus this year.
Has it really been nine months since I discovered a quality control problem? It's alarming to me that I knew a problem existed and yet could do nothing to resolve it in an area that is potentially the most valuable part of our program. My attention was focused on so many other things that I lost sight of this. Now I realize that fixing this bike for the customer only solved the issue once and that it's an ongoing process that will need the most dedicated focus by many people, all the time.
Posted by carl1236 at May 14, 2006 10:03 PM | Attitude