Monumental work cockups
Discussion
Have any of you experienced or was the cause of a big cockup at work? Did you fess up about it or kept quiet or did you tell the boss and it turned out ok in the end?
e.g. Either the wrong equipment was ordered worth thousands of pounds, excel formulas were found to be wrong and only noticed months down the line or a decision was made and things subsequently went tits up.
At the place I work, someone had ordered £50k worth of equipment but after running validation tests it was revealed the wrong machinery was bought. Its set our project back big time.
e.g. Either the wrong equipment was ordered worth thousands of pounds, excel formulas were found to be wrong and only noticed months down the line or a decision was made and things subsequently went tits up.
At the place I work, someone had ordered £50k worth of equipment but after running validation tests it was revealed the wrong machinery was bought. Its set our project back big time.
Tango13 said:
bristolracer said:
The scientists who got the measurements of the Hubble telescope mirror wrong.
The real problem was the accountants that wouldn't spend the $20,000 or so to move it onto the old machine to double check it.I mean give them a German car company what could go wrong........
I had to collate a whole load of data for a bid we were submitting for some work.
This meant taking all of our company standard tender submission, and translating it into the clients tender submission.
I copied everything, all the data, all the numbers, had to write some formulas to translate monthly costs into hourly costs.
All this was fine. The numbers at the end of the sheet added up to within about £2k due to rounding difference and within our margin etc.
Except I, and out senior bid team, and our commercial director, failed to notice that one cell was showing ######## which I had taken in haste to mean invalid formula. But no, of course in excel that means the number is too big to be displayed without expanding the cell.
So instead of submitting a tender for £2.5 million with our margin on top or thereabouts, we had gone ahead and submitted a bid for £2.5 million with our margin on top at £2,800,000,000.
Yeah, we didn't get that work.
This meant taking all of our company standard tender submission, and translating it into the clients tender submission.
I copied everything, all the data, all the numbers, had to write some formulas to translate monthly costs into hourly costs.
All this was fine. The numbers at the end of the sheet added up to within about £2k due to rounding difference and within our margin etc.
Except I, and out senior bid team, and our commercial director, failed to notice that one cell was showing ######## which I had taken in haste to mean invalid formula. But no, of course in excel that means the number is too big to be displayed without expanding the cell.
So instead of submitting a tender for £2.5 million with our margin on top or thereabouts, we had gone ahead and submitted a bid for £2.5 million with our margin on top at £2,800,000,000.
Yeah, we didn't get that work.
I once got my units mixed up when trying to work out how much rapid setting concrete we'd need for a weekend job. I was measuring length and width in metres, but depth in mm, which I "corrected" to cm, and not metres.
Accidently ordered quite a bit too much and there was no way the driver was taking it back, so it had to go somewhere.
Client was quite surprised by the new area of hardstanding he found when he returned to work on Monday
No hiding that one.
Accidently ordered quite a bit too much and there was no way the driver was taking it back, so it had to go somewhere.
Client was quite surprised by the new area of hardstanding he found when he returned to work on Monday
No hiding that one.
This is some time ago now... But two examples....
1. Our colleagues in the USA coloured a new tablet for allergy/ allergic reactions with a blue dye that caused allergic reactions.
2. Our engineers designed a complete new type of asthma inhaler...with the wrong plastic ...it degraded on contact with the drug...
1. Our colleagues in the USA coloured a new tablet for allergy/ allergic reactions with a blue dye that caused allergic reactions.
2. Our engineers designed a complete new type of asthma inhaler...with the wrong plastic ...it degraded on contact with the drug...
Not my work thank god - http://edition.cnn.com/TECH/space/9909/30/mars.met...
Edit - better article: http://articles.latimes.com/1999/oct/01/news/mn-17...
Edit - better article: http://articles.latimes.com/1999/oct/01/news/mn-17...
Virtual total destruction of share value of Royal Bank of Scotland in 2008 under the leadership of Sir (later Mr) Fred Goodwin.
That takes some beating!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/ba...
That takes some beating!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/ba...
Edited by Cliftonite on Friday 14th October 23:54
Construction firm I used to work for were doing a toilet refurb in a school in half term. Rush job, everything programmed within an inch of its life, long days and both weekends to get it done in the week.
Delivery driver turns up with a pallet full of sanitaryware, lifts it on the hi-ab and promptly drops it from about 8ft to the ground, all observed by our men who were having lunch in their van on the other side of the schoolyard. Every single WC pan was smashed. The driver tried to say that they must have been damaged from the factory but was soon withered when he found out he'd been watched.
Delivery driver turns up with a pallet full of sanitaryware, lifts it on the hi-ab and promptly drops it from about 8ft to the ground, all observed by our men who were having lunch in their van on the other side of the schoolyard. Every single WC pan was smashed. The driver tried to say that they must have been damaged from the factory but was soon withered when he found out he'd been watched.
1st day of a new job for parcel force and 1st devivery of the day and I walk into a school with the 1st load of parcels, I walk out after the 1st of the loads to see the van full of parcels driving up the road with me not in it,
another job, called into usual place to pick up some very very high value goods,walk into store look for parcels in normal place, usual set up is if nothing sitting, nothing to go, so I leave. get into van set of to hear a crunch under the wheels. turns out as I walked into store the storeman to save time had set the parcel under the front wheels of the van expecting me to see it when I came out. I didnt and over 250k worth of computorchips was scrap.(airospace defence manufactor and box was tiny)
last one of note was when i was in a high top long wheelbase van and had a delivery that was on the 1st floor of a carpark. goverment building so past security showing my pass in this high top van, drove up the sprial ramp to 1st floor thinking god that was rather tight and the down ramp is to the inside. done the deivery and got into van heading down the sprial ramp in a long wheelbase hightop van thinking that with a 1inch gap front driverside and 1 inch gap rear passenger side of the van all the way down I was a driving god, right at the dottom the top of the van hit the steel of the roof of the car park and I was stuck. toom me 2 hours to back the van up the ramp again to drive it down the upramp. roof of van was sliced open and I was rather sheepish for weeks afterwards.
another job, called into usual place to pick up some very very high value goods,walk into store look for parcels in normal place, usual set up is if nothing sitting, nothing to go, so I leave. get into van set of to hear a crunch under the wheels. turns out as I walked into store the storeman to save time had set the parcel under the front wheels of the van expecting me to see it when I came out. I didnt and over 250k worth of computorchips was scrap.(airospace defence manufactor and box was tiny)
last one of note was when i was in a high top long wheelbase van and had a delivery that was on the 1st floor of a carpark. goverment building so past security showing my pass in this high top van, drove up the sprial ramp to 1st floor thinking god that was rather tight and the down ramp is to the inside. done the deivery and got into van heading down the sprial ramp in a long wheelbase hightop van thinking that with a 1inch gap front driverside and 1 inch gap rear passenger side of the van all the way down I was a driving god, right at the dottom the top of the van hit the steel of the roof of the car park and I was stuck. toom me 2 hours to back the van up the ramp again to drive it down the upramp. roof of van was sliced open and I was rather sheepish for weeks afterwards.
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