There was a quality issue with one product. The customer asked me to come and segregate the products in their line. As a supplier, we always treat the customer as God. I immediately ran to the Customer plant with two quality inspectors with me to segregate the material. The procedure for segregation was not easy. First of all, I informed the customer about our visit so that they can arrange our entry at the gate. We entered the premises. There were a lot of approvals required to segregate the material. Till that time we were just waiting outside of the office. Once permission was done, we entered the plant. The material was arranged. We started segregation. It was summer. We were feeling like we were burning in the chamber. In that, every manager of the different department of customer started questioning about the generation of the defect. Some even shouted that because of our product, there was serious concern on the line of assembly of products. As it was our fault, I kept quiet while they were shouting & saying all the bad words. I informed them that analysis of the issue was going on at our plant and the issue would never repeat. We all were under tremendous stress. We were even not allowed to sit there. We all had started sweating and almost wet. After working sometime, there was lunchtime. All of us were hungry. There was a canteen at the customer end but we were required to purchase the coupons. I just verified my wallet and found that I had forgotten to bring enough cash for the coupon. I was with inspectors who were hungry too and they were needed to work another 4hours. It was my responsibility to arrange food for them. I started got sweating. To whom I should ask money. I was a supplier and it was our fault for the quality issue. The customer was upset and angry. I had enough money for two of my inspectors. But I was required to skip the food. I sent them for lunch. I was just waiting there on the premises. There was a customer (Supplier quality executive) on the same premises. He asked me about my lunch. I told him, “I don’t want to have lunch.” He insisted, “Come with me. We will go together.” Now I was required to tell the truth as I could not say no to him. Finally, I told him, “The fact is I forgot to bring cash. And no other option is here to purchase coupon.” I felt embarrassed to tell this to him. But he was very cool and kind. He just took out his wallet and gave me 500bucks and said “Don’t worry. Come, have lunch.” It was a very much embarrassing situation. But sometimes life teaches us to bow down to someone and leave aside our ego. Need teaches you to be on the ground and shows you the way to surpass it. The next day only I returned the money to him. But we cannot return the favor or help of somebody by any means. It remains attached with us for a lifetime.
Nice!
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