My Big Fat Hungarian Adventure (long-ish story)

My Big Fat Hungarian Adventure

I work for a manufacturing company, programming inspection equipment. Recently I was asked to prepare a set of programs for inspection of laserjet printer cartridge components for our factory in Tata, Hungary. I have just returned from Hungary, where I completed the installation of the programs and training the operators. This is the story of my trip.

Although I was to be working with several others from the company, they were from the Chicago plant. I flew out of Boston on the 23rd of February, alone. Or so I thought. When I got off the plane in Frankfurt for the connecting flight I saw some faces I recognized. It turns out that there were several people on that flight from the company. There are two major products going through our Hungarian facilities: the laserjet cartridge, and a cell phone assembly line. While the laserjet project is just starting up, the cell phone should be in full production. The cell phone customer is unhappy with the progress and is about to come for a visit and the top brass is all agitated. Mind you, I work in the basement of a large old New England mill. I don't get up to the rarified atmosphere of the corporate ladder too often. I recognized faces, and I had heard their names, but this was the first time I'd actually spoken with them.

Waiting for the flight to Budapest I met up with my comrades from Chicago, Jeff and Jerry, and decided I'd share a ride with them to the town of Tata, instead of with the V.I.P.s. A speedy cab ride through Budapest (by car it's sort of a cross between Boston and memories of Paris), then onto the M1 highway. Tata is about 40 minutes from Budapest, and not much to say about looking through the windows, although I did notice this huge statue of an eagle on a mountain overlooking the small city of Tatabanya…

We got to Tata and found Jeff and Jerry's hotel. They had gotten the last room there, the rest were filled mostly with people from the company. This hotel, the Kiss, is favored because it is a two minute walk to the plant. Checked in Jeff and Jerry, and went to the factory. Met Roland, the project manager in Hungary. I couldn't tell you his last name, much less spell it. Went to lunch at the Kiss. Veal paprika it said on the English side of the menu… I asked: paprikash (my wife is a ?'foodie' and wants to know these details). It was very good.

And back to the plant (Monday afternoon). I got acquainted with the young woman I would be training, Szuszana, and the CMM (Coordinate Measurement Machine) that I was to be programming. Okay. Let's get to business, and I started up one of the programs I had written back in the states. Okay, I expected to have to make changes for the different system, and I did so. Try to make the machine move, damn but it moves fast from place to place, but when the CMM actually tried to make a measurement it wouldn't move. I tried this, I tried that, I tried writing a new program from scratch, and I could get the CMM to take measurements automatically, so there must be a reason somewhere that it didn't like the programs I had brought with me. Absolute worst case I could write new programs from scratch, and certainly it would take less time than the two months the original programs took to write, but I've got less than two weeks! Frustrating, let's call it a day.

Checked into the Hotel Arnold which is a bit further from the factory, near the center of town. Hotel is crawling with company people. Everyone in the Arnold involved with the cell phone project, and many of them looking worried. There are folk there from Massachusetts, North Carolina, Ireland, Denmark. The Arnold is nice. Small, clean, fairly new construction I'd guess, with Ikea like furnishings. I was startled the first (and second) time I went into the hotel. In the vestibule is a life sized statue of a policeman about to draw his gun. Had a nice dinner talking with some of the company people. Ended up going with them to the Frigate Bar (spelled not quite like that; Hungarian (Magyar) is a language of no cognates other than borrowed words, but in this case Frigate was a borrowed word for a type of boat). The bar is made to look like the inside of a pirate ship. Little did I suspect that would be the last evening out I'd get until I'd left Tata.

Tuesday, a representative from the CMM manufacturer came to visit. The project manager in the States insisted that he come, so the appointment had been set up in advance. I was skeptical that he would be needed (while I was still in the States), but his presence made all the difference. In the CMM software, speed is expressed as a percent of top speed. The new CMM in Hungary is so much faster than the ten year old CMM I work on at home that a reasonable speed for the machine's probe to make contact with the part being inspected, (5% at home), is so fast that it would break the probe. I had to change my TOUCHSPEED parameter from 5% to 1%. Dunh!

So the real work begins. Uncrate the fixtures that had been made for us in the States, put them on the CMM, make adjustments to the CMM programming, and run the program. Save the program, copy the program, test all the variations, and move on to the next. While I'm doing this, my comrades are working on getting the molding tools up and running; shooting plastic as we say in the biz. So I have to start measuring parts to see if they have their processes and parameters correct. I brought a probe tip with me from the States that I'm fond of using, and all of the programs I wrote use this probe specifically. One odd difference between the new CMM and the one I use at home is that the manual control to move the probe up and down is opposite from what I am accustomed to. At one point I got confused, and used the manual control to drive the probe into the workpiece that the probe tip shattered! Turns out that the tip I brought may have been the only one in the entire country. I spent much of the rest of that day making sure the programs would work with a more common 1mm by 20mm tip.

We worked twelve to thirteen hour days, occasionally longer but we were making good progress toward our goals of having the factory ready for production. The cell phone team, on the other hand, was in a panic. I would run into the managers and the vice presidents in the hotel dining room at breakfast and dinner (and that's about all I was doing that week… breakfast factory hotel dinner bed…). I was getting seen and recognized, which is great for the career, but I was nervous about being dragged into another quagmire. I'd see a guy one day, then I wouldn't, then I'd see him again… ?'Where were you, Mike?' ?'Copenhagen, Dublin, and back here…' On Thursday of that first week I was on a conference call about the laser jet project with the boss back home when I get tapped on the shoulder… it's one of the Vice Presidents. ?'I understand you know how to program a SmartScope…' Of all the different product and parts and pieces my company produces, cell phones have to be one of the most difficult to measure, and I'm reluctant to get involved out from under the laser jet project, but work is what they tell you to do, right?

I had completed one set of measurements on a particular part and was looking at the results. There was a measurement in the data that I just plain did not believe. This happens a lot, way too often, as a computer will lie to you faster and with more conviction than will any human. So Saturday morning I made some adjustments to the CMM program, ran a few test inspections and got the results I believed (and had verified by other methods). So now we have to re-inspect all ( 32 x 4 = ) 128 pieces, and at the moment, I'm the guy to do it. Damn.

Tired (I have sleep problems, which works out well for jet lag, but I'm often tired), hungry, and frustrated, I start to re-inspect the parts.

A short overview of how the CMM works, especially the programs for the Hungary project. A CMM is a robot. It has a touch sensitive probe, the tip of which is a synthetic ruby ball at the end of a steel shank. The probe tip is attached to a sensor mechanism, which on newer CMMs has a magnetic coupling on the end so the CMM can change tips automatically. The probe sensor is attached to a wrist mechanism which can move the probe to different angles. This is all at the end of a vertical shaft, or arm, which slides up and down into a housing, which slides left and right on a bridge, which goes forward and back. (Look up Brown & Sharpe online for a picture. Specifically, their Global Image 7.7.7 CMM. I'd look up the link but I'm trying to get this written before I get online so I only have to write the story once!) The CMM inspects a part by making contact with the part, and recording the location of that contact point. Enough of these recorded location and you can do the geometry (the computer software can do the geometry!) to see if a dimension on the part is close enough to what the customer wants it to be… The fixtures we had built for this project all have base plates that bolt to the granite table working surface of the CMM. The parts to be inspected fit in the fixture in such a way that the CMM program can find the parts in their nests and inspect from there. We set up a number of identical parts at a time, run the inspection, change the parts to the next set, and start again. At the end of a CMM part program, the CMM comes to rest. It is good practice to have the end point of the CMM program be above and behind the workpiece, out of the way.

So, tired, hungry, annoyed I re-inspect the parts. If I have the choice, I like to work from left to right, front to back, but on this fixture, the numbers were etched into the base plate back to front. At the end of the program the CMM moves the probe 150mm (almost 6") up and 150mm back. This would be sufficient if moving back were from the back of the fixture, and not from the front position. The probe ended 150mm directly above the rear position of the fixture. The parts are held to the fixture by clamps with fairly stiff springs. I was unloading the sixth set of parts when my fingers slipped from the clamp. My hand flew up and - WHACK! -

Oh! Damn. I looked at the probe. The end was missing. I looked at my hand. I found the end of the probe. Almost all of the 20mm probe tip was embedded in the back of my right hand, the 10mm extension and the magnetic coupling still attached.

I got up and found Roland by one of the molding machines. ?'Roland, we've got a problem…' He thought I was kidding until he got a close look. Hell, I thought I was kidding too… there was no blood, and no pain, just discomfort.

We went to the clinic in Tata and the doctor there said he wasn't equipped to remove it. So we got back into the car and went to the Tatabanya hospital. Tata is a pretty little town. Much of the economy there is tourism, as there is a pretty lake and a castle. It once was the capital of Hungary before the Turks came. Tatabanya on the other hand is a coal mining city. My impression is that it was a small nowhere place before the Soviets came, and when the Soviets left it was a medium large nowhere place. The hospital was built by the Soviets, and not kept up since. The doctor pulled the probe out of my hand. Good. I look at the end. It's broken off. Bad. What's missing from the broken tip is about the diameter of a large paper-clip, about a half inch long, with a 1mm ruby ball at one end. ?'Roland! Make sure you get that piece that's in the doctor's hand, otherwise we'll have trouble replacing it…' We spent about fifteen minutes with my hand under a video X-ray, the doctor trying to fish out the two (!) pieces with forceps.

As luck would have it the hand specialist was on duty that day. Okay, we'll have to operate. Not a good idea to leave it in there until I get back to the states, and I'd have to leave, like, now! Okay, get some stuff from the hotel, call the wife, and come back to the hospital for the operation.

Okay, pre-op is pre-op regardless of where you are. Pidgin English and pantomime. As a rule, the Hungarian's English is better than my Hungarian, but in the hospital there isn't much tourist trade. The hospital is, by American standards, quite dirty. Almost constantly I can smell cigarette from my hospital bed. But I'm on my way to the operating room and I'm not doing too badly. I should point out that by this time, five and a half hours after I had my accident, I'm still not having any real pain. My hand aches like a sonnuvabitch, but nothing I can't stand. Good thing, as I've had no pain killers except Novocain which by now has worn off. Wheeled into the O.R I feel the air rushing out when they open the door. Positive air pressure! At least the O.R. is kept clean. They put me under general anesthetic, which I had not expected, and the next thing I know I'm back in the hospital room with a bandage on my right hand, the stub of an I.V. line on my left, and something taped to my left shoulder. The next morning, at around 8:00, Roland comes to visit. I have him ask the nurse what is this on my shoulder. I can't see anything under it. So the nurse looks at it, and pulls it off. It's an envelope containing the pieces they removed from the back of my hand. The ruby ball is still there, not in my hand. It's 2:00 in the morning back home, I'll call my wife when Roland comes to visit in the afternoon. Learn from my mistake, I should have called. When I did call her, 3:30 in the afternoon Hungary time, 9:30 Sunday morning, her time, she was almost a basket case, but very glad to hear that I was still alive! Alive I am. My hand feels okay (considering), I can wiggle all my fingers and feel with all my fingers. As I write this, one week after the accident my mobility is about 80% although I have no strength in my hand. I have no doubt of a full recovery, and I have an interesting scar. Looks like I ran afoul of a very small Zorro (the Hungarians know about Zorro, too).

I was in the hospital from Saturday evening to Monday noon. My roommate was a young fire-fighter who had bunged up his hip in a car accident. His English was very limited, but he did give me a banana when I woke up Sunday (hadn't put on the feedbag in 24 hours). Other than that, it was like being in prison. Nothing to do in vaguely unpleasant place… read and read and read some more. Monday morning another fellow checks in whose English is pretty good, so we spend the morning talking about Hungary and the United States, and cars and this and that. Hungarian hospitals are certainly no-frills! Monday morning I've got a headache (almost certainly caffeine withdrawal). Can I get some ummm… Tylenol? Ummm … acetaminophen? Ummm okay… I reach into my bag and pull out a bottle of generic acetaminophen. The nurse takes it and asks the doctor. I guess it was okay.

Then a woman comes in and says I cannot leave until I pay my bill. In Hungary the hospitals are state run, and medical care is free… but I have never paid taxes there so I will pay them, cash, 97,438 Forints. Now, please. Umm, can you please wait until my co-worker comes to pick me up so he can help me translate? Okay.

Here's the punchline of the joke: I have about 100,000 Ft in my pocket, because I changed 500$US at the airport. Surgery and two nights in hospital is about 470$US. I hear later that I will get this back from workman's comp, which will be more than I would get back from Blue Cross.

Back to Tata at last. I had hope to get some time off from work that weekend; be careful what you ask for, you may get it. A shower, clean clothes, a fresh dressing on my hand, a meal, then back to work. The first thing I did was make damn sure that the end position of the CMM probe was always always always well out of reach. I don't mind so much having hurt myself by my own short-sited ness, but I'd be devastated if that had happened to Szuszanna.

By Monday the cell phone people are in a bit of a mad rush. I was asked about programming the SmartScope. By this time I owe Roland personally, so I tell these folk that the pressure has got to come from above in the company structure. I did end up spending a half day measuring cell phone assemblies at the second factory about 20 km away in Nagyman. The corporate folk explained to Roland what the situation was and Roland listened, and told them exactly what his opinions were (although his choice of words was more colorful when he was talking about it to just me). I heard some good things, though, that Roland did just what he was supposed to do: put his project first! While I am in Nagyman I find out that the head of the corporate travel department had been trying to reach me, so I call. I talk to one of the travel agents and when I identify myself I begin to understand that everyone back home knows I hurt myself. Did I want to come home now? No, I am on the mend, still able to work, and I still have work that needs to be done, but thanks for asking.

I got about an hour of walk-around time Wednesday morning in Tata. Found some nice ruins in a park just behind the hotel, then off to the bank to replenish my cash supply. That was all of the time I got in Tata for walking.

Thursday. The plan is for Jeff and me to get a car to Budapest right after the 3:00pm conference call. I'm busy inspecting parts and writing instructions. Just before 3:00 I'm told that one of the last two fixtures has arrived and will be uncrated; could I make sure the program runs before we go. So we go upstairs for the conference call. I talk first because I have work to do. Apparently my standing in the company's eyes has very much increased because I took a blow and kept working. This feedback even comes from the end customer. You could see daylight beneath my feet then. I say my piece and go back to the CMM. I make the known adjustments to the CMM program and start to run it. Programming the CMM with this particular software seems like working with a word processor. But when I cut and paste, what I am cutting and pasting isn't text, they are discrete geometric entities. As a result, sometimes the numbers of the coordinates will occasionally change for no apparent reason. That happened in this instance. I had to re-construct about 300 points worth of X, Y, and Z coordinates. Not difficult, but tedious. I have never typed so fast, and so accurately. People would come into the room and talk to me, I'd respond but I never took my eyes off what I was doing. I am amazed that the program ran so quickly after finding out it was so messed up. I was very motivated: we couldn't leave until I finished, and it was time to go home.

Jeff and I got a car ride to Budapest, and checked into the hotel at 6:15. We met in the lobby about 6:30 and walked around, semi-aimlessly, for almost two hours. Didn't see any restaurants we dared enter. Saw the back end of St. Stephen's basilica, and walked into the lobby of the Opera House. The quick tour. Ended up back at the hotel, and we asked the bellman for a restaurant. He pointed us to a place just around the corner, where we had a fabulous meal and two bottles of wine (plus night-cap), and went back to the hotel about midnight for a four o'clock wake up call.

Cab-airport-flight-airport-flight-airport-customs and home.

As it's been said, I'd have written a shorter note, but I didn't have the time…