Allegheny Ludlum AOD Bearing Failure

Tom's consulting visit for an AOD-vessel bearing failure. Used as the occasion to observe hourly workers' regard for Dick Simmons.

It turns out Allegheny Ludlum Steel never had an unprofitable quarter in the entire decade of the 1980s when all the rest of the steel companies in the United States were losing money hand over fist. The reason was Dick Simmons understood the technology. I had to deal with an AOD bearing failure at Allegheny Ludlum once, and I had to go to the plant. The hourly workers loved Dick Simmons. They hated most of the rest of management, but they revered Dick Simmons. He was the hourly workers' hero.