He let that rest then continued,
"For an engineer one plus one results in two, it’s a very simple thing. It's purely technical. There is no margin for error or interpretation. For a lawyer...one plus one makes two ... but only theoretically, you could always negotiate at one point nine-five," he said, smiling,
"In court, where there are no aggravating or mitigating circumstances it could even be 1.98 or 1.87 ...”
I was expecting some kind of conclusions, even though I knew that my findings would have been to his liking. He said,
"Of course I agree with your strategy! You're telling me not to change anything because everything works, and this is a very wise course of action."
He smiled at me and then he virtually forced me to visit to his various departments. I liked the idea however and his agreement with my‘plan’bolstered my belief in what I was doing.
I followed him, and as we headed for what he considered as the first step, he explained to me that possibly the worst thing to do was to change or modify something that already worked correctly.
He showed me as an example the routine maintenance chart for the various machines. He said it would be really foolish to expect something to break and then fix it.
"Better to be safe," he said, "Look out for the small anomalies and go on alert when anomalies start to get more serious, carry out preventive maintenance ahead of potential system failures and consequent downtime."
"But outside of that," he insisted, "Don’t try and fix something that is not broken."
Smiling, he ushered me into one of those strange clean rooms I had seen many times during my daily rounds.
I liked Mario’s logic - it was simple, technical and direct.
For the very first time I found myself close to one of the strange machines. Mario said it was injection moulding equipment for thermoplastic resins. The production cycle began by using clear plastic polycarbonate balls, which were loose inside the machine and injected into a mould through what appeared to be a large horizontally-mounted syringe.
He was fondling the machine as if it could be sensitive to his touch. He said,
"Here we produce mini lenses used for the construction of photovoltaic cells."
I watched admiring as the rear part of the machinery opened, a robotic arm took the pieces the production machine and placed them on a conveyor belt.
He put in my hand two of the small lenses produced. They were still hot and seemed to be made of glass.
The conveyor belt had a transparent cover for its entire length and at regular intervals there were small fans removing the hot air; the belt inclined downwards through the floor and then re-emerged in the area where the production pieces were put through a second process. Everything went directly to the shipping warehouse for packing and delivery.
Following Mario and ever more intrigued, I could see the various stages of robot assembly that were required to have in your hands a small, finished solar panel.
It was amazingly lightweight and well crafted. I was discovering N Technology products.
Mario said goodbye and I returned to my desk.
‘Alternative energy sources,’said the message on the sign at the front desk. I was beginning to learn and understand finally.
Satisfied with the first part of my work I relaxed and took a look at the messages Alice had left on my desk.
I still had some small tasks left to do but I was more interested in the plan for the Shipping department.
I asked Alice if she could prioritise some of the work and she smiled at me,
"With pleasure," she answered, almost as if my request made her more jovial than usual. She set to work with a kind of odd, almost euphoric enthusiasm.
I made a trip to the purchasing department where the manager was called Vidmer. He was a nice guy, small-boned. His life style was honed by his dynamism. From our previous conversations he seemed to be careful to purchase the best materials and negotiate the best prices and it was also apparent to me that he liked his job. I went over to his desk, greeted him informally and asked for his help.
“Yes, good morning Kate,”he replied,“how can I help you?"
He motioned for me to take a seat before him and I carefully formulated my request while he listened and shuffled piles of scattered papers here and there.
I explained that it would be convenient to have some extra freight forwarders, especially for small deliveries within forty-eight hours.
He agreed and told me that several of these companies were constantly on the phone, hoping to attract new clients. It would be easy to satisfy my requirements.
"A couple of days and you will have all the information you need," he said confidently.
I said goodbye and made my way back to my office.
The morning was over and I had developed an appetite. I went out for a sandwich; Alice hadn’t moved from her desk.
After a short break I came back to my desk and continued working on the document plan that I had mentally prepared for the Shipping department.
Alice had someone in her office, she seemed very animated and motivated. A new idea formulated in my mind. I had no predecessor so who did my office work before me? Of course! It was Alice! Why hadn’t I thought of that before? Poor Alice had been passed over when I arrived. I could learn a lot from her. It was decision time!
I jumped up from the chair and joined Matt in his office. I asked him breathlessly,
"Is it a problem if I change the layout of my office?”
He turned to look at me, smiling. He said,
"And good morning to you too Kate! Of course, you can organise your office space as you want."
I smiled at him in apology for rushing around like the end of the world was nigh and I was forced to make swift decisions.
I shot back into my office like an arrow.
"Alice,”I said, perhaps too quickly“please, can you call maintenance for me? Ask them to come over.”
Alice made a short call and then came quickly over to me with a worried expression on her face, not knowing what to expect.
I told her that I wanted to make some changes and if she agreed I wanted to remove the dividing partition wall to allow her to use a part of my office.
“You can put your desk over there or in that corner,”I said with a gesture.
“This office is quite big enough for both of us,”I went on.“What do you think?”
Her face relaxed and she gave a little squeak of approval.
"Thank you boss .. thank you! … and again ... thank you! Yes, yes ... thank you," she kept repeating, so I suspected that she may perhaps like the idea. She even called me‘boss’again. The idea quite gratified me but I didn’t really know how.
Two maintenance men soon arrived and I told them to remove the walls and in general what they should do. I said,
"For the details you should ask Alice," I said, indicating her. She smiled and began to get the boys shifting furniture, explaining where she wanted them placed and giving quick orders.
I decided to take my notes and to leave the office - seeing Alice’s enthusiasm for the job, the office would not have been a quiet place to work over the next few hours.
I left them deep in discussion about the details of the project. One of the two maintenance guys seemed a little doubtful, while the other was trying to give advice that Alice did not accept. Maybe I have created a monster? I thought with a smile.
I was thinking once again about the implementation plan for the shipping department but I hadn’t yet written anything down. I decided to find Jack in his department. For the time being I would just explain verbally what I wanted to do and listen to his comments, making any adjustments as needed.
I joined him in his office, we talked for several minutes and in general I found him in agreement with the points that I emphasized.
He was like a good-natured Texan - a little rough appearance, but always with a smile on his lips. The dark complexion and his height reinforced th
e whole effect.
From the office I passed on to the warehouse. I indicated where changes could be made for shipping envelopes, small parcels and goods that did not require loading with the forklift.
I had noticed that we regularly sent out spares or small items and these were sometimes overlooked in favour of larger shipments.
There was nothing wrong with that but we needed to smooth out the production to flow to the outside, giving the same importance that was given to large loads also to parcels and envelopes.
I pointed out that if a company was waiting for a replacement part and its arrival was delayed, we would create difficulties for them.
The idea in general was not to let anything stagnate in the warehouse unless it was stock. And I wanted to reach the largest number of people, possibly new and smaller customers who were for the moment not taken into consideration by the company.
On this last point we were especially in agreement. I made him aware of the fact that within a couple of days we would be receiving offers from several shipping companies concerning the prompt consignment of groupage shipments.
Another point was to create a specific space for these types of shipments, perhaps using an under-used corner of the huge warehouse.
The idea of a little reorganization pleased Jack. He said that he had an idea to install a long counter and divide it into spaces marked with the names of the carriers. It was good that
some initiative was evident - Jack seemed suddenly engrossed in his projects. I said cheerio and confirmed we'd meet the next day, after I had created a draft of the plan.
He waved a hand in goodbye, looking distracted. What was he planning, that crazy Texan? I hoped everything would go according to plan and went off to the Sales department.
Denise was the manager there and she was sitting at her desk seemingly intent on closing a couple of large contracts. She waved a hand at me and I was about to postpone the visit when she pointed to the chair in front of her desk. I indicated that she seemed busy and I preferred not to disturb her. It was true that she seemed occupied but she also appeared willing to talk. Indeed, she dramatically swept aside the papers on her desk and said,
"What do you say we go for a coffee?"
I felt refreshed from the little break and I noticed also that Denise seemed to be recovering her composure.
I took the opportunity to ask her what she thought of the possibility of trying to move a couple of employees onto creating tender offers and responding to email while another two could man the telephone and manage all the other requests.
I told her I had noticed that the people who worked in her office had to stop working too often because they were constantly distracted and interrupted while doing something else. I drove home my point.
"The customer will often ask for an offer in writing when dealing with a sales person and while the salesman is intent on making the offer he can be interrupted by a call from another client .... when he gets back to the original offer he often has to start over again ... and if he is interrupted several times?"
Denise thought a moment about it. She said,
"But I'm afraid that too much repetitive work can bore people."
She had a point, but I bounced back with,
"How do you feel when you get constantly interrupted while performing a task?"
"Like shit," she said, laughing.
She said she would take a look at a solution, taking into account the need to avoid confusion by changing things.
I agreed with her and said I was willing to have a meeting with her employees. Based on the results I could lay down a pilot project to last a few days, trying not to alter those balances that had been established for some time within the group.
She pushed back the empty cup of black coffee and said,
"Anyway I believe it's worth a try but I really need to get back to work now."
She was evidently in a hurry to get through what she had left off doing.
A quick goodbye and a promise to speak to her the next day.
I returned to my office. That afternoon had flown by and I wanted to leave some notes on my desk and slip under a hot shower. There were some changes to the office - I found a false wall to the right of the door at a distance of about two metres. The wall itself was about one and a half metres high, made up of some small compartments in frosted glass with lights inside some of them.
Positioned above there were two magnificent plants. The false wall was about four metres long, L-shaped and extending over about one third of the office, curving right at ninety degrees and continuing for about another one and a half metres.
Behind the wall there was a large desk with two chairs for guests. Sitting in the chair across the table was a perky and smiling Alice.
"Do you like this?" She asked me, with a satisfied air. I looked back over the desk. The walls of her small office were gone and she had changed the door.
"Remarkable. Yes, I really like it."
She smiled and told me that she had left her door untouched so that if she had to receive someone I would not be disturbed by having them pass in front of me while I was working.
It was a clever solution and I could understand why she had been so determined with the two maintenance men. She wanted to finish by today, I thought - this lady was really switched on.
I asked her if she could push forward the routine jobs tomorrow as well since I would still be busy with the rest of my projects.
She gave a big smile and nodded. I said goodbye and hurried home where a hot shower was waiting for me.
When I got there I saw that Matt and Sonia had not yet returned. I left them a message, just a simple‘Hello guys, see you tomorrow. Kiss.’
I signed it and walked across to the large kitchen. Serena greeted me with a smile and I told her that I would be at home this evening. She told me she would bring me something in about ten minutes and I went off to enjoy a well-deserved shower.
As usual, the hot water dissolved part of my weariness. In my bathrobe I walked over to the couch and I noticed Serena had left me a tray of food in thermal containers.
I bit into one of the rolls. It was tasty and tender and within a few minutes I had eaten everything. I lay on the sofa and closed my eyes to relax. When I woke up it was dawn and
I had slept like a stone. I got up and looked in the mirror, my eyes were still trying to close. I looked at the clock - five twenty! I went off to the bedroom and lay down on the bed, sleeping a couple of hours more.
THE FIRST DEVELOPMENTS
The new day had begun. I reached my office via the stairs thinking that this morning it would be good to go over and see Denise.
Coming round the corner, I saw her waiting for me at the door of my office. Alice was handing her a cup of coffee. I noticed her full figure that perfectly matched the kindly face of one who is always blunt, direct and does not waste time in small talk.
I said good morning and asked her to take a seat. I grabbed at the coffee that Alice had thoughtfully and strategically placed on the table and Denise began.
She seemed in a rush as usual, evidently with many things to attend to.
"Last night I had a chat with everyone because I wanted to know right away what they thought. I asked if they were willing to try out that little change that we had talked over.”
I was curious, nodded and waited patiently.
"Margot is willing to give it a try right now; she will take care of tenders and reply to e-mails and Danny would not mind managing the telephone traffic. In fact, in general it seems to me that they are all keen to try it out."
"That’s great," I replied, adding: "How do you intend to move it forward?"
If we were in agreement then we could start that very day using the two people on the pilot project and that would leave the remaining three members of the group to do the routine work. She didn’t appear to want to spend any more time talking it over and I felt it was the best solution so we immediately took a couple of
decisions and Denise hurried away to her office. Always in a rush, I thought to myself.
I leaned back in my chair and relaxed while I was thought about how to write the plan for the sales department.
I ended up drinking coffee and saw Mario arrive. Alice leaned over the false wall and told me that Jack had requested to see me in the shipping department. Great, it seemed that everyone wanted to see me today. It was a nice sensation, feeling needed.
I asked Mario to sit down and he explained the reason for the visit; it was a simple one in that he was basically asking me if he could carry some small production stock.
He said,
"We have warehouse space and plenty of stocks of raw materials.”
I replied that it seemed like a good idea and that I would ask Matt and Sonia what they thought.
He left a happy man and I mademy way to Jack to see what he wanted.
In the department there was a lot of activity. I saw Gianni the warehouse manager intent on moving shelving to make more space near the entrance doors. He was a slender man, and so tall that he almost seemed to bend over backwards; he had little hair but very striking eyes. He seemed always to be available to anyone who needed him.
Jack came up to me excitedly and told me that he had thought more about adding a long counter behind the spaces marked for the various shippers and he showed me the work already carried out. He certainly hadn’t wasted time.
He had delegated some tasks to Gianni who was literally making the maintenance people and warehouse workers gallop around.
I was pleased - they all seemed intent on putting into practice the advice I had given. It was turning out to be a hectic day.
Planet-H: The End of the Beginning Page 9
