A Busy Week

I spent the first half of this week in Pennsylvania doing a site assessment of a distribution center that might be a future ERP deployment.  We wrapped up early and spent part of the afternoon touring Gettysburg....

After, we traveled to Tennessee for a manufacturing plant site assessment.  Behind this plant is a rather impressive solar farm that generates electricity.  What is not used by the plant is piped into the electric grid.  I'm not exactly sure why it's there as the company does not produce solar cells... I think it's more to show that we are a green company doing creative things with electricity.  

 

Santa Claus Indiana

In July, I took the family to Santa Claus, Indiana, home of Holiday World.  For years, people have asked me if I've ever been to this amusement park.  And, I have to say it's a pretty good one.... The kid stuff is scattered about rather than being isolated in a single part... speaking of kids... here's my two:

Travel to Fresno and a New Project Canceled

My most recent project has interesting cultural dynamics.  The VP's of the subsidiary we are bringing into our ERP system are accustomed to being like kings with a great deal of autonomy.  Being pulled into a huge global company is going to be quite an adjustment.  Also, instead of using consultants, we now have our own company's "fly team" which is to assist with deployment projects around the world.  Our new fly team is from China and communication is extremely difficult.  Any new development will be done mostly by a team in India.  Our project's core "solution" and international project management team is in France.  We have our own North American project management team as well. 

But with all of these different groups from around the world it is sometimes difficult to know who really should be the decision makers.  And to make matters worse, there is absolutely no good time for conference calls that need to include China, France, US East Coast, and US West Coast.  It seems I often end up on the phone with France in the early morning and with China late at night.  I'm finding that I keep winding up with 12 to 14 hour work days simply due to the scheduling of meetings and workshops.  Something has to give as we can't all be working these extreme hours for a long period of time.  The work-life balance is way out of whack.

I have just returned from a two week trip to Fresno, California. I didn't want to fly home Friday night only to return Monday morning so I just stayed over the weekend. On Saturday, I went hiking just South of Yosemite. I hit several short 2 to 3 mile loops that went by giant sequoias and waterfalls. I went by myself and loved having the time in nature to simply clear my head and relax.  One of the trail heads, had a sign warning about mountain lions.  I'll admit that walking along this trail, I was a bit uncomfortable as there were many rocky cliffs with overhead crevices that would be the perfect place for mountain lions to hang out in.  Luckily, I didn't actually encounter any while there.  The trees in the picture below were in or around the Nelder Grove area.

The Bull Buck Tree reaches a height of 246 feet (75 m) and has a ground-level circumference of 100 feet (30 m).


The Bull Buck Tree



On Sunday, I decided to drive into King's Valley.  It was about a two and a half hour drive from Fresno.  When I got there, I was surprised to find myself in the middle of a blizzard.  There was about a foot of snow on the ground so hiking wasn't practical.  I just drove around a little bit and then went back to Fresno to eat dinner. 

 

Shortly after returning home, I was informed that my project was canceled.  Well, actually I think the term they used was "postponed".  So, I don't anticipate any more trips to California in the near future.  There are many reasons for canceling it few of which had really anything to do with our project and most that had to do with other changes taking place during the same time period.  I won't go into the details here.  But, for now, the North America team is regrouping in Nashville.  I think that my next project is going to be in Dayton, Ohio which is only an hour and a half  drive from my home in Northern Kentucky.  But, it could also entail travel to Salt Lake City.  Perhaps I will know more in the coming weeks.

These barks are not from Sequoia but I was strangely drawn to the coloration and pattern.

Project Kickoff in Nashville

This week, we kicked off a new sub-project to implement SAP at a company that we have acquired.  Even though the subsidiary is located in central California, our kickoff was held in Nashville, Tennessee.  We have team members here who flew in from China, France, Canada, Mexico, and all around the United States.  The total team probably consists of around 50 people.  In addition to plants in California, the scope could include distribution centers in Singapore, Holland, China, Kentucky, and Southern California. 

This evening, we took the entire team to the Wild Horse Saloon, a large country western place with live music and line dancing.  The alcohol didn't flow as freely as usual, probably because it's a new team and people are still afraid to let their hair down.  I'm guessing that in another month or two when everyone is feeling stressed that there will be more heavy drinkers. 

Mexico City & the Virgin of Guadalupe

I have just returned from a week in Mexico City where I was working at a manufacturing plant and a distribution center.  Throughout both facilities near the end of most assembly lines and shipping doors were shrines dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe.  The company has allowed workers to build these.  I am told that the intention is for the Virgin to watch over the workers and protect them.  The Virgin of Guadalupe is a powerful symbol in Mexico.  She seems to be a cross between the Catholic Virgin Mary and the native mother-goddess Tonantzin.  Her features are not quite indigenous and not quite European, representing the modern Mexican. You see her everywhere in Mexico City... on clothing, buildings, cars, key chains, everywhere.

Working in the Cave

Go-Live #3 went quite well.  Every implementation is smoother than the last.  I worked locally and mostly supported the local plant.  During the middle of hyper-care, I moved my family from Lexington to Florence, a suburb of Cincinnati. 


In December, I took my family on a long road trip through Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma. The primary objective of the trip was to visit family members scattered throughout the central part of the United States.  It is the first time that most had the opportunity to meet Kaden, my baby son.

In January, I was asked to help support our Columbia, MO plant.  They have an off-site storage facility within an old rock quarry.  They had often mentioned storing material "in the cave" but I hadn't realized until now that it was really a cave. 



The Cave

On Monday, I leave for Mexico City.  We have a plant and DC in Rojo Gomez.  Due to travel restrictions in countries labeled as "red", I will probably not get to see and do much outside of work.  My hotel is inside the airport.  They will shuttle us in armored cars from the hotel to the plant and back again at the end of the day.  I'm not allowed to go out in the evenings and will likely eat dinner at the hotel or inside the airport.