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. 

Vacation, two SAP role outs, and the Next Project

I know it's been a long while since I have posted.  I have spent many weeks in Nashville and a few in Iowa.  I didn't even think to take pictures in Iowa... There was not much to take pictures of there.... just lots and lots of corn fields.  I did however find an interesting section of Cedar Rapids which was settled by people from Czech and Slovakia.  I had a very nice Czech meal there at a place called The Blue Toad.

Recently, my family went on vacation at Sanibel Island near Ft. Meyers Florida.  My parents rented a house on the beach and we all had a good time.  Skylar, my four year old son was very excited to be riding an airplane again.  It was my other son Kadens first time flying.

SAP Go Live 2 happened back in July.  It consisted of 2 plants in Mexico and 1 plant in Lincoln Nebraska.  The three plants had very few issues and in no time at all was back up to their old production and customer service levels.

Go Live 3 will happen this week.  There have been more last minute data changes related to warehouse management than what I am used to.  This could impact my loading of inventory balances.  However, I expect things to go okay.  This go live consists of three plants.  I am based at my home in Lexington this week but supporting all three locations.

My next project will likely be for an affiliate based out of Fresno, California. I'm thinking about taking my family with me for a month in the Spring or Summer.  It would be a great base from which to do mini weekend vacations to San Francisco, the beach, and giant redwoods, skiing, etc.

Tijuana Trip

The business trip to Tijuana went great. The Mexicans were very intelligent, knowledgeable, and excited about working with us. Mission accomplished.

Apparently, Northern Mexico is no longer safe for American business men and tourists. Our driver told me that tourism is down 90% as compared to previous years and that the government is desperate to get tourists back into Mexico.

Due to security concerns, our company required us to stay in a hotel in San Diego, California and to commute daily. We were provided with a driver and an armored vehicle. The first day, the car was a modified Jeep Cherokee. It had bullet proof glass and armored plates inside the door panels. It looked like any other Jeep Cherokee but weighted around 9000 pounds. The car was a bit small since there were six of us counting the driver. On day two, they upgraded us to a much larger armored car which also looked like any other SUV on the street.

Each day, we went directly from the U.S. hotel to the Mexican factory and then back across the border. So, I didn't really get a chance to experience the real Tijuana. This is the only picture that I was able to take inside of Mexico:

We were told that if we reached the boarder after 5:00 PM that there would be a three hour wait. So, we left the office at around 4:00 PM each day to avoid the traffic bottleneck. This gave us the evenings to explore San Diego. The next picture was take just in front of the restaurant "World Famous on the Beach" where we ate a nice sea food dinner.


On Wednesday, we decided to hit Target, a store near our hotel, to buy swim suits. We spent a couple hours at the beach before going out to dinner.

Here's Mac & Chad showing off their new swim-wear: