I just spent a month working from our San Diego office, which was critical to the process of building a well-oiled operations machine for two key reasons: enhancing the use of our new ERP system in San Diego and giving our Chickasha location an opportunity to run without my daily presence.

Much progress was made at Genisco, our San Diego operation, regarding the ERP.  We entered data to more fully build out the planning database.  This allowed us to fully utilize the planning engine to suggest purchases and manufacturing jobs to build.  We were also able to implement some of the tools for administrative automation inherent in the system.

This month was important from a relationship development perspective as well.  This was the first time I have been able to work alongside our staff out there for an extended period.  My longest trip in the four years we have owned and operated this division was one week.  This made every previous trip much more intensive in the changes being implemented and tasks undertaken.  This length allowed me to slow down and develop at a slower pace.  The team was able to get a better perspective on what it is like to utilize me as a resource.  By being in the office, it lowered the hurdle on what it takes to ask me questions.  I believe one of the reasons we were able to accomplish so much over the last month was that it was so much easier to get small updates and small questions answered.  Plus it was nice to go to lunch with our folks out there just for the sake of going to lunch.  No agenda, just eating and spending time together.

The HSI side of the operation had some successes and some struggles.  It became apparent which areas are more independent of my daily input and which are not yet.  I believe these stresses came to light for the reciprocal reason, in that I was not very available for small questions.  Areas like sales could not catch me in passing.  ERP enhancements took on the pattern of action, evaluate, communicate instead of a more fluid iterative process.  Engineering and product development kept rocking along at a steady pace.  This experience will help prioritize for the remainder of the year where I spend most of my effort on organizational and leadership development.

Much work remains before we truly become a well-oiled machine. Our new ERP system happens to be both the critical tool that will help us get there and our biggest challenge on the way.  Its development will still dominate the 3rd quarter from a technical perspective.  Education, training, and encouragement will be the focus to gain operational independence in other areas.