Future Dreams and Dreams Realized

I know it has been a week or so since my last posting. Like most people, I have 36 things to do each week and only 24 things worth of time to do them. Days go by so quickly, I find myself asking confirmations from the few people I trust as to what day it is. As an example my wife, Janan, told me my granddaughter was going to be “one” the other day and I replied, “Boy that month went by in a hurry!” Rachael turned one year old last week. In case anyone has forgotten what she looks like, I have provided a couple of reminders from her first year birthday party.

I hope whoever took the time to check my posts read the bio on our Mr. Semere. Yemane has performed as a true professional for G & H. We are thankful for his service and loyalty.

Finally, our new machining facility is about three weeks from completion. This project will define G & H for years to come. Everything I have learned and experienced in the past 35 years will be invested into the physical and spiritual nature of this new shop. In short, this is personal.

Specifically my dream will flesh out as follows:

1. The physical shop is being built to exact specifications. This will be a fully climate controlled, 100% crane serviced facility with polished concrete floors and epoxy coating on all of the interior walls.
2. We have installed gallery windows between the shop and the offices so everyone can feel they are involved in the customers’ work.
3. There is an oversized break-room that will allow us to bring all of our people together for training, partying, or praying. This is a true luxury and blessing.
4. We have doubled the quality management area to provide our professionals with everything they will need to give our customers the assurances they deserve.
5. Each of the people working in the shop will be treated as professionals and will be expected to behave accordingly. We will have pledges for each of them to sign that spells out what will be expected from them. The pledges will stress mutual respect and commitment.
6. We have enlisted professional production and quality people that are fully experienced in lean manufacturing techniques.
7. We will solicit machining work from companies that hold like values to us. We will stress quality and delivery like never before and will be honest with ourselves about the performance in these two areas.

Most modern companies today will embrace all of these ideas in some form or another, but many times the system will break down and one or more of their “virtues” will fall by the wayside. I am committed to keep our commitments alive. This shop may very well be my last big challenge before I hand off the daily affairs of G & H to abler hands, and I am determined to build and maintain its character.