It's December. I almost forgot that this blog has turned one year old already! I just read the original post, entitled "December", and it was amusing to read that back then, I was writing about renovations.
Much changed since then. A major renovation actually happened (although it's not quite finished). The vibrant blue of our office gave way to a lighter shade of pale. The garage is now actually empty, and almost setup for residence.
And then again, there are the people. We've experience the highest rate of employee turnover over this year, due in part to improvements in our processes and better checks and balances. Some key personnel have left to chase their dreams or to look for peace. They will be sorely missed. More have moved on to other work where they have found their new homes. To them, we wish luck and a better life.
Meanwhile, with Christmas around the corner, everyone has turned busy bee for the Christmas preps. Perhaps with all the changes that have happened, the Christmas party is one more comfort for our restless minds. After all, we managed to miss the Team Building event this year. At least the year-end party is a vestige of the days merry past.
It's been a difficult year. But we have higher hopes still.
Showing posts with label Events. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Events. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Clean Up Day
Today was a long overdue General Clean Up Day in Amici Office. The last one was 11 months before, which as cleaning goes is ages ago. One can imagine what sort of junk had piled over the year, not to mention the little critters who enjoyed a relatively peaceful colony as pests in the shadows.
We had a much more concerted effort in the clean up process today. Whereas before when there were but few cooperative persons who participated in each Clean Up Day, this whole afternoon was a whole team effort among various departments. That was necessary after all. It was not about tidying up our microscopic world which is our own tables, sometimes hiding under the rug the things we didn't know what to do with. Our office wasn't big to begin with, so any mess around was a mess shared with everyone. From now on, we'd prefer to have a great clean office we can enjoy each day.
To celebrate our humble victory, we capped the day with two boxes of pizzas. Of course, this time, we made sure to tidy up after eating.
There will be more Clean Up days to come. But we don't have to wait for that long. Instead, we hope to treat each day an opportunity to stay clean and maintain orderliness. 5S -- I still remember somewhat attending a seminar on that a couple of years ago. Only four of us attended that seminar with DTI, and only I am left in the same office now. Unfortunately I wasn't able to implement much of what we learned then. But it's never too late for that. A company wide training session on 5S will be most beneficial. And to make it part of our company culture.
We thank Gay who scheduled and directed the event, as well as Lisa and Michelle who procured necessary supplies beforehand. We thank everyone who participated in making our little office just a little bit more habitable.
We had a much more concerted effort in the clean up process today. Whereas before when there were but few cooperative persons who participated in each Clean Up Day, this whole afternoon was a whole team effort among various departments. That was necessary after all. It was not about tidying up our microscopic world which is our own tables, sometimes hiding under the rug the things we didn't know what to do with. Our office wasn't big to begin with, so any mess around was a mess shared with everyone. From now on, we'd prefer to have a great clean office we can enjoy each day.
To celebrate our humble victory, we capped the day with two boxes of pizzas. Of course, this time, we made sure to tidy up after eating.
There will be more Clean Up days to come. But we don't have to wait for that long. Instead, we hope to treat each day an opportunity to stay clean and maintain orderliness. 5S -- I still remember somewhat attending a seminar on that a couple of years ago. Only four of us attended that seminar with DTI, and only I am left in the same office now. Unfortunately I wasn't able to implement much of what we learned then. But it's never too late for that. A company wide training session on 5S will be most beneficial. And to make it part of our company culture.
We thank Gay who scheduled and directed the event, as well as Lisa and Michelle who procured necessary supplies beforehand. We thank everyone who participated in making our little office just a little bit more habitable.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Worldbex, Then and Now
Last Thursday, I took the rare opportunity to go out of the office to take a peek at Worldbex. Worldbex is one of the major construction exhibit in the Philippines. We have been showcasing our products in these exhibits for a number of years already. This year's was very different from the previous years...
The first exhibit Amici has joined that I can remember was Philconstruct 2002. I was then working in Canon Information Technologies as a software engineer, and I remember having to leave work at 4pm to get home on the way to the World Trade Center in Buendia. (No, I didn't do under time. I was usually at Jollibee Plaza in Ortigas by 7am then, so I could leave work when the clock strikes 4pm.) It was my first time to commute to WTC. Luckily, it was just a jeepney ride away from Dapitan St., using the Mabini-Buendia route. I got down Buendia, and it was just a nice short walk to the exhibit.
Our booth was part of the USA pavilion, showcasing our A.O. Smith Water Heaters. Laptops, LCD TVs, projectors were not popular then. Instead, we had a small TV with a built in VHS player showing to visitors factory production of A.O. Smith water heaters, including the application of glass lining to heater tanks. I cannot recall if we even had heaters on display. But storage heaters being storage heaters, they are notably unremarkable. Then, our booth was manned by my dad, my uncle, my cousin, and me. The exhibit organizers were generously offering red wine, in which I was exquisitely interested, but when offered I refused, as shy people are wont to do.
That was back in 2002. Our exhibit was more a haphazard experiment in marketing. It's unexplored territory. We didn't have any good way of measuring the impact of the exhibit. And for the next three years, we did not join any more exhibits. A competitor supposedly remarked in 2005 that we were just a small "store" selling water heaters. Three years before that, we probably didn't exist at all, for all that same competitor cared.
I think it was in 2006 when we started joining exhibits after that. It was also that year when we joined the most exhibits in a year -- Worldbex, Conex, Philbex in Cebu, and Philconstruct. We were once again aiming to leverage exhibits as a marketing channel, and we were game to try all of them.
For Conex, we invested on a rather expensive but reusable module, hoping to attract more people with a nicer booth. We have up to four sales personnel entertaining clients. And we have a nice display of storage heaters and pumps. The storage heaters are as unremarkable as before, except for the high efficiency Cyclone storage heater, which brought us some trouble transporting, but nonetheless brought a lot more attention to our company. On the night of the last day of the exhibit, we still had a project completion meeting (aka dinner at Napoli's at Tomas Morato) to reflect on the days' successes and challenges.
The same year, I had my first trip to Cebu for the Philbex exhibit. It was not normal that I was part of the Cebu delegation. But I had a foreign friend in Cebu then, for whom I took the opportunity to tag along. Our booth was simple. We again had a display of our wares, this time focused on instant heaters and swimming pool products. Instead of our expensive module (which early on showed its age due to wear and tear), we opted for the more portable posters and tarps. Philbex was the prelude to our company opening a new Amici Water Systems branch in Cebu.
The exhibits followed brought repeated performances. We started having a formula. We have the registration forms for interested clients. We have a fairly stable product make up. We have pictures and designs of our projects we can show off. We were also more conscious about our expenses. We cut down our exhibits to the essentials that prove effective. We were a bit stingy with our meal allowances. And we didn't have our project completion meetings any more.
Worldbex 2010 had just come to a close. I was only there last Thursday and again on the Saturday. In some ways, it reminded me of our first exhibit in 2002. It was again a small adventure, commuting to WTC and back, to see what's there and what we're cooking.
Gone were our rubber stamp booth of the last few years that looked like a market place with our water heaters, pumps, and other products. We didn't go with an expensive outsourced module, but we had a nice, creative booth thanks to our fantastic and versatile industrial designer. We had an interesting set of videos to show, no longer through a TV-VHS combo but now through an LCD TV and DVD player. We had an aquarium with a manually operated wave ball toy, to get the idea across. We're here again to exhibit, like our first venture, to introduce a product, this time quite different and innovative, this time from France (though we were not in a French pavilion) -- the Wave Ball wave generator.
It was a frontier once more, a revolution of sorts for our company, a reset of our exposition in water technology. We're here to make waves. It's a Wavolution.
The first exhibit Amici has joined that I can remember was Philconstruct 2002. I was then working in Canon Information Technologies as a software engineer, and I remember having to leave work at 4pm to get home on the way to the World Trade Center in Buendia. (No, I didn't do under time. I was usually at Jollibee Plaza in Ortigas by 7am then, so I could leave work when the clock strikes 4pm.) It was my first time to commute to WTC. Luckily, it was just a jeepney ride away from Dapitan St., using the Mabini-Buendia route. I got down Buendia, and it was just a nice short walk to the exhibit.
Our booth was part of the USA pavilion, showcasing our A.O. Smith Water Heaters. Laptops, LCD TVs, projectors were not popular then. Instead, we had a small TV with a built in VHS player showing to visitors factory production of A.O. Smith water heaters, including the application of glass lining to heater tanks. I cannot recall if we even had heaters on display. But storage heaters being storage heaters, they are notably unremarkable. Then, our booth was manned by my dad, my uncle, my cousin, and me. The exhibit organizers were generously offering red wine, in which I was exquisitely interested, but when offered I refused, as shy people are wont to do.
That was back in 2002. Our exhibit was more a haphazard experiment in marketing. It's unexplored territory. We didn't have any good way of measuring the impact of the exhibit. And for the next three years, we did not join any more exhibits. A competitor supposedly remarked in 2005 that we were just a small "store" selling water heaters. Three years before that, we probably didn't exist at all, for all that same competitor cared.
I think it was in 2006 when we started joining exhibits after that. It was also that year when we joined the most exhibits in a year -- Worldbex, Conex, Philbex in Cebu, and Philconstruct. We were once again aiming to leverage exhibits as a marketing channel, and we were game to try all of them.
For Conex, we invested on a rather expensive but reusable module, hoping to attract more people with a nicer booth. We have up to four sales personnel entertaining clients. And we have a nice display of storage heaters and pumps. The storage heaters are as unremarkable as before, except for the high efficiency Cyclone storage heater, which brought us some trouble transporting, but nonetheless brought a lot more attention to our company. On the night of the last day of the exhibit, we still had a project completion meeting (aka dinner at Napoli's at Tomas Morato) to reflect on the days' successes and challenges.
The same year, I had my first trip to Cebu for the Philbex exhibit. It was not normal that I was part of the Cebu delegation. But I had a foreign friend in Cebu then, for whom I took the opportunity to tag along. Our booth was simple. We again had a display of our wares, this time focused on instant heaters and swimming pool products. Instead of our expensive module (which early on showed its age due to wear and tear), we opted for the more portable posters and tarps. Philbex was the prelude to our company opening a new Amici Water Systems branch in Cebu.
The exhibits followed brought repeated performances. We started having a formula. We have the registration forms for interested clients. We have a fairly stable product make up. We have pictures and designs of our projects we can show off. We were also more conscious about our expenses. We cut down our exhibits to the essentials that prove effective. We were a bit stingy with our meal allowances. And we didn't have our project completion meetings any more.
Worldbex 2010 had just come to a close. I was only there last Thursday and again on the Saturday. In some ways, it reminded me of our first exhibit in 2002. It was again a small adventure, commuting to WTC and back, to see what's there and what we're cooking.
Gone were our rubber stamp booth of the last few years that looked like a market place with our water heaters, pumps, and other products. We didn't go with an expensive outsourced module, but we had a nice, creative booth thanks to our fantastic and versatile industrial designer. We had an interesting set of videos to show, no longer through a TV-VHS combo but now through an LCD TV and DVD player. We had an aquarium with a manually operated wave ball toy, to get the idea across. We're here again to exhibit, like our first venture, to introduce a product, this time quite different and innovative, this time from France (though we were not in a French pavilion) -- the Wave Ball wave generator.
It was a frontier once more, a revolution of sorts for our company, a reset of our exposition in water technology. We're here to make waves. It's a Wavolution.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Service Revamp
This morning held a much awaited sales-service meet. I would say much awaited as I've been expecting a major restructuring of service for a while now. Our company has met much difficulties the past couple of years, ballooning in expenses and manpower, as well as service requests and back orders. We've gone through several persons each doing his or her best to take on the daunting role of the service manager. There were high expectations to be met. Some have gone their separate ways. Some have shifted to roles a bit less challenging. And then some have persevered through thick and thin, goals met or unmet. We've added people with different levels of training. But after the past year, we still aren't there. We're in much need of foundational and procedural improvements.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to join in much of the meeting. Actually, I might have missed the session completely if not for perky ears on an early curious morning. I did my best to attend, even if I felt somewhat uninvited, although I skipped the delicious breakfast of tuyo and salted eggs -- dietary compulsions. Alas, with other important things to attend, it seems I only got to the intro and finale. It might have been exponentially interesting to get to the gist of the meeting.
What can we expect? From what I see, there will be papers and more, and trees crying. Service order forms, return forms, differentiation of repair and delivery/installations -- seems standard fare in traditional companies. They will do much good in making our service operations measurable -- as long as they're properly implemented. Splitting the service group to Repairs and Delivery/Installation can help in response times and specializations. Ultimately it will be about customer satisfaction. Expect things to become much much better.
~~~
As a side note, it seems I can't say much given how out of the loop I sometimes feel now about various company processes. As I'm more of an IT and Supply Chain personnel, I'm still trying to see how the changes will fit in the overall scheme. On one end, it's disheartening not to have input about the changes being implemented. I've already wrote a service module in our in-house enterprise system, though it needed more love and attention, and actual use and tuning. (I'm all for evolutionary programming, although right now I'm by myself.) On the other end, I'm still excited to work on redesigning the service management module. The past month, I've been contemplating on getting more hands-on service management experience. There are naysayers on implementing it through computers, valid reasons all -- personnel "computational complexity", keeping things simple, etc. But I don't really see the conflict. It's a design problem. That's the exciting part.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to join in much of the meeting. Actually, I might have missed the session completely if not for perky ears on an early curious morning. I did my best to attend, even if I felt somewhat uninvited, although I skipped the delicious breakfast of tuyo and salted eggs -- dietary compulsions. Alas, with other important things to attend, it seems I only got to the intro and finale. It might have been exponentially interesting to get to the gist of the meeting.
What can we expect? From what I see, there will be papers and more, and trees crying. Service order forms, return forms, differentiation of repair and delivery/installations -- seems standard fare in traditional companies. They will do much good in making our service operations measurable -- as long as they're properly implemented. Splitting the service group to Repairs and Delivery/Installation can help in response times and specializations. Ultimately it will be about customer satisfaction. Expect things to become much much better.
~~~
As a side note, it seems I can't say much given how out of the loop I sometimes feel now about various company processes. As I'm more of an IT and Supply Chain personnel, I'm still trying to see how the changes will fit in the overall scheme. On one end, it's disheartening not to have input about the changes being implemented. I've already wrote a service module in our in-house enterprise system, though it needed more love and attention, and actual use and tuning. (I'm all for evolutionary programming, although right now I'm by myself.) On the other end, I'm still excited to work on redesigning the service management module. The past month, I've been contemplating on getting more hands-on service management experience. There are naysayers on implementing it through computers, valid reasons all -- personnel "computational complexity", keeping things simple, etc. But I don't really see the conflict. It's a design problem. That's the exciting part.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Christmas Party
Last Saturday, we held our arguably greatest yet Christmas party. I hesitate to call it greatest because it was but our fourth. From here on, like those press releases of events and achievements from more sophisticated companies, we might start calling every little latest the greatest of all.
It wasn't a fat budget that made it the greatest. I would surmise on a per head ratio, we spent much less than last year. This despite us renting a playground this year.
Perhaps, it's more that this year has been filled with so many challenges, us in our growing adolescent age as a company, feeling each and every pain, from capacity problems to unprofitable channels, from government assisted corruption to terrifying acts of God, and to everyday challenges sometimes subsisting in chores to trying to do better. And with all that, we're ending this year with such a remarkable Christmas celebration.
First of all, it's a costume party. I'll have to say it's the first time I went to a costume party wearing a costume. It helped that I didn't have to spend for the costume. ^^
Then, we had a departmental contest. My team could have done much better, but for the lack of leadership, planning, and time management. That may sound incredulous, given that as I belong to the admin team, our department is supposed to foster those same on this event we announced our lack of.
The exchange gift program brought many to panic over finding time to make their purchases. Still almost everyone participated in this simple take on sharing.
The food could have been much better, if only there were more selective palates to plan ahead. But we shouldn't complain too much on blessings.
The games were fun. Maybe. I unfortunately wasn't able to join the games. But us spectators had our fun and laughter along with the winners and losers of the game.
Lastly, we had a grander raffle prize selection this year, courtesy of generous suppliers and vendors. It's actually the first time our company solicited raffle prizes from our suppliers. Before, despite receiving barrages of sponsorship requests from different companies year after year, we refrained from asking for sponsorship. But we've been trying things out differently this year. It's after all a season of sharing, and we are always grateful for the smallest things that our suppliers may offer.
It's been a great Christmas party. Most importantly, I think that this year's have put much more emphasis on the spirit of Christmas, of sharing. We give gifts of myriad sizes to our loved ones and friends and company. We also receive from people, companies, partners who may care for us enough. We share our talents and perform for laughs or enjoyment. We share our time, in or between meals, or in doing things together. For the blessings we receive, and the joy we give, we are grateful. To the Amicis, our friends, thank you.
It wasn't a fat budget that made it the greatest. I would surmise on a per head ratio, we spent much less than last year. This despite us renting a playground this year.
Perhaps, it's more that this year has been filled with so many challenges, us in our growing adolescent age as a company, feeling each and every pain, from capacity problems to unprofitable channels, from government assisted corruption to terrifying acts of God, and to everyday challenges sometimes subsisting in chores to trying to do better. And with all that, we're ending this year with such a remarkable Christmas celebration.
First of all, it's a costume party. I'll have to say it's the first time I went to a costume party wearing a costume. It helped that I didn't have to spend for the costume. ^^
Then, we had a departmental contest. My team could have done much better, but for the lack of leadership, planning, and time management. That may sound incredulous, given that as I belong to the admin team, our department is supposed to foster those same on this event we announced our lack of.
The exchange gift program brought many to panic over finding time to make their purchases. Still almost everyone participated in this simple take on sharing.
The food could have been much better, if only there were more selective palates to plan ahead. But we shouldn't complain too much on blessings.
The games were fun. Maybe. I unfortunately wasn't able to join the games. But us spectators had our fun and laughter along with the winners and losers of the game.
Lastly, we had a grander raffle prize selection this year, courtesy of generous suppliers and vendors. It's actually the first time our company solicited raffle prizes from our suppliers. Before, despite receiving barrages of sponsorship requests from different companies year after year, we refrained from asking for sponsorship. But we've been trying things out differently this year. It's after all a season of sharing, and we are always grateful for the smallest things that our suppliers may offer.
It's been a great Christmas party. Most importantly, I think that this year's have put much more emphasis on the spirit of Christmas, of sharing. We give gifts of myriad sizes to our loved ones and friends and company. We also receive from people, companies, partners who may care for us enough. We share our talents and perform for laughs or enjoyment. We share our time, in or between meals, or in doing things together. For the blessings we receive, and the joy we give, we are grateful. To the Amicis, our friends, thank you.
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