CABERNET ZIN (Cabernet Zin Wine Country) (3 page)

“If they don’t get it done tonight then I’ll make the numbers up myself. I don’t want to do that, but we have to make our best guess. Last time I was only 1% off their numbers after they spent two weeks at it.”

“My other line is ringing … Crap, it’s Phil at Azure Motors. He’s going to want an eight-step-corrective-action. They know our capacity, they only paid to tool us up for three thousand a week, they know how to add that up and that we’ll be short. Doesn’t take rocket scientists.”

“But they don’t care. They have ten suppliers right behind us that are salivating at getting our business.”

“Bye. In three.”

Zack hit buttons on the phone to hang up and dial another number from a lookup tab on his monitor. He brought up his Internet conference package on his computer. Attendees populated the sidebar and continued filling and scrolling up the page with each new add. The pace seemed frightening. 

Zack could not believe all the people just added. Names he recognized from all over Azure Motors from Engineering to Purchasing to the Labs and the plant. “This isn’t just us now.”

The phone and the conference system attendees merged with a little click and then through Zack’s headset he heard “… Everyone, we have to get this solved. Supplier lead? …”

Zack touched the button on his microphone headset, “Yeah, we’re here.”

A disjointed voice from a conference room deep in the corporate Purchasing department asked, “Where are we with inventory? The line guys have exactly a hundred –”

Another voice broke in, clanking sounds in the background, “– negative. We have twenty five parts now. The schedule scroll says the twenty-sixth vehicle needing to fit that part will pass that station in fifteen minutes.”

A different voice from the Purchasing conference room asked, “Why has the mix changed so much?”

“We only watch the scroll. All that kind of stuff happens in Marketing.”

“Marketing, what is going on?”

Silence.

“Marketing? Is anyone on line from Marketing that can tell us what happened?”

Someone released a crackling phone from mute, “– Yeah, we had a big fleet order come in. Nothing exceptional about that. Did the plant lose some inventory? Miss the re-order points in Purchasing?”

The Purchasing conference room came up, “Supplier, you know we expect a certain level of safety stock in all parts at all times. I’ll need you to fill us in on what the situation is – and what happened.”

Zack expected some Sales person got a big bonus for that last minute order bump. He knew everything was always the supplier’s fault. Even a screw-up at the vehicle manufacturer that caused a problem – the supplier was beat on because it was easier politically among the warring factions inside the manufacturer. Zack asked, “Holly, how far away is the courier?”

“Five minutes. He has two-thousand and five hundred parts on his truck.” Her voice faded and then returned, “Now he is pulling up to the security gate at the plant, his truck cab is orange if you look for it.”

Zack asked, “Can he get priority through the dock?”

The plant conference room growled, “Albert, what’s the way to get them through the dock the quickest?”

“I’ll send Murray. He’ll get them through and rally the fork truck crew. The area supervisor is on the dock ready with his radio to dispatch material direct to the line.” The sound of a radio switch snapping in and out of noise suppression responded with some garbled response. “Yeah, Murray is flagging the security team and he’ll have them back into the Fast Ramp.”

“That should get us through the end of the shift?”

Holly said, “Yeah, that’s two days worth at the
new-current
build rate.”

Zack noticed how Holly had stressed the new build rate. He watched the conference call attendance drop. Most of those people had another two or three of similar calls going on at the same time. He knew over twenty five thousand to thirty thousand parts went into the making of the average car, truck, or sport utility vehicle. If any single part, for any reason, had a problem once a day over the course of a year that meant a hundred of these calls a day. That was one vehicle platform; often the large manufacturers had dozens of products. The potential issues became mind boggling in a hurry. He was amazed cars worked as well as they did as frequently as people relied upon them. 

A new voice, the demanding tones of a solid middle manager came through from a new location “Good for today. What about root cause? How did we get in this problem? Are we short of tools? A breakdown in order systems? Technical problems?”

Zack watched the second hand twirl on his watch wondering how close he could press the time. His car was outside the garage and he’d already finished shoveling snow away from it. He could last a few more minutes if he walked fast when picking up the kids.

George said, “Tools were built to plan. Manufacturing is keeping up with the scheduled build rate –”

Zack said, “The assembly plant build mix changed yesterday. We’ve been reacting and air-freighted those twenty-five-hundred parts at our cost, but how can we get a bit more notification? The flights go up over Anchorage from Shanghai as that is the shortest distance to Detroit – the flights take time to arrange, too.”

“You can’t. You just have to deal with it. I hear production control is scheduling the next four Saturdays now. Do you have enough raw materials?”

“Are you sure you don’t have more base models in the pipeline? We have a lot of safety stock for the base model and our people are checking the inventory forecast screens on your website three times a day.”

“No. We all have to suck it up. You can store extra safety stock. Of course if an engineering change goes through that obsoletes any stock parts.”

Zack said, “Well. We won’t have a root cause other than the mix change. Holly pulled another rabbit out of the hat to keep the plant running today, scheduled customs on a few sub-components before the parts even arrived. Otherwise, customs would have held us up and then shut your plant down. That would have been a nightmare. Such good luck will eventually run out.”

George said, “We’ve talked with purchasing to fund more tooling but you know how they worry about the economy so we limp along. Zack and Holly have been keeping us all alive through the design changes, the manufacturing process improvements, and the shipping subtleties. But problems are ahead unless we get some sort of relief.”

The manager voice said, “Zack is it? I’d like to get an update from you every four hours until we get this supply situation back on track. Can you do that? Then we only need to get this team together again if the supply gets too narrow. This way we can monitor it closely.”

A pop up message appeared on Zack’s computer from Lydia, “Remember, I have a doctor appointment next Tuesday. Don’t think that means I can pick up the kids.”

Zack typed quickly, “Yep, it’s still on my calendar.”

She replied, “Why are you not at the school picking up the kids yet? Hooked on a television show? Did I wake you from a nap?”

Zack said to the call, “– Sure. That’s doable.”

“OK, Thanks everyone.”

Zack clicked off the conference system, glanced at the side of his desk where a small winery flier sat amid pictures of a vineyard. A moment remembering the warm fields, escape. Then he grabbed his coat and keys and left the house to get his children.

Zack walked fast up the hill after squeezing his car into a narrow street space. He made this trip every day and knew where to balance distance of parking with his distance of walking and which cut the most time. The first warning bell rang over the school hill as he hurried across the street. He still had to go down another sidewalk, passed the fifth graders wearing safety patrol bands, and then to the general walkways in front of the school to receive the kids as the final release bell rang.

Zack watched for his two children as the flood burst open the exit doors with their pent-up excited pressure as the thin strands of teachers and administrators released them.

“Daddy!” Noah trotted out of the sea of colored coats and bobbing hats, “I saw you first!”

Zack laughed, “I think you did! Where’s your sister?”

“She’s back farther in the line with the other little kids.”

“I see her.”

Grace pushed her way across the heavy tide, a bulldozer of a little kid in her puffy red jacket, “Hi Daddy!” She wrapped both arms around Zack’s leg and squeezed tight.

“Everything go OK today Grace?”

Grace nodded.

“How about you Noah?”

“Yes! No homework.”

“That’s always a good thing to hear.” Zack grabbed their little hands and turned, “Ok, let’s keep together.” Zack moved carefully to keep the two children out of the churning undertow and safely get them away from the school building to his car.

Noah asked as the other kids and parents thinned out, “Did Grace play with my game cartridge this morning?”

Grace yelled, “No I didn’t!”

Noah asked his sister, “What did the Scarlet Roller do?”

“Escaped from the tunnel,” she skipped in her little shiny black shoes.

“Dad! She played with my game cartridge!” Noah hit Grace’s shoulder and Grace punched back hitting Noah’s jaw.

“Hey-hey-hey. Stop that.”

“– kids will be kids.”

“Hi, Felicity.”

“Zack, wait until they are teens. I have both extremes, Tommy in Grace’s class and my oldest, Amanda, just graduated.”

“Ah, probably.” Grace and Noah wiggled in Zack’s grip of their jackets like fish out of the stream. “I forgot you have an older daughter.”

“Two marriages will do that,” Felicity laughed. “If you need a babysitter sometime, Amanda is great.”

“I’ll keep her in mind. See you tomorrow, Felicity.”

Felicity waved, “See you tomorrow at the parent pen.”

Zack said quietly to his children, “The two of you need to behave and get in the car. It’s cold out here in this wind and we are not arguing. If you too cannot share and behave I’ll have to put that game up so no one can play.”

Noah slid into the car and said, “Fine.”

Grace spun herself and dropped snugly into her safety seat. The red puffy jacket compressed in wailing protests of micro air blasts while Zack buckled her in. Noah already had his belt on. Zack sat and took a deep breath before twisting the keys in the ignition. He drove back home.

“Did all the kid’s homework get done?”

Zack pulled the earphone out of his ear. He closed the lid of the computer resting on his legs and set it on the side table, “What was that?”

Lydia came closer, her pager filling her hand and waved it all around in the air. “Did you get all the kid’s homework done?”

“Yes.”

“Even the reading assignment?”

“Yes. And even the one for the weekend.”

“I saw this folder in Grace’s backpack and it looks like you never touched it.”

“Look at the sign-off sheet,” Zack stood.

Lydia rummaged through the sheets in the folder, “Oh.” Then she asked, “Did you get that email I sent and get it taken care of?”

“The teachers are not up for chit chatting after the bell lets the kids out. It’s easier to get them in the morning.”

Lydia saw the laptop LED blinking softly as a reminder that it ran from battery and not the wall plug, “Have you just been sitting on your ass the whole time I was gone? Did you get the laundry done?”

Zack took a breath, “It’s called work. You sit and run the email and phone on a Friday night too.”

“I’m out of socks.”

“There is a whole basket of socks in there.” Zack sat down and hit the television remote, “Are you just trying to fight about something?”

“No. But if I don’t ask any questions nothing gets done around here.”

“I see.” Zack flipped a few stations grumbling to himself, “Nothing but police shows after ten.” Then louder he asked, “What are your plans for tomorrow?”

“I already told you on Tuesday. I have shopping to do. We have gifts to get for my mother’s birthday. It would be good to have your help. I’m always the one doing the gift shopping.”

“And I did all the grocery shopping yesterday.”

“We’re still out of ham for the kids’ lunches.”

“We’re fine. A big jar of peanut butter sits on the shelf and jelly is in the fridge.”

“You’re always saying it’s fine. But it’s not all fine.”

Zack said, “I might have a meeting Saturday for a couple of hours with the China and Mexico teams to prepare for the Monday barrage at the customer assembly plant.”

“Shit, what do you mean “might”? I can’t believe it; you know how many weekends we’ve messed up waiting for your meetings?”

“What about you? You’ve got that pager strapped to your hip and we have to drop everything whenever that stupid thing goes off.”

“That’s my job – a job that pays for all this stuff we have. Not dilly-dallying around like you do.”

“Hey, I’m taking care of the kids and working what is basically a full-time job. And you know, when I was working full-time at the office and you were in school – which
I
was paying for – I didn’t and wouldn’t talk like that.”