Oh, The Warehouse

You gotta give me credit, folks; I'm trying to learn this stuff. I really am. The plain truth of the matter is that my pre-Jenny world didn't include the sorts of things that have become my normal day-to-day routine of late. There's a lot to do in any given day and I have a lot of free time in my semi-retirement, but at least some part of every day is given over to helping Jenny. Sometimes it's as simple as writing this column, although I'm still not entirely convinced of the value of that. On a more productive note, I sometimes help the shipping department. We're a relatively small company, and a big chunk of my former life was spent in materials management. It's true that all of that experience was in aviation, but at the end of the day there should be some carryover, don't you think? Well, I thought there ought to be some, but it just ain't as simple as that. Read on.

The purchasing part is pretty easy. A part number's a part number, whether it's for a sewing needle or an airplane, and purchasing principles are unchanged regardless of the industry. I can help with that, most of the time anyways. The things that sneak up on me all live in the shipping department.

In theory the whole deal should be pretty easy. I've run warehouses, shipping and receiving departments, and purchasing departments. I know how to do that stuff pretty much inside and out because I've done it all my life, and in some fairly large companies too, so little old FTDF ought to be easy. Pull and pack an order? Piece of cake. Ship an order? No sweat. Yeah, right!

We can pretty much sum all this up in a nutshell. Put me in an aviation warehouse, either for numbered parts (like boost pumps, starter generators, avionics, and the like) or raw materials, and I can go right to what's needed. I should be able to do that since I've been doing it pretty much forever, and it's easy; a veritable no-brainer. Put me in a hobby shop environment; same deal. A motorcycle shop? Got it covered! The FTDF warehouse? Goshgollygeewhiz, I can't find a blessed thing!

Why not, you may ask? It's an easy thing to do. Sure it is---easy for you, maybe, but not for me. Do we need to ship some scissors? What brand? What kind? (I never knew there were so many different kinds of scissors!) How big? They all have part numbers, of course, but I think I'm becoming part-number-challenged as I age because those numbers just aren't clicking the way they should. How about dye? We are, after all, Fabrics to Dye For. We therefore have dye. Lots of different kinds of dye, more colors than I ever knew existed, made with all sorts of spiffy chemistry, with ancillary chemistry to go with each family of dyes. You'll never fully understand the meaning of the word "challenging" until you go hunting for dye when you don't have a clue what you're looking for. Then there's thread. Would you like to talk about thread for a minute or two? Then great; you go right ahead and do it, because I don't want to get involved with this one. There are approximately a bazillion brands; all the different sizes and weights; all the colors. (I don't even want to hear about the metallic threads, so please don't go there at all!) It's thread, for crying out loud! you know---THREAD. Thread, like (dare I say it once more?) Grandma used to put my buttons back on with. We could also discuss needles, but any of you who have been following my rambles with any regularity already know all about my issues with those implements of destruction!

Sometimes I go out there anyway ("there" being the warehouse), and I try to help out. I don't really think I'm helping much at all, but I'm not going to tell that to Jenny, nosirree! Show me to that warehouse, by golly, and I'll roll up my sleeves and pitch right in. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut sooner or later!>

What's a bobbin?

   hasta bye bye,

      phil