As we deal with our daily changing world amidst the Coronavirus, there are a LOT of thoughts going around in my head. Some of them are far too deep for a blog, and then of course some of them are more fun.
Here’s a fun one…
I challenged every person in our company to consider how, given the current circumstances, we could find opportunity in our new world.
There were some great ideas given and we have already executed a couple. As an example, based upon the recommendation of two of our senior machinists – Dane Bauer and Tom Blocher, we are buying another CNC vertical mill because there is a good chance we face delays, illness, supplier issues, etc. Or, it could be that coming out of this everybody is behind and deliveries will become more and more important. Either way, we want to be in our best position to serve and our business continues to grow.
There is a beauty in the way that this worked. I threw out the challenge, 2 days later we had some ideas, 3 days later we made the decision to buy a new machine. It helps to have a financially stable company, helps that we have a creative group of Employee-Owners who care, and helps that we have retained a culture of agility, even as we grow.
Another idea, came from one of our most creative mechanics Frank Carpinello, who just celebrated 5 years with us today! This ideas is half fun / half "Why Not?". The email to me came in the middle of the night. Or, at least way past my bedtime (it was 11:48pm in case you’re wondering) – so this could have been after a few whiskeys or could have been a brainstorm that woke him up. I’ve yet to ask him. This one is worth capturing verbatim - an exact copy and paste.
The title was: U-Asked.
Here it is: “I just talked to a friend of mine dot-dot-dot who is a friend of mine that is a CVS manager in Zieglerville dot-dot-dot and they were told to put a fold-out table in front of the cashier's counter to keep a 6-foot distance from the customer to the cashier. Now the problem is the elderly cannot reach across the table to the cashier. So, the cashier has to walk around the counter to the elderly person. It seems to me that they need a six foot long reversible on call glide line conveyor of an undetermined width. It sounds like a 6ft long shuttle that is reversible on demand with perhaps a pallet on it.”
If you don't know Frank, you need to. This email captures him perfectly. He is the perfect combination of funny, witty, and passionate.
Is this a good idea? Would anybody in retail really buy this?
By 8:19 AM this morning we had a model from Ryan Beerley and by 9:41 AM we had a video from Tim Houck with an apology for taking so long! Tim works for Glide-Line here at NCC and Glide-Line’s tagline is Fast, Flexible and Easy. Tim and Ryan are certainly living proof of that.
Anyway, here’s the video:
I will say… it would certainly accomplish the task at hand!