Sunday morning. Twelve days ‘til Christmas, and I’m on the 25 yard line, first and ten… but that’s only because I did most of my Christmas shopping in July. Still, I’m fretting about all sorts of little things, like gifts that still need to be packaged and mailed, the tree is not fully decorated yet, the dogs need to be bathed (yes, that’s important too, especially if you have English Cocker Spaniels), and I still don’t have a Christmas dinner menu planned. It’s a good thing I have a talent for prioritizing (although Mike might find that debatable…).
Women do have a tendency to fuss about little things not getting done, but I plead innocent. These past few weeks since Thanksgiving have been very busy both at work and at home. All good things happening, mind you, but this close to the biggest holiday of the year, there were set backs nonetheless. I’m not complaining, just explaining…
One of the good things that occurred is a conference Mike and I attended, along with our associate, Verdell Schroeder, sponsored by Okuma and the North Carolina Military Business Center. It was held at the Okuma Partners in THINC facility located in south Charlotte for the sole purpose of further educating NC machine shops and other related businesses on the bidding process necessary to procure Department of Defense contracts. The Okuma Thinc facility is impressive. We gathered for a pre-conference continental breakfast on the showroom floor, surrounded by machine tooling centers that made us salivate more than the breakfast (no offense to the caterer). Once the grazing and mingling concluded, our hosts escorted us to an auditorium where we settled into our seats to listen to the speakers.
Eleanor Holland, of the Defense Supply Center Columbus, was the keynote speaker. Eleanor not only knows her stuff inside and out, but she also has the patience of a saint. We attended a workshop directed by her several years ago where she took us through the process step-by-step, pausing to answer all questions great and small. You might be wondering why, if Mike and I had attended a previous workshop, what we were doing here – again. Two words - military acronyms. Is there a dictionary for this? Stumbling over the many FAR and DLAD clauses definitely slows a person down, but it’s completely necessary in order to understand the bid package. The process is undaunting, to put it mildly, but Eleanor is an ace at taking you through the steps.
Mike and I have actually been working at military contract procurement for awhile. Sometimes it feels like we’re shooting arrows up into the air, hoping they’ll hit something. That’s not to say we haven’t done our homework – we’re both anal people who are well trained at analyzing details – but the process itself is an art form and just when you think you’ve figured it out, a new door opens and viola! More stuff. I will say this, we’ve gained a whole new body of knowledge and it should serve us well.
At this point I’ve really got to commend the North Carolina Military Business Center for doing an incredible job of connecting NC manufacturing sources to DoD opportunities. It is their sole aim to grow North Carolina’s military manufacturing base to one of the largest in the country and they are almost relentless in their pursuit. Obviously this is to our advantage, because notably they have put together a vast network of resources. One of these resources is the establishment of the SourceNC website. Thanks to the guys at Source Authority, selecting a bid package has been greatly streamlined. It’s a huge improvement that has done wonders to lessen the brain damage I was experiencing previous to its presence. We, and I think I speak for all NC shops involved in this, should all be happy for this huge improvement.
Here’s the link to SourceNC’s website with pictures of the conference: http://www.sourcenc.com/briefingroom/news.cfm#dec05
Okay, so this is where I have to put down the keyboard and the coffee cup. Not that it hasn’t been enjoyable to sit and collect my thoughts for a moment, because I’ve been wanting to communicate to you how important NCMBC has been in, not only our lives, but any NC machine shop interested in becoming involved with DoD work. But time is of the essence and dogs must be bathed. It is a dirty job and unfortunately, Mike has to go to the shop this morning so it’s my duty… Hmmm…. A typical female pause here to wonder who got the better deal?
Happy Holidays to all and a Happy New Year!
hello liz,
you’ve seen my intro email to you both and Mike and I have talked as recently as today. Looks like we might get to work together on your ISO and AS QMS. I’m also grateful for NCMBC and the opportunities I am finding to support folks like you in your quest to do business with the “gummit” as Reagan used to call it. My quest is to help NC firms become as competitive as possible through their Quality Systems, applying Lean methodology (the Toyota system), and whatever other continuous improvement initiatives we can bring to bear. see you soon,
Hey Terry!
It’s definitely going to be a busy year for us! I’m psyched for it though… all this great stuff is happening. We’re looking forward to working with you too Terry! Advanced Machine is on the move in 2009.
Maybe someday I’ll be able to hire my own assistant? (just dreamin’….)