the Super box Saga
The continuing saga of “the box”.
For those of you that read my earlier post you probably remember the PDQ box. The “superbox”
All week I have been preparing for the arrival of a set (in this case 8) of boxes to be prepped and palletized, for shipment to one of our buyers for inspection. Earlier in the week I had JoeArtist do some photoshop work on some of the images, while Kickball did the design work.
After we got the files ready, I called in our sales rep for the service beareau where we were going to get our large format printing done. He came in and set us up on their Electronic Work Order system, and we were good to go.
Or so I thought, but after attempting to upload the first files, I come to find out that the EWO system is not going to work for us. So we disked up the files and sent them out to the service beareau the old fashioned way, sneaker net.
Now all we needed were some 20” x 20” prints, 7 of them, and 3 other prints of various sizes that were going to be applied to the box. Nothing fancy, something they should be able to do with their eyes closed.
Well it went out yesterday and by yesterday afternoon I still hadn’t seen the proof I requested. So I called out sales rep, and told him to call me back when he had it all worked out. 3 pm, I still haven’t seen or heard anything so I call him again.
“It’s 3 pm and I still haven’t seen a proof, any idea when I am going to see that?”
“well we had some technical difficulties but we are working on it and should have one to you soon.
“By 5?”
“I hope.”
“Listen here’s what we are going to do, I have a meeting from 5 -7 after which I am going to be going by your shop at which time I am hoping to see the proofs.”
He reassures me they’ll be there and ready for me to look at. Well the meeting runs long and I show up at their shop at 8. I let them know who I am and why I am stopping by and they respond by pulling out the proofs.
It’s all Looking good till I realize they have no more proofs to show me and I still haven’t seen the black and white proof I requested. I explain to the night guy my dissatisfaction and tell him to pass along that I will be by in the morning and I expect to see the last proof.
Next morning I show up, no B/W proof, I look at my sales rep who is standing there and ask when I can expect to see this proof and since it is now almost 8 am does he really think he is going to make my 9 am deadline. He admits he will not make the deadline and asks me when I need the items by. I explain I have a 3 pm ship time so I need them before that as I still need to use the prints to prep the item I am shipping. He tells me he will get them to me by noon, and so I leave to go in to work.
At 10 am, I hear that our shipment of mock-up boxes from Asia may be stuck in Ohio. I head down to shipping to find out what can be done about it.
The Shipping dept., is working on it but it doesn’t look good. Apparently the shipment is held up in Ohio, but not in customs as it passed through customs. The people in shipping tried their best but they are not optimistic about the boxes arriving today.
Time for Plan “B”. Up until that point I had expected to be going with my initial plan but now it was time to roll with the punches. And I had just taken a hard shot to the head. It was time to fabricate the whole shipment from scratch up in the art dept. So I headed back to the Art dept. to rally the troops.
When I arrived in the art dept. I called for everyone’s attention.
“We have had a minor setback in the PDQ shipment and now I need everyone to pitch in and help me make the shipment from scratch.”
We moved out into the open area where I ran a short Demo on what we were about to do, and then everyone set to the work of making it happen. RedHot graphics, theFirebreather, and KickBall started fabricating the boxes we needed. While SuperBuck began the process of creating the PDQ I needed from the dieline I had printed out.
Meanwhile theAccessorizer and I floated pitching in on the various parts of the project when each part required extra hands. At one point I was hot gluing boxes together, at another point I was scoring folds and bending cardboard. Where ever the needs were greatest at the time, I jumped in. So when we began to run out of cardboard I went down to the warehouse and requisitioned some Lounge box inserts.
TheBellydancer, who is the brand manager on this project, stopped by frequently and offered to do what she could to help. Which turned out in the end to be more of a logistics and support role but one we desperately needed. She went out and brought everyone back lunch, and the dowels to re-inforce the base box the PDQ was going to sit on. She got a new glue gun and some extra glue sticks. At one point later in the day she even got everyone drinks. All of it very much appreciated.
Well as the day moved forward I began to realize that we were going to be tight up against the deadline. And still I hadn’t received any of my large format printouts that I needed to finish the project. I made the appropriate phones calls go the customary promises and went back to work knowing that if the prints didn’t show up I was screwed. Well they didn’t show up till 3 pm, that afternoon. So when they did show up I met the sales rep downstairs accepted the prints and told him I would call him later to talk about the project.
At 4 pm we were close, the boxes were coming together, SuperBuck had almost finished the PDQ and we were ready to begin the final assembly. With many of the details coming together but time running out, we continued to work frantically towards the deadline which I had gotten extended to 4:30 now, with a phone call to the lovely ladies of shipping.
4:30 we have it almost done so we begin setting up the pallet with boxes, Once that was assembled TonytheTiger shrink wrapped the pallet on the art floor and then went to get the fork lift to move the box to shipping.
WOW! We made it.
We were done. The team had pulled together and gotten it done. Each person doing their part and without any one of them none of it could have happened. I was glad to have had so many people in the dept that day. I was glad to have the people I did.
theBellydancer and I went to the other end of the warehouse to see the pallet on the truck. There was some more shrink wrapping and seeing that it was in good hands I went off to find out the details on another fire that had spouted up during the day. Leaving theBellydancer to watch the shipment go on the truck.
Tomorrow I hope to hear it arrived safe and sound. Tonight I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
For those of you that read my earlier post you probably remember the PDQ box. The “superbox”
All week I have been preparing for the arrival of a set (in this case 8) of boxes to be prepped and palletized, for shipment to one of our buyers for inspection. Earlier in the week I had JoeArtist do some photoshop work on some of the images, while Kickball did the design work.
After we got the files ready, I called in our sales rep for the service beareau where we were going to get our large format printing done. He came in and set us up on their Electronic Work Order system, and we were good to go.
Or so I thought, but after attempting to upload the first files, I come to find out that the EWO system is not going to work for us. So we disked up the files and sent them out to the service beareau the old fashioned way, sneaker net.
Now all we needed were some 20” x 20” prints, 7 of them, and 3 other prints of various sizes that were going to be applied to the box. Nothing fancy, something they should be able to do with their eyes closed.
Well it went out yesterday and by yesterday afternoon I still hadn’t seen the proof I requested. So I called out sales rep, and told him to call me back when he had it all worked out. 3 pm, I still haven’t seen or heard anything so I call him again.
“It’s 3 pm and I still haven’t seen a proof, any idea when I am going to see that?”
“well we had some technical difficulties but we are working on it and should have one to you soon.
“By 5?”
“I hope.”
“Listen here’s what we are going to do, I have a meeting from 5 -7 after which I am going to be going by your shop at which time I am hoping to see the proofs.”
He reassures me they’ll be there and ready for me to look at. Well the meeting runs long and I show up at their shop at 8. I let them know who I am and why I am stopping by and they respond by pulling out the proofs.
It’s all Looking good till I realize they have no more proofs to show me and I still haven’t seen the black and white proof I requested. I explain to the night guy my dissatisfaction and tell him to pass along that I will be by in the morning and I expect to see the last proof.
Next morning I show up, no B/W proof, I look at my sales rep who is standing there and ask when I can expect to see this proof and since it is now almost 8 am does he really think he is going to make my 9 am deadline. He admits he will not make the deadline and asks me when I need the items by. I explain I have a 3 pm ship time so I need them before that as I still need to use the prints to prep the item I am shipping. He tells me he will get them to me by noon, and so I leave to go in to work.
At 10 am, I hear that our shipment of mock-up boxes from Asia may be stuck in Ohio. I head down to shipping to find out what can be done about it.
The Shipping dept., is working on it but it doesn’t look good. Apparently the shipment is held up in Ohio, but not in customs as it passed through customs. The people in shipping tried their best but they are not optimistic about the boxes arriving today.
Time for Plan “B”. Up until that point I had expected to be going with my initial plan but now it was time to roll with the punches. And I had just taken a hard shot to the head. It was time to fabricate the whole shipment from scratch up in the art dept. So I headed back to the Art dept. to rally the troops.
When I arrived in the art dept. I called for everyone’s attention.
“We have had a minor setback in the PDQ shipment and now I need everyone to pitch in and help me make the shipment from scratch.”
We moved out into the open area where I ran a short Demo on what we were about to do, and then everyone set to the work of making it happen. RedHot graphics, theFirebreather, and KickBall started fabricating the boxes we needed. While SuperBuck began the process of creating the PDQ I needed from the dieline I had printed out.
Meanwhile theAccessorizer and I floated pitching in on the various parts of the project when each part required extra hands. At one point I was hot gluing boxes together, at another point I was scoring folds and bending cardboard. Where ever the needs were greatest at the time, I jumped in. So when we began to run out of cardboard I went down to the warehouse and requisitioned some Lounge box inserts.
TheBellydancer, who is the brand manager on this project, stopped by frequently and offered to do what she could to help. Which turned out in the end to be more of a logistics and support role but one we desperately needed. She went out and brought everyone back lunch, and the dowels to re-inforce the base box the PDQ was going to sit on. She got a new glue gun and some extra glue sticks. At one point later in the day she even got everyone drinks. All of it very much appreciated.
Well as the day moved forward I began to realize that we were going to be tight up against the deadline. And still I hadn’t received any of my large format printouts that I needed to finish the project. I made the appropriate phones calls go the customary promises and went back to work knowing that if the prints didn’t show up I was screwed. Well they didn’t show up till 3 pm, that afternoon. So when they did show up I met the sales rep downstairs accepted the prints and told him I would call him later to talk about the project.
At 4 pm we were close, the boxes were coming together, SuperBuck had almost finished the PDQ and we were ready to begin the final assembly. With many of the details coming together but time running out, we continued to work frantically towards the deadline which I had gotten extended to 4:30 now, with a phone call to the lovely ladies of shipping.
4:30 we have it almost done so we begin setting up the pallet with boxes, Once that was assembled TonytheTiger shrink wrapped the pallet on the art floor and then went to get the fork lift to move the box to shipping.
WOW! We made it.
We were done. The team had pulled together and gotten it done. Each person doing their part and without any one of them none of it could have happened. I was glad to have had so many people in the dept that day. I was glad to have the people I did.
theBellydancer and I went to the other end of the warehouse to see the pallet on the truck. There was some more shrink wrapping and seeing that it was in good hands I went off to find out the details on another fire that had spouted up during the day. Leaving theBellydancer to watch the shipment go on the truck.
Tomorrow I hope to hear it arrived safe and sound. Tonight I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
posted by The Information Officer at 7:17 PM
4 Comments:
Well said. The best thing about where we work is the people we work with, and I'm grateful to be a part of this team.
Oh! Forgot to say: KickBall is the PERFECT name for her. Fantastic.
I love your Stories. I can so hear your voice when I read these.
More bellydancer stories!
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