It's been a heck of a couple of weeks for me, extremely tough but hopefully rewarding.
I've been extremely busy with work, the small business I work for has three divisions, one of which I run and have about 20 people who report to me. We make precision components for automotive transmissions, most for GM and Ford.
Even though my background is mechanical engineering and project management, I'm having to do all the hiring/firing/training/discipline for all my employees, in addition to all of the engineering, quality, purchasing, programming, ISO 9001, shipping/receiving, quoting, and more.
The company has been losing money for about nine months, and we've had across the board 10% pay cuts.
Despite that situation, I convinced the president of the company to invest over a million dollars in my plan for expansion and launching about five new parts with volumes of around 2,000,000 parts per year. This will bring my division to almost four million parts per year.
So without getting into too many details, this past week is when I got my new machines online and launched several parts. It took about 300 pages of paperwork, two new CNC machines, five new employees, lots of new tables, gauges, carts, tooling, fans, dip tanks, etc. I designed how to load the parts, hold them in the machine, cut them to the proper dimensions, measure them quickly and accurately, create blueprints, control plans, failure mode and effects analysis, process flow charts, statistical capability studies, etc.
I've been working lots of hours, seven days, had plenty of setbacks along the way, and had things like relatives staying with me, my wife's birthday, my wedding anniversary, and a sick puppy (my first dog) which has cost lots of money to make healthy.
Here's what my kitchen table looks like on a Sunday afternoon:
- Matt-Chicago's Kitchen Table
- IMG_20110821_153143.jpg (57.78 KiB) Viewed 1458 times
On top of that, I have a lot of activist work going on, friends in court, etc.
After taking a day to relax and recharge, I'm ready to get back to my regular involvement in SWGO.
ers. 
