The importance of training...

Hello and good Friday afternoon from a sunny and relatively "cool" Texas.

Thought I should bring you to to date on what all is going on.

I had the pleasure of meeting up with my fellow metalcasters last Friday at the American Foundry Society Texas Chapter meeting at the baseball park in Arlington.  It was a good gathering, although the weather was vile and I got a stupid speeding ticket, but we were under the out of the rain under an awning to watch the game.

The food and beverages and the "Texas hospitality" were up to their usual high standards and a great time was had by all.  Synchro ERP is a platinum level sponsor of the Texas Chapter and I am also pleased to report that we are now a corporate level member of the national AFS American Foundry Society. 

Training and on-going is so vastly important in any endeavor.   When I was up in the Dallas-Fort Worth, D/FW, Metroplex,I decided I needed to get gussied up and get a haircut.  I was getting ready for lunch and was just driving and passed a beauty college - a place where people get trained to cut and style hair.  Hey, I figured I just needed a simple haircut so what harm could a beauty college be, it's not like I need dreadlocks or coloring or anything like that!  Well, the good looking girl that cut my hair was supposed to be near graduation so we gave it a whirl.  Well, this turned into being the longest haircut of my life.  The hair kept flying and she was going from side to side - and I was afraid to look in the mirror!  After an hour and a half, she pronounced me finished.  Although I didn't want it, I now have a new very short doo!  My regular hair dresser that I have gone to since 1981 will not know what to do with me next time I see her.

You know what?  Hair grows back!  Every barber and beautician had to start from scratch and learn to cut hair.  I am pleased that I was able to help a student with her all important training.  I am so committed to training that when I had minor surgery a few years ago, the phlebotomist asked me if I minded a trainee poking me.  I've got really good veins so I said no problem!  Well, it took quite a few sticks, but she finally got it done.  Yep, it hurt a bit, but I realize that training is so so important that I'm willing to be a "stuck" guinea pig.   I donate blood platelets all the time and have also been a willing subject before.  Speaking of which, I will be donating platelets and whole red cells early Saturday morning.  I'm up to about at least 25 gallons of donations for my lifetime.  That's a lot of blood, but, it grows back!

(This picture is of the Dallas Cowboys American Football team stadium that cost just short of $1 billion USD - tax payer dollars mind you.  Arlington Texas has one of the highest hotel/motel and rental car taxes in Texas at something like 18% - all to pay for the Dallas Cowboys and Texas Rangers stadiums)

Obtaining training in Synchro ERP is so vital to getting the most out of the system, whether the facility is just ramping up or has been a long term customer.  There just is no substitute for training.

In other news, Simon and Richy have been touring North America the last few weeks and will be heading back across the pond shortly.  Jean-Marie is on his way to India for a new customer install.  Synchro has added a number of new customers in recent weeks in India, China, Mexico, and North America.  More are on their way as global metalcasters realize the need for metalcasting specific software.

Until next time, see you on down the road - very shortly - at the Investment Casting Institute expo in Nashville.

(my buddy Wyatt Earp just celebrated his first birthday - he is still bouncing off the walls - I should have named him Bouncy!)

 

Nagging Doubts...

Oops, two posts in one day!  Well, this just came up and reared it's ugly head so I thought I'd do a post about it.

All the rage in the tech and business community is about doing business in the cloud.  Everyone seems to want to jump on the bandwagon.  Put all of the eggs in one basket.  It's a great concept, really the mainframe in the sky concept that "IBM-Itty Bitty Money - International Bureau of Magicians - well sell you less for more" pioneered long ago with big iron mainframes doing enterprise computing.

The problem is, when the cloud get's dark, it can cause massive problems for businesses that do business from the cloud.  Right now, a major cloud provider is down, GoDaddy.  So, if you are doing your foundry processing from the cloud and happen to be using GoDaddy, no shipments can be made, no invoices processed, production lost, scheduling in disarray, etc.

I personally just am not totally convinced that the cloud is ready for mission critical applications that need up time of 24/7/365...

Hosting service GoDaddy is down

Doing a Google of "GoDaddy" for results within the last hour brings up 673 results and counting.

Oops, looks like the hacking group Anonymous is taking credit for the outage - this could be bad.

https://twitter.com/AnonOpsLegion/status/245218636187443200 

Google now responds with 930 results regarding the outage...

Until next time, see you on down the road.

Shane Allen
Head of Synchro ERP North American Operations

Here it is...

Howdy Doody from Texas,

Here it is, already September 2012 and it seems like the year has flown by.  Hard to believe we are already almost mid month 09. 
 
Fall rolled in this weekend, actually a "false fall", and the cool temperatures are just "fooling us" as we have many hot days left in 2012.  But, we will enjoy it while it sticks around...

Things are going very very well at Synchro ERP.  The implementation and training teams are hot on the trail of new installations and training across the vast expanse of the globe.  As I type this, Simon is once again back in North America, probably for his 10th or 11th time this year.  Jean-Marie is about ready to pack-em-up - head-em-out to India for a new customer installation.  Richy will be traversing the pond next week for customer installations and training here in the states.

Hey, don't forget, the ICI - Investment Casting Institute expo and meeting is coming up really quickly!  It will be in "Music City USA" - Nashville.  I've been to Nashville several times and it is really a great location.  I'm looking forward to meeting up with all of the investment casters and having a great time introducing them to the world of Synchro ERP.  It will also be great as I will get to catch up with our MD/CEO Chris Collins!  MD-Managing Director.  Ha Ha - first time I ever got an email from Chris when we were discussing employment, I thought the MD was Medical Doctor...  Couldn't figure out why a Medical Doctor was doing foundry work.   Ah, Americans - we are not much in tune are we - MD-Managing Director...

Well, all is well this lovely September day.

My buddy, Wyatt Earp, recently celebrated birthday #1.  He is doing well and is a true and faithful companion in whom I can safely confide....

Until next time, "only the ears know", see you on down the road...  (10 points, name the 80's TV show where "only the toes know" came from...)

Extrodinary Times

Since the "great recession" commenced in 2007, these have been extraordinary economic times and challenges for companies and individuals.  So, what exactly is a recession? Putting on my ole economics hat from my days of teaching college level economics courses, a recession is two consecutive quarters of declining GDP - Gross Domestic Product.  Ok, what is GDP - it is the sum total of all domestic finished goods and services produced in a country during a period of time.  The kicker here is finished. 


One aspect of this "great recession" that is of particular concern is the inflation rate.  A broad term of inflation is "too much money following too few goods".  When there are too few goods, people that want these goods will pay more - thus driving up the price.  In the United States, inflation is looked at several different ways, but the important indicator is the CPI - Consumer Price Index.  The CPI is a "basket" of goods and services and the prices are tracked for upward and downward trends.  Unfortunately, the CPI excludes the volatile price changes of gasoline and food - which are two of the basic commodities of the typical Americans basket.

What has brought this topic up for today's blog is the ever increasing cost of air travel.  I was planning a future vacation trip out several months, and the flight costs was out of this world.  A trip that not long ago would have cost me $250 is now costing close to $900.  This also does not include all of the insidious "rider costs" or surcharges of air travel.  I don't want to buy the plane, I just want to get from point B to point A in a timely fashion for a reasonable cost.

At Synchro ERP, we track the flight costs of the implementation and training team very closely.  Synchro has a unique method of insuring that all of our customers pay a fair and equitable rate, irregardless of how we are getting to your location.  We use a rolling average rate for the North American market and the Far Eastern market.  It is important to note that Synchro ERP DOES NOT use any travel expenses as a profit center.  A rolling average is used for airfare costs and actuals are used for lodging, rental car, ground transportation, etc.

With the airline carriers having substantially reduced capacity by removing planes from service and changing the cabin configuration, there is "too much money chasing too few seats on an airplane" as illustrated by this graph.

The trend on the graph is not very favorable, especially with the cost of oil continuing to climb and be uncertain due to global economic concerns in the Eurozone and the areas of the Persian Gulf, Iran, and Syria.

Again, with advanced planning and scheduling, Synchro ERP is doing everything possible to control costs on travel.  We have even initiated a "ceiling" rate which is below the rolling average rate to help out our customers as much as we can.

Airlines are an interesting business.  One of the most remarkable things that I find is that, economically, when that airplane pulls away from the gate, any empty seats are lost revenue that can never ever be recovered.  There are huge opportunity costs for having empty seats.  Thus, this is why the airlines do everything possible to cram as many people onto an airline as possible and have zero empty seats.  This is known as profit maximization.  However, it is somewhat disheartening that the airlines have adopted the surcharge model for checked bags, certain seats, exit row seating, food and beverage, etc.  What I am most concerned about is that other companies and retailers may start adopting these same type of surcharge and including them into their revenue model.

Imagine having to pay the base price for the gasoline that you put into your car, plus additional fees for the delivery of the gasoline, the worker behind the counter, etc.  It's an old business trick that many companies are revisiting - and that is getting rid of all of the cost drivers and the CODB - costs of doing business, and placing them on the consumers neck.

Example, when I go and get an oil change, I am charged for the oil recycling fee and a "rag fee" of misc. rags and lubes that they use while changing my oil.  Some companies might even toss in a energy recovery fee.  These are costs of doing business, but the oil change place can "recover" these costs by tossing the CODB onto my bill.

Anyway, enough economics 101 for today.

Until next time, see you on down the road.

Shane Allen
Head of Synchro ERP North American Operations

 

Just Checking In

Hello and "Howdy" from Texas, known as Texas Friendly,

All is well in the land of Synchro.  Richy and Simon just wound up extensive work in Mexico and Simon and Jean-Marie have invaded the states with customer visits and new implementations.  Speaking of new implementations, I want to give a big Texas Howdy to Bentonville Castings and Compass Technology Solutions in India.  Being a global company, Synchro ERP spans the globe giving metalcasters what they need, software only for the metalcasting industry.

Things are really heating up in Texas and along the Gulf Coast.  This time of the year, all eyes are glued to the weather in the tropics for them dang ole hurricanes.   Even being a fair bit inland is no guarantee of being spared from the ravages of one of these massive storms - howling wind, raining like cats and dogs, and them twisters - tornadoes.   

 

Well, until next time, see you on down the road.

Shane Allen

Head of Synchro ERP North American Operations

800-323-2808 xt. 1

 

Manualism

Howdy from a hot Friday afternoon in Texas,

It's been a good week for Synchro.  I did a trial system installation last night for a metalcaster in Malaysia.  Things went well, other than the twelve hour time difference between Texas and there - exactly the opposite side of the world from each other.

Manaulism - at Texas Foundries a term was coined of "manualism" and referred to doing a lot of work by hand, instead of with computers.  The amount of man-hours spent entering data, especially payroll data for a weekly incentive system was beyond belief.

What I find hard to believe is that there are a number of foundrymen that still do estimating and costing by hand on the back of an envelope and use cents per pound as a guide.  Not only costing and estimating, but everything in the foundry is cobbled together with a few spreadsheets.  I am a bottom line kinda guy and financials are always in the back of my mind, as well as ways of improving the bottom line.

Few foundrymen come to exhibitions and shows to look at software, unless it's a PLC attached to a new core or molding machine.  Let's face it, ERP/MRP software is not all that "sexy", when compared to a new machine.  But, ERP/MRP software is so essential to doing business in todays global economy.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not berating or belittling the foundryman that does it all with the number two pencil and an envelope, but I am just concerned about their long-term viability of missed opportunities.  In economics, there is a term of "opportunity costs" - which are costs of partaking or not partaking in various opportunities.

Synchro ERP is so for the metalcaster and can be easily used by any sized metalcaster - and is affordable as well.  Extremely affordable with no barrier to entry such as upfront costs.  There are not a lot of required fields and the foundryman does not even need to use all of the modules available.

Give it some thought, think about what your opportunity costs are by doing it with manualism.

Until next time, see you on down the road.

Shane Allen
Head of Synchro ERP North American Operations

I Finally Smashed a Record

 Howdy from blasing hot Texas once again.  Of course, what else would one expect temperature wise in Texas this time of year!  It's the norm.  Welcome to August 2012.

Since time time immemorial I have been chasing the all allusive 100 barrier, and I'm not referring to the temperature!  No, I'm a duffer - a golfer.  I do not get to play much anymore, and probably haven't played in the better part of two years or so.  When I was at Texas Foundries, I played quite often with the foundrymen and we had an annual golf tournament.

This last weekend found me up in the north country of Minnesota catching up with some of my oldest and dearest friends.  Chris, whom I've known since 7th grade, and Trey whom I've known since 10th grade or so.  I like keeping friends around.  We all went to college together and have always kept up and done playcations to places like Vegas.  This playcation found us up north visiting Chris and jamming in two rounds of golf.

On the 2nd day of the tournament, I finally broke 100 for the first time in my life scoring a 96!  I figured, secretively of course, that I'd probably be walking off the course and get hit by a bolt of lightning out of the clear blue sky or die peacefully in my sleep.  

At Synchro ERP, we are also setting all sorts of records, probably covering more air and land miles in a single year, and it's only August. Customer visits and new installations are keeping the team hard at work and the road warriors flying off in all sorts of directions.

I do wish to welcome the newest member of our management team, Jon Mapp, who has come on board to learn the ropes of support under the watchful eye of Lee.  Welcome aboard Jon.  Additionally, Kevin Lenton out of the Brazil office, will be formally be joining the management team in October providing additional support and sales to the North American and Oceanic markets.

Until next time, see you on down the road.

Shane Allen
Head of Synchro ERP North American Operations