Wie kommt eine E-Mail auf eine infoBoard Plantafel?

Wie kommt eine e-Mail auf eine infoBoard Plantafel?

Es gibt dafür einen offiziellen Weg mit zwei Optionen und einen inoffiziellen. Ich bin gespannt, wie viele Kunden sich melden werden, um an den inoffiziellen Weg zu kommen.

Den ersten Weg haben wir eröffnet, um der Instandhaltung zu helfen: da kommen strukturierte und unstrukturierte Informationen über Reparaturaufträge an. Teils in SAP, teils mündlich und teils per E-mail. Die Instandhaltung betreut 80 oder 100 Maschinen in ein oder zwei Standorten. Das folgende Feature ist eine wirksame Hilfe!

In der Enterprise Edition schiebt der Anwender die e-Mail per drag ‘n’ drop auf den Platz der Planungsoberfläche, wo er einen Termin setzen möchte. Es öffnet sich ein neues Planungsobjekt, im 2.000 Zeichen Text wird der Body der E-Mail automatisch übernommen.

Die zweite Option haben wir für den Service eingerichtet: zu dem vorhandenen Termin (als Planungsobjekt dargestellt) kommen immer mehr Informationen vom Kunden, u.a. in E-Mails. Wieder zieht der Benutzer die E-Mail auf die Planungsoberfläche, diesmal auf das existente Planungsobjekt. Es öffnet sich der Windows Dateiexplorer, die E- Mail wird als .msg Datei im Serviceordner abgelegt.

Diesmal wird nicht der Inhalt, sondern der Dateipfad im Planungsobjekt als Link gespeichert.

Und nun der inoffizielle Weg!

Wir setzen den infoBoard SyncTool Server ein. Ausserdem haben wir ein infoBoard Outlook Addin geschrieben und jedem Mitarbeiter installiert.

Ich schreibe im Betreff meiner E-Mail als erstes Wort Task: [danach mein Anliegen]

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Öffnet der Anwender die E-Mail, werden für alle Zeilen der in der Adresse oder BC genannten E-Mails Insert Datensätze generiert und in die SyncTool Datenbank-Schnittstelle geschrieben. Daraufhin platziert das SyncTool auf die Mitarbeiterzeilen ein Planungsobjekt mit dem Inhalt der Mail.

Interesse an der Lösung? Schreiben Sie uns mit Task: im Betreff

An: info@infoBoard.biz

BetreffTaskBitte senden Sie mir das infoBoard Outlook Addin

Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,

Vielen Dank für Ihre Unterstützung!

Wir haben / wir haben kein infoBoard SyncTool im Einsatz.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen

Ihr Kunde

Und: antwortet das Planungsobjekt per E- Mail, wenn es fertig gemeldet wird?

Diese Frage nehme ich mit in den kommenden Beitrag zum Thema: viele Wege und Ereignisse generieren automatisierte infoBoard Aktions- und Informations- e-Mails.

Zeiterfassung und – Auswertung mit infoBoard

Zeiterfassung und – Auswertung mit infoBoard

Vor 10 Jahren habe ich auf einer Deutschen Messe mit einem Mitarbeiter eines Maschinenherstellers über Maschinendaten-Auswertung gesprochen.

Ich verstand augenblicklich, dass seine Balkengraphiken nur eine Darstellung des Istzustands und der Historie von Fakten war. Dagegen ist infoBoard eine Darstellung und insofern vage Vorstellung, was in der Zukunft passieren soll. Hier Flexibilität, dort unveränderliche Daten.

Deswegen ist die Zeiterfassung der Anwesenheit und eine Mitarbeiterbezogene Zeiterfassung auf seine Aufgaben in der Vergangenheit immer nur eine Ergänzung zur Planung gewesen. Einige möchten auch nur eine nachträgliche Projektzeiterfassung durch den Mitarbeiter, hauptsächlich um den Kunden korrekte Rechnungen stellen zu können.

Nun ist bei infoBoard durch verschiedene Kundenprojekte eine n e u e Zeit angebrochen: das infoBoard Zeitmanagement. Und in top: die Verlagerung der Verantwortung auf den Mitarbeiter für seine Arbeitszeit. *)

Durch diese Verknüpfung wird die Revolution durch Digitalisierung auf dem Arbeitsmarkt weiter vorangetrieben. Ich bin dafür, dass sich Mitarbeiter positiv entwickeln und ihre Wertschöpfung für das Unternehmen erhöhen, um aus diesem Grund ihren Lebensstandard erhöhen zu können. Der Mitarbeiter sollte gerne auch belohnt und nicht nur entlohnt werden.

Über diese Decade der Softwareentwicklung landen wir also bei InfoBoard WorkingSchedule, der Arbeitsplan https://infoboard.app/funktionen Der Mitarbeiter sieht seine Stempelzeiten und die geplanten betrieblichen Aufgaben und arbeitet diese ab. Oder trägt sie auf den nächsten Tag vor. Er erfasst live seine Zeiten auf Aufgaben oder zu einem späteren Zeitpunkt seine Projektzeiten. Alles auf seiner eigenen Oberfläche.

Er sieht Statistiken zu Urlaub und Überstunden, kontrolliert seine Arbeitszeit selber, druckt seinen Stundenzettel aus, unterschreibt diesen und legt ihn seinem Arbeitgeber vor.

Das ist doch schon mal ein Anfang in der neuen Zeit!

Im Tagesgeschäft ist für das Unternehmen das übliche möglich: Buchen der Stempelzeiten, Nachkalkulation der Aufträge. Korrektur  von falschen oder fehlenden Zeiten.

Eine besondere (Weiter-)Entwicklung hat in den letzten Monaten stattgefunden: auf mehrdimensionalen Planungsobjekten buchen Mitarbeiter jetzt einzeln ihre Arbeitszeiten. Der Planer kann bei starkem Auseinanderfallen der Gruppenarbeit leicht die mehrdimensionalen Objekte in einzelne Aufgaben auflösen und exakter planen. Je stärker Planung und Fakten in der Gegenwart (infoBoard Tagesstrich) zusammenlaufen, desto detaillierter werden die Daten, die zu verarbeiten sind.

All diese Erkenntnisse führen uns bei infoBoard zu neuen Produktstrategien und Entwicklungen, die wir in diesem Jahr des neuen infoBoard ZeitmanagementsZeiterfassung und -Auswertung mit infoBoard noch vorstellen werden.

infoBoard in Boston

infoBoard in Boston

Wir trafen Jeremiah vor unserem Hotel im North End von Boston. Er ist der neue strategische Planer in seiner Firma und hat sich in den 2 1/2 Monaten alleine in das infoBoard eingearbeitet. J. hat sich in seinem neuen Unternehmen umgeschaut: das existente ERP kann es nicht leisten, die vielen MS Project Dateien können es nicht leisten.  „Eine gemeinsame Sprache im Unternehmen“ sei nur mit infoBoard zu erreichen!

Das hörte sich gut an, und die zuvor schon besprochene Entwicklung einer permanenten automatischen Schnittstelle von Epicor ERP passte zu dieser Absichtserklärung wunderbar.

Wie viele dieser ERP Cloud Anbieter ist in der Realität dann doch eine lokale Datenbank installiert. Nix mit Cloud Lösung. Wir alle werden durch die Internet Werbung hinter‘s Licht geführt. Genauso wie bei SAP Business One oder Lexware oder ..oder .. wo wir bei unseren Kunden nachfragen – lokale Datenbank.

Die Deutschen wollen wohl doch keine Cloud für Ihre Unternehmensdaten.

Na gut, in der Lounge des Battery Wharf Hotels geht es mit infoBoard weiter. Statt neueste Features der Version 3.3 geht es oft um das Grundverständnis über die Wirkung und die Möglichkeiten von infoBoard.  
An alle Sparfüchse: An Einweisung und Schulung zu sparen ist ein Schuss, der nach hinten losgeht. Ihre Mitarbeiter bekommen ein mächtiges Werkzeug für bessere Produktionsplanung. Ohne Bauanleitung geht es nicht schnell und nicht bestmöglich.

Das spornt uns an, die https://learn.infoboard.biz/ e-Learning Seite schnell zu erweitern.Als Vertiefung nach der Schulung. Als Nachschulung für neue Mitarbeiter, die die Planung von Kollegen übernommen haben.

Im italienischen Viertel in der Hanover Street gehen wir gemütlich Essen. Am zur Straßenseite offenen Fenster lassen wir uns mit dem mobile phone meines Gastes von der Bedienung fotografieren.  Ist es mein Alter, ist es meine Deutsche Art, oder denke ich einfach nicht dran? Eine schnelle Erinnerung, eine verfügbare Doku bei einer rasenden Zeit , oder eine neue Art des Tagebuches – eben ein Bilderbuch unseres Lebens?

Volk der Dichter und Denker !

In Deutschland angekommen, geht es wieder weiter nach Bayern und Nordrhein-Westfalen. Ist es eine Strafe? Ist es Schicksal? Mein Hotel- Übernachtung in Wesel ist im Geburtshaus von Dr. Konrad Duden gebucht. Ihm wurde während des Schulbesuchs und Studiums ein aussergewöhnlicher gedankliche Tiefe attestiert. Im März 1848 hat er wohl an der ersten deutschen Demokratie mitgewirkt und leider blieb der Erfolg aus.

Aber er schrieb eben den ersten deutschen Duden. Ich spüre meine Verantwortung im Think Tank dieser heutigen Zeit. Ich werde vielleicht nicht mehr mit der IoT (internet of things) Sprache zu tun haben, aber das die Menschen der Welt in Ihrem Unternehmen in der Produktion eine gemeinsame Sprache sprechen, dafür kann ich mit der elektronischen Plantafel infoBoard sorgen! 

Damit schliesst sich der Kreis.

infoBoard MultiSync – Synchronisation bis ans Ende der Welt

infoBoard MultiSync – Synchronisation bis ans Ende der Welt

Der Wunsch kam vor etwa drei Jahren auf: mehrere Abteilungen nutzen das infoBoard auf verschiedene Weise, hängen jedoch nicht so eng zusammen.

Die Entwicklungsabteilung ist frei, plant locker über Wochen ein Projekt als ein Planungsobjekt auf einer Mitarbeiterzeile. Die Werkstatt arbeitet zweischichtig, mit Maschinen und Mitarbeitern, für Produktion und Prototypen. Das Labor testet mit Prüfständen und Klimakammern 24/7, und die Produktion in drei Schichten mit Linien und Schichtmitarbeitern in Wechselschichten.

Aber es gibt Abstimmungsbedarf untereinander.

Die Polizeileitung eines deutschen Bundeslandes will wissen, welche Mitarbeiter im Dienst sind. Von verschiedenen Plantafeln werden die Ausfallzeiten auf eine Plantafel für die Führung zusammengetragen.

In den Niederlanden möchte eine grosse Firma den Gesamtplan aus drei Abteilungen auf einer Plantafel zusammen sehen.

Ein deutscher Maschinenbauer möchte von 1-3 Projektplantafeln 9 Fachabteilungen mit den Planungen automatisch versorgen, um die Abwicklung zu vereinfachen. Terminlagen werden durch die knappen Ressourcen mit den Projektplantafeln synchronisiert.

Die Geschäftsführung eines Softwareherstellers synchronisiert die Ausfallzeiten mit dem infoBoard Server eines Vereins mit 200 Mitgliedern, in dem drei als Leiter tätig sind, um die Verfügbarkeit automatisch abzustimmen.

Zulieferer melden heute noch per PDF an den Autobauer, wie weit ihr Prototypenauftrag fertiggestellt ist. Beide nutzen infoBoard. Sie können Auftragsvergabe und Auslieferung des Auftrags automatisch synchronisieren, statt PDF für die Terminabstimmung auszutauschen.

Zwei Engineering Firmen in Bayern und Niedersachsen arbeiten in Projekten für die Automobilindustrie in Hamburg zusammen. Sie können ihre beiden Ressourcen und Projektplantafeln über ihre beiden infoBoard Server automatisch synchronisieren.

Ein grosser, internationaler Händler von Babybedarfsartikeln lässt in Asien herstellen, verschifft oder versendet die Artikel und verkauft in Europa. Termine spielen in der Supply Chain eine grosse Rolle. Ständig muss nachgefragt werden. Hier können mehrere infoBoard Server interkontinental synchronisiert werden.

Ein Softwarehersteller hat gemeinsame Projekte mit einer Australischen Softwarefirma. Die die Projekte betreffenden Aktivitäten werden auf 2 Firmenplantafeln interkontinental synchronisiert.

Eine Personalabteilung plant Schichten und Urlaube statt mit Excel jetzt im infoBoard. Deshalb hat diese HR Plantafel nur eine Schicht pro Tag. Der infoBoard MultiSyncServer überträgt die Ausfallzeiten und die Schichtinformationen als Nichtarbeitszeiten gem. Schichtmodell auf die dreischichtige Produktionsplantafel.

Wie ist Ihr Bedarf? Wo können Sie sich verbessern?

infoBoard im Werkzeugbau in Thailand

InfoBoard in tool making in Thailand

 

In one of the many industrial areas around Bangkok there is a group of employees responsible for the toolmaking of a japanese company, who is in need of a……yes, a planning tool just like infoBoard. Not even the japanese headquarter can help in this difficult situation. The group has to hope that infoBoard International Co. Ltd. is somewhere close.

The online presentation can be difficult to manage: a Teamviewer presentation means I hear questions coming from the computer but I have to answer in the phone receiver. The demo version always convinces everyone very fast and it often happens that employees come to me and confess to have already read through and to have studied the handbook two times.

Despite their personal preparation, the software is ordered short after and a training course in loco is immediately arranged.

InfoBoard International is conveniently located in the immediate proximity of the international airport and of the highways to north, south, east and west.

Everyone arrives fast and without risks to the office, wether you come from the city or from the countryside, because the airport is always well signposted. But the opposite situation can happen and I think it is so amusing to tell your friends and family, when you are back home, about how chaotic and messy the local traffic abroad was and how you had to fight against it .

To get to the clients it took around 100 km of travelling and from km “9” you just had to keep going straight ahead. On the first day I made a mistake. For starters the direction to take was Bangkok City instead of North. It took me 20 minutes to finally find a U-turn, turn around so that I could continue in direction north. I had to pay two road tolls. The first time I took the highway  “1” which was the wrong highway, and the second time, obviously, I went past the destination; there was no highway exit. At this point, like a satellite, I did a first U-turn, turned the car around, then did another U-turn in the other direction, completing a 360 degrees turn. This time I finally managed to leave the highway and get to an industrial area which unfourtanetely wasn’t the one I had to get to; I had been requested to go to the one after.

At the Seven Eleven I met in time with my employee and the interpreter. I updated them fast and told them that my navigation system interpreted numbers differently from what they really were. I didn’t have a precision landing!

Friendly welcome, people spoke Thai, Japanese and then English. We went through  the entire production facility and we were positively surprised: all neat and clean. Accurate labeling of the machinery and with notes (in English!).

Now to the tool making: it is known that production facilities in the USA are clean and tidy. Clients’ names like Panasonic give the idea that there money is earned and riinvested in a clear way.

After visiting the machinery room, we saw on the display panel a fully established infoBoard. Attention had been payed to all details to prepare everything meticulously .

The next 2 training days went by. The English-Thai translation came along smoothly until we tried to explain something in Thai to a japanese employee. I took the deal in my own hands and mimed things using fingers and the mouse and without speaking English, despite all diffculties I think we managed to understand eachother.

I also showed how InfoBoard could be used in the production of machinery for injection moulding. It was our “passport” to Japan. The training brought an end to the IT department of the SAP interface and also ended technical approaches to infoBoard.

We said good bye with the conviction that, that company would earn more money with infoBoard and we were eager to see how the SAP interface would be implemented.

The morning after I suffered from another detour to the “absolutely  close” airport because I looked at the navigation system and not at the signs. Luckily on Saturday mornings the roads are normally empty and it didn’t take a lot of time.

I hope our infoboard platform-designer will be accepted in the universities of Thailand as a teaching tool. In Germany the universities are still fundend by the governement with the so called third-party-funds to keep production plans secret . Michel wake up! Germany has already what people can understand and manage!

In any case, in a japanese company in Thailand employees now understand 55.000 times faster how to make better planning decisions. With Infoboard.

Immer wieder gut: ERP Daten ins infoBoard

Always the best option: ERP data in infoBoard

 

ERP data is so complicated and still employees flit from form to form, note down numbers and try to reach information fast.

Normally after the importation, stands out the fact that the data is neither of reliable quality and consistency, nor does it contain a unified knowledge of the multiple functions. A unified approach to handle exceptions does not exist  either. Often because the system is not programmed or designed to do so.

As a result infoBoard is firstly a powerful internal consultant that does not cost extra  money. Secondly,  weaknesses are eliminated by the employees and then follows a new voting session with the ERP producer.

In this situation it is better when infoBoard Enterprise Edition’s full functionality is available.

At this point only, have we got a large choice of functions that can level out the event and capacity planning’s weaknesses.

Putting effort is another step toward the company’s digitization, toward consistent unified trading. This will pay off: natural post-order calculation can occur, the employees can “see something”, can develope more skillls and soundly make decisions together.

Strangely enough changes are never possible without expenses. But hard work is always rewarded with positive results.

4 days after the 2 days training course I was on the airplane back to Hamburg; not only clients must put in hard work.

At the same time, we are currently supervising the interface developments of clients for clients in Nashville, Indianapolis, Wisconsin, Bangkok, St.Gallen, Franconia and Bavaria. We have posted two videos on this matter: everyone has to see how easy it is!

InfoBoard has an expertise knowledge in softwares for ERP systems.

infoBoard in Birmingham

infoBoard in Birmingham

Our product is mainly used in England’s north industrial area. A direct flight connection between Hamburg and Birmingham helps when you want to meet with your clients or train them.

After landing we remembered what happened the time before: because of the many roundabouts the dated navigation system we had was too slow to tell us in time what exit to take. With a modern navigation system things would have gone differently.

The second challenge were the elongated highway exits, the reason why we often turned too late and we had to take roundabouts.Third challenge was the fact that for some roads you have to pay fees, for Germans this is very unusual. Actually, hired cars have in most cases a badge, but when you have to correctly join the queu of the toll, you panick.  Do we have what the sign shows or do we have to go to the cash sign?

Oh yes, coming from the left, this is the reason why I bent over to look at the main road, I heared a clear “Left!” coming from the left passenger seat. It’s a peculiar memory especially because there were no vehicles to be seen.

We drove through Walsall. Narrow roads, evening rush hour traffic. The roads winded their way through hilly turns on the right and left. Suddendly we ended up at a crossroads and the navigation system stated that we had reached the destination, athough we had not. Suddendly I remembered that the navigation system didn’t know the exact address, I had used until that moment Google Maps to at least end up close to the destination.

Well, for starters we made the wrong decision to take the longest way through long detours, dead ends and so on. This is the reason why we returned to the crossingroads 10 minutes later and this time we turned in the road that finally brought us to the industrial area where our client had his office.

After the friendly welcome we walked through the big, modern hallways with many infoBoard monitors and infoBoard production time tracking touchscreens. Since the company had worked in the past with many very broad platforms, the company’s members didn’t want to accept anything different from what had worked so well for them for decades. After finding infoBoard on Internet the IT department was able to start it fast. Everybody had a familiar picture infront of them, only now in a digital version and this means with many advantages regarding the distribution of information and time tracking including notifications.

The client is a service provider for control cabinets cabling and is interested in deadline reliability. Each production island manufactures for one client with an outsourcing contract. There aren’t any single products in the portfolio. And well, the company after a powerful growth with bigger hallway enlargements considered inevitable a digitization of the analog platforms.

infoBoard was the last missing piece for a software-aided support of the production

Perfect!

infoBoard in Indianapolis

infoBoard in Indianapolis

I flew with Delta Airlines from Boston to Indianapolis, the only direct flight between the two cities. I read a little bit about the city and …..it was all planned on a drawing board, it’s a copy of Washington.

My clients and one of their business partner from New Jersey were very close to the airport, within three miles distance. The biggest percentage of  infoBoard’s american clients in the New World!

In relatively new and spacious airports there is a small but particular U-Boat. People are proud that Indiana is the U-boat’s location with USA’s longest tradition. I’m confused, although, because on the map I have never seen a big lake in Indiana except for a connection with the sea.

I turned down the idea of renting a car because everything is nearby. I thought I would have been be able to move well around the short roads with a taxi and a shuttle. I later understood that it didn’t work like that.

I waited for the shuttle to the hotel. I always call Uber and other private drivers per mobile phone. I waited for other hotel shuttle buses but after a while I decided to call the hotel once more. I knew that in the USA you have to dial +1 at the beginning and so I did but I still heard “The number you are calling…..”.  Almost an hour later I called another hotel shuttle bus but this time without dialing the area code and I was able to book the hotel bus which was also supposed to arrive in 15 minutes. My phone, I don’t know how, connected to a telephone company and I could get in the american phone network.

While sitting on the bus I looked out at the road to see if I could have walked on the streets but the footpath ended with a small cars bridge, no chance.

After a short stop at the hotel, the hotel shuttle bus brought me wherever I wanted. Commercial enterprises were located, like it is common in America, in offices in big, plain buildings. And it’s not unusual to not have any signboards with the company’s name outside of these buildings. I only knew that the company had a sign close to Rolls Royce and was infront of Rolls Royce. But then I saw my american co-worker waving at me from a distance.

The conversation gets a pleasant twist when the owner of the company comes into the room and in that moment his young IT employee starts talking about how good german economy works and how beautiful the german landscape is. I can only agree with him. He continued to fancy me with the german restaurants’ road in the city center which is although very far away and later comes to his mind that most likely I know well enough german restaurants. The boss gives me a lift back to my hotel,  it takes only three minutes and are there taxis here?

The next morning I all a taxi to go to a company’s training course. This works but I have to bolster the young taxi driver because he has never heared of the street. (but it is a very long street with an odd name: Girls School Street).

Very friendly welcome in the company: a programmer gave me an office where I could stretch and prepare. A walk through the halls of production made it clear why the production needs to be visualized: long rows of machinery are galvanized by metal ribbons with different high quality metals. Manufacturing orders can sometimes take up to one day to be processed, but there, where the copper coils can be split in different sizes to produce different orders at the same time, short processing and set-up times accrue and visualization is necessary to make better decisions on the order of the production.

Coffee, notebook and conference room, the company owner and 8 participants with different tasks ask questions and discuss about what the interface should achieve and on how the planners want to use infoBoard.They were also interested to see the IP camera function of the infoBoard rows.

The programmer ist happy that the interface requirements are becoming easier and easier and at the end everybody said a sincere thank you for the instructive day. She also showed me her own production development calender in MS Access, which simply didn’t have acceptable reaction times.

I was kindly brought to the airport by my contact person because when I called for a taxi they told me they weren’t sure a taxi could get to me within 20 minutes.

I went back to Boston with Delta Airlines. I liked very much Boston’s city center and the Habor Walk Way where you can get anywhere by foot, like in Germany.

(Deutsch) infoBoard mitten in Irland

infoBoard in the middle of Irland

 

An island in the middle of the Atlantic ocean- a place that US companies like a lot, that has a great potential for English-speaking employees. I have never seen this place with such a perspective. It’s a good thing to visit places yourself so that you can change perspective. The economy is based mainly on exportation since the population is relatively small with just 4,8 million people but where there is a lot of “manufacturing” there has to be also infoBoard.

The task setting of both company owners was four weeks in advance: this in order to be able to have an overview on the orders in production, to provide a well-grounded statement based on the processing status of five units regarding new orders’ delivery dates and on the sales department of the successful company.

Our software partner in Irland held meetings and organized a training course and with his help the current 620 planning objects could be selected and assembled. Each planning object could include up to 20 individual components. Each scanned operation step was added to his software, so that the orders that had already been started to be processed would have been well visible through scanned processing steps and the cumulative hours also, through progress bars.

The scheduled orders that are not on time land up on infoBoard Sync Tool Server (in the pool-rows*). The production platform lights up brightly when infoBoard  shows delivery overruns. I wished I had brought with me the Enterprise Edition so that I could have seen a balanced planning of the Critical Chain Projectmanagement (CCPM).

InfoBoard was reordered. I was happy, the users are happy, the software partner understood the possibilities for his other clients.  The database interface is really powerful. You have the feeling as if we were part of a string quartett of a big orchestra. I have to explain this: 30 years ago, during a special night at the Hamburger Markthalle dedicated to Hamburg’s rock’n’roll bands I was the band leader of a band called “Billy de Lion and the Wild Cats”, famous in Hamburg and we played in front of 1000 spectactors. To get ready we have at our disposal 4 wind instruments and we tried a version of the song “Stagger Lee” with a horn section. This was incredibly powerful  because the sound almost threw off the stage…….and the leaves came tumblin’ down…. (the drumbeats).

Now the presentation of the board of directors. He asks what has happened: I just received an order that has to be delivered on Friday (customer-oriented flexibility seems to be a factor for success). We open a preprepared sample order, they dictate to us the time exposure in 5 parts and we plan the order. The result: the order was prepared a weeek too late of the delivery date.

I have always engaged myself so that infoBoard would be used as an operational planning tool  with a unique resource allocation. Here was only an ERP system with very detailed working steps that made it impossile to have a corrrect visualization. But since the software partner masterly treated the data and (can) listens, the presentation of the executive board could be implemented  fast and well.

Now  has to be enforced also the planned order on infoBoard. InfoBoard web application is useful for the Shopfloor, which makes a list of all of the tasks of the day that have to be processed for each sector .

The remaining task for the company employees is to take care of the working hours and the accurate work hour confirmation of the Design. Essential requirements for the quality of infoBoard’s outlook.

*) Small anecdote: While I am in the workshop it comes natural for me to say the word “pool”. With this term I (and all Germans) mean the group of unallocated tasks. We either take the pool or take from the pool. The confused expressions on my irish co-workers’ faces made me think that the word for them probably had a different meaning. Actually at the end can the production managers that agreed with me on the meaning of the expression explained. I only know that this expression has become parto fo the German language in Germany. This is another case of internationalisation: the reimportation of english words with changed meaning. Very interesting.

infoBoard an der Westküste USA

infoBoard on the west coast of the USA

It’s hot, it’s cold. For a german man from the north like me the weather here is very different from what I am used to; here, outdoor it’s too hot while indoor too cold.

During the days of the fair we stayed in an accomodation in Koreatown (L.A). It was near the Convention Center and not far from West Hollywood with the famous stops that we had already visisted several times throughout the years.

Our hotel didin’t provide breakfast and in Koreatown there were only privately  owned shops, for this reason we drove to Downtown to have breakfast there.  Finding a parking spot was a big challenge since the price to leave tha car just  for 12 minutes was 3,50$ . At the end we found a small Austrian restaurant called FoodLab and on the terrasse on the back of its building we could enjoy a lovely cozy breakfast with real bread!

Really important and dinamic economic sectors have developped in Calfornia. The secret is: a big amount of capital that is in search for profits. Therefore were established industries that we in Germany had established time before through capital, for example the development of the diesel engine and the creation of airships.

As I imagined I was also contacted from an investment company. They were searching scalable business models. Millions have to be put at stake, otherwise it’s not interesting. I was asked how infoBoard’s exhibitor in the fair was different from the other exhibitors that also offered a planning software. After I looked up our US rival, of which I still didn’t know much: form-based data capturing system and analysing system with charts for projects. Just another project plannning tool with the number 987. Well, America needs infoBoard because we offer a planning interface that is source-oriented and can intuitively be used thanks to its graphic.

At the fair there were a lot of machine producers. The first impression that I had, is that in comparison with German fairs the technology used here is not very modern.The fairs in Hannover, Frankfurt and Düsseldorf look more glamorous.

Here come the potential clients: remain still, look, ask. Some explain infoBoard to their colleagues. We listen to them and we are surprised; how can someone think to know everything from just some images on a monitor?

Many visitors were job hoppers and they always had in mind a company that needed infoBoard, but where they didn’t not work anymore. Surprisingly a continuous change of employer brings the job hoppers to have a lot of experience with ERP implementations and software development and many said that they then knew that software developers didn’have professional experience and that for years they had to tell the developers what the program should do and that what they said was never done. Ok, I also think it is like that but the situation is going to change when infoBoard is installed. InfoBoard has benne completed and it’s the result of 20.000 developers’ team work.

Two men arrive and unfourtanetely from all it had been said I understood only the words “State, California, Cluster”. Later I took a look at their visitng card and it said “Baja California”, meaning they came from the mexican part. It’s a pity because I was looking forward to introducing them to our spanish co-workers that were standing just 1 m. away.

Other two men arrive and one of them talks in German. We probably already met at the same fair two years ago. After we talked a little about if we could present infoBoard like this  to the owner of the company on Thursday, we came to the conclusion that we should and we decided to exchange other information or oganise other appointments using my german telephone. It’s strange how we could call without problems but when we wanted to send text messages using an iPhone with the adress of the company, the texts would arrive two days after when I was at the airport. Technology is so strange at times!

On Wednesday we went out to have dinner with the company owner and the general manager. We talked about the very interesting story of the last 50 years of the compan, about  how good german education is and the chance to enter successfully the US market. The day after was the presentation of the managers and project managers out of the 400 people in the company. After an hour and a half of infoBoard’s demonstration everbody understood how useful infoBoard was since we assured short-time procedures in the machine shop of the producer.

I now understand better what Germany’s economy needs in order to improve. Banks can no more provide through Basel III the economy with enough money and there aren’t enough investors anymore. Fortunately the first small improvements are occuring in Germany and in the EU. It’s difficult for a normal person who has so many expenses to pay, to be able to save during just one life a personal capital to reinvest.