Something had to be done to accommodate all the necessary computer equipment needed after our Bryant purchase. At this time engineering was still upstairs looking out over the Black River and the dam / falls. Management decided that we should move downstairs to be closer to the assembly area. But to do that required some removing and replacing of walls and doors. The downstairs office area consisted of Craig’s office, a quoting office, the senior engineers office (Ed Becker), and the girls who greeted visitors and did the necessary paperwork any business is involved in. The first order of business was to build a reception room closer to the main entrance and move the ladies out there; then serious wall removal and replacement would be possible. The company purchased several used work cubicles with flat work surfaces and five foot high walls. These were placed to create eight individual work areas for the engineering staff down stairs. After we were moved down, the upstairs area was revamped to create an office for Craig, looking out over the river; a sales office manned by our roving (sometimes) salesman; a separate purchasing department office; and an Operations Managers office at the top of the stairs.

There was a large room upstairs that had been used as a “catchall”, where various items from past projects had been stored. Most of this stuff was not really very valuable, but because we had the room, it accumulated. But we needed some space to set up a shop office where the MRP computer system would be used to track all necessary items to build any machine. Our acquisition of the Bryant product line required this, and it would lead us into ever more complex procedures down the road. MRP stands for Material Readiness Plan, a computer program, and it is suppose to allow us to plan future parts purchases so we can build machines more efficiently. The MRP manager would be seated in this newly refurbished area (the old “catchall” room); but also in there would be some purchasing and spare parts salespeople. Walls were painted, drop ceilings were installed, air conditioners were placed in the windows for the summer season (as it could be quite a hot area).

Up to this point all engineering BOM’s (Bills of Material) were hand written, and were distributed by engineering by hand. The new MRP system required computer generated BOM’s, with each item having it’s own specific part number (including fasteners and hardware). The BOM’s would still be generated from engineering, but each part needed a dedicated number, which had to be inserted into the MRP database for future use. It didn’t take long to see just what kind of errors could (and did) occur; most anyone could generate a part number, engineering, purchasing, management, and place it in the database. The MRP system that we bought did NOT allow changes or erasures once these numbers were entered, so an inserted wrong number Was Forever. There was no standard procedural guide written for part numbers to be reviewed before being entered into the database. Everyone had their own ideas as to how it should be done………