Good afternoon Millstream Executive!

A personal touch with World Class Customer Service is the message Millstream wants customers to receive. Face to face visits, lunches and meetings allow me to make positive connections and meaningful relationships. Customers in Alberta, the China Millstream team and Manufacturing Vendors in China all receive personalized, ethical, business oriented service.

Quality issues identified at the customer's workshop often require repair. The cost of repair in Canada is far more expensive than the same repair at the Chinese manufacturer. The issues are communicated to the Chinese manufacturers, and the MSF Quality Engineer responsible for the specific factory is tasked with clarifying any issues there. Millstream has to process charge back invoices with the vendors to recapture any charges from our customers. I propose that we create an official Millstream Charge Back form to accompany any Charge Back invoices that will be signed off by 3 levels of the organization: Executive, Project Management and QC Engineering Department. Formal documentation will cement the process and ensure global visibility.

The most challenging and rewarding aspect to working as an interface between manufacturers and customers is to develop new products, processes and relationships. Developing the lightbulb was brilliant, manufacturing it today is mundane at best. Product and process development both require significant investments in energy, disciplined refinement and in the end an implementation/action plan. Project success or failure is decided in this first phase. Information hand off is critical to Project Management. It is also in this phase where processes must be designed for optimization of energies, tasks and time for effective PM. Loose ends in projects at the hand off phase must also be identified to not create pitfalls in forward progress.

In every organization there are formal processes (paydays twice a month) and informal processes (it's okay to take a longer lunch as long as you work late like you said you would). Small businesses are more agile and can respond to change quickly but sometimes the details of these changes remain intellectual. A balance of noted and documented policies and adaptable strategies is necessary. In PM these adaptable strategies require team member meetings to ensure all is fully understood.

Just like an overgrown lawn that needs to be mowed, I have a large volume of entries to add to the PO Summary in SS, the Shipping Costs Excel spreadsheet and a full review of the AR/AP folder contents to perform. Other more pressing challenges have taken priority but the "long grass" of these recordings is still high on my tasks To-Do list.

Attention to the important details and knowing which minutia detracts from quality of work and customer service is a continually evolving skill. Dilbert shares an insight in this cartoon.

PM Daily Tasks

Reviewing and questioning schedules, creating and submitting invoices, customer service activities for both the customer and the vendors, and solving technical issues are all daily tasks in PM for Millstream. They are the least problematic of all but must be managed with tact and brevity. The challenges of communicating with another culture through translators is addressed with the Millstream method of short statements and point form. Sometimes the tasks are akin to gathering a herd of 100 kittens but at the end of the day everyone involved should have a sense of clarity and accomplishment.

Part of Project Management will always involve chasing people and chasing issues. This is the largest time consumer and sometimes small issues grow into unmanageable monsters. Processes and teamwork prevent frequent chasing issues, however intervention from a higher level is sometimes the most workable solution.

Essentialism vs. the undisciplined pursuit of everything

Just as the diagram shows, energy spent in a focussed direction is much more effective than energy scattered in many directions. The paradigm of Project Management at Millstream is that a few well though out actions and processes will accomplish much more than a plethora of initiatives. This doesn't mean a plethora of initiatives are not good to explore, but the disciplined pursuit of the essentials leads to far better results.

If we have suitable processes, we are aligned to common goals and utilize each others strengths we can climb mountains. Each person has a position and must work in concert with the others or people and teamwork is left behind.

"A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds" Francis Bacon.

In a positon in PM currently at Millstream one must be creative and balance self management with self promotion. All aspects of the business are only separated by an arms length. The challenges are also the opportunities.

Thanks for your time!