Russell Jones
Senior Project Manager, Assistant Vice President| Sun National Bank and OceanFirst Bank
Williamstown, Nj, United States
As I sat home in full CORONAVIRUS isolation one night, I remembered a project of some note.
I worked for a consulting firm, AGS Information Services which had a very good representation within Philadelphia during the eighties. Our office was based out of Philadelphia, but we were part of a national organization.
At that time, I was the first Project Manager (PM) in our office. I had led multiple projects before coming to AGS but never had the PM Title. My Office Manager Sheryl Franklin had the insight to see more in me than I saw in myself. She crowned me a Project Manager.
I completed some systems integration work before this project came about, so when the request came in from the PHILADELPHIA NEWSPAPERS INC, I was a natural consideration for the position. I had some manufacturing background that I gained in a college CO-OP job, while working for a forklift company. It was instrumental in this project. That is another job that could be included here later.
I don’t remember how we got the job, since we normally would bid on a job or have a direct request for us to do a job. Knowing the sales-team we had at that time, we always were in the mix for new engagements, that mostly larger consulting firms had first crack at. This was a big one to get, and somehow, we got it.
The job was labeled as a request to determine where waste and loss was occurring during the production of the Philadelphia Inquirer and The Philadelphia Daily News newspapers. This was a big deal considering that PHILADELPHIA NEWSPAPERS INC, was about to build a new plant outside of Philadelphia and wanted to identify and eliminate any undo waste and loss that was occurring, in their current production lines.
Once we acquired the engagement, I had one possible problem with this assignment. There were four distinct rooms that the production lines travelled through. That was not the problem. The issue was that there were four distinct Unions to deal with, one per room. We came up with an ideal situation. We hired a contract Electrical Engineer to work for us. He would layout the electrical lines we would need. We sent him in 2-weeks before our regular team start date. He met with various union workers in each room and introduced himself. Along the way he explained that we would be coming in to install sensors to monitor and would not affect any of their existence. The day I entered the building and made my way towards the first union room, I was met by a unannounced gentlemen who asked me direct questions. “Who are you? You cannot come in here.” I turned to my right and saw our Engineer. He walked over with a cup of coffee and said to the gentleman, “That’s the guy I told you about.” We shook hands and I asked him to give me a tour, which he did. The next three rooms our Engineer led the way, and all went smoothly.
From that point on we had no problems in any room and we actually showed the union workers our equipment and how it was going to help them. Actually, they validated our counts by telling us what to expect the outcomes to be. And they were right. They knew better than we did. Our engineer had already picked the right locations for installing all of our equipment. We spent three months installing all kinds of sensors and pc’s, to pick up the counts and to store the counts and to report the counts.
For two weeks, we monitored our equipment, the people around our work, and reviewed all of our reporting. There was no waste of paper and there was no loss of bundles of newspapers anywhere we had tracked. Out of frustration I walked out of the building and onto the loading dock. I stood there going over every detail in my head, when I saw it. A truck driver had loaded his bundles onto his truck and then went back to a separate bundle prepared for another truck. He took three of four extra bundles and put them onto his truck. It hit me, that he was selling extra bundles on the street and collecting money for himself.
My findings were simple. And my solution for PNI was simple as well. When they build their new plant, install a truck scale to weigh the trucks coming in with their drivers and weigh them when they go out. Each bundle was a specific weight because they were wrapped in forty papers per bundle and a bundle count was issued for each truck going out.
Seasoned professionals will respect the following. This is what I wrote up in my personal resume of what happened:
Systems Integrator for a Newspaper Publisher: Responsible for, participated in, and managed the design, analysis, programming, testing, documentation, and systems integration of a PRODUCT MONITORING SYSTEM (TOTALIZER) PROJECT. The newspaper press lines were monitored to establish product count, product waste, ability to control press runs (start/stop) and to better estimate output quantities. Responsibilities included selection of hardware / software, third party vendors, systems integration within a manufacturing environment, project monitoring of a team, making presentations to all levels of management (corporate to shop floor), and training personnel. Scheduled and attended numerous manufacturing seminars, interviewed and staffed personnel and conducted performance evaluations. The project was implemented in C and MULTIMATE on an IBM PS/2 50 under PC DOS 3.2 utilizing an IBM ARTIC CARD, THE FIXX, LASER COUNTERS, and PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers). The environment was batch and on line. PHILADELPHIA NEWSPAPERS INC. (03/88 12/88)
Sincerely;
Russell Jones, B.S.I.T.
Assistant Vice President
Senior Project Manager
PMO Project Manager
Management Consultant
Systems Integrator
Y2K Coordinator
College Professor
Project Leader
Senior Programmer Analyst
Computer Operator
Information Technology Student
Certified Private Duty Psychiatric Nurse
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