tornado thoughts

Lord, teach me how to find joy

Even though this week is the coming week for Christmas, things at work doesn't seem to slow down at all. In fact, everyone (customers at shipyards) seems to be making last minute burst to clear as much outstanding requisitions as possible.

Knowing that many of our distributors are having stock take and festive season break (many are having a break from this thursday till after 26th Dec) didn't help in feeling joyful at work. I know that God gives us the joy because the fact that we can start a brand new day alive and healthy is a blessing from God. However, every brand new day, I'll start to worry of the P** project;
- whether would they call for delivery of cables today
- whether the cable that they call are the ones that we have
- what will happen when i go for reservist for 2weeks during middle Jan 08.
- whether they have paid up the outstanding invoices (up to date is over 3mil)
Why P** didn't pay up? Because
- their accounts say that the PO is not updated (the qty doesn't tally with our invoice)
Why PO not updated? Because
- according to their purchaser, it's very troublesome to keep on editing their quantity because alot of work has to be done for every edition. Thus, she say that she will only update when all the quantity are CONFIRMED.
Why our side cannot confirm PO quantity? Because
- imagine there are 10 different type of cables of different lengths that they purchase and each cable needs time for factory to produce and factory has a tolerance of +/- 10% of the length ordered.
Thus imagine I order 100mtr because purchase order is 100mtr but factory gave me 105mtr.
--> I cannot tell factory to just give me 100mtr and keep the 5mtr.
--> I also cannot send 105mtr but delivery order put 100mtr. It would mean a deficit of 5mtr worth of cable from our side.
--> Thus, we need to inform them of the change and as agreed in the contract that they would allow a tolerance of +/-5%.
So, up to this point, we understand that not all cables comes in correct lengths. Factory will ship out once container is full (normally only 20 drums of cables) and wants us to pay in advance.
Bringing back to current situation, every project has at least 200 drums and at least 10 different delivery shipments over a span of 1 year.
Thus, every time they update us with a shipment, we will know of the absolute length and the change required. Thus, when the project start running, we would only have about 50% of the cables so that our money would not be totally stuck in the cables that are in the warehouse.
How would I know what length to expect and who in the correct frame of mind would store 3mil worth of cables just to wait for the coordinator to call for cables that they require.

Mind you, it's according to their schedule and not to according to our shipment come then everything throw to them. And I'm handling 3 projects running concurrently and I'm also dealing with my own account customers' requistions. I know i have to let the coordinator/purchaser know about this situation but she just doesn't seem to get it and just demand that when the project start running we should have all the cables ready to be called. If people work that way, unless the company got a lot of money and earn alot through the project, the company would have crashed and burned.

These cost of these 3 projects overall should be just break even (minimal or no profit) because the price agreed was before the increase in copper prices. Thus, the minor profit has gone into the bank interest, transport charges, petrol cost of me going up and down from our office to warehouse in jurong, and the increase in copper rates.

Lord, teach me how to find joy even in handling this P** project!

Doris have to be given away because my dad don't like her. She's been poo-ing n wee-ing around the house and my dad slipped and fall once. Deep in my heart, I'm really sad because it's like giving something close to me away. (It'll be the end of the world for me, if someone does that to my dear dear). I also thought of Doby, he'll go crazy that someone take his companion away.
I engaged Mocca services and amazingly within 3days, I have 2 interested parties who came and looked at Doris. The latter party seemed interested and able to take good care of her. Thinking of my dad's welfare, I think I have to make the heartbreaking decision and give her away by this week.

I'm also sorry for making my dear dear sad due to my insensitivity (but guys are naturally insensitive in nature) and I hope she can forgive me soon....

Talking about Christmas, I believe that this coming Christmas production from TCC is going to be a very different, creative and impactful production. My heart was lifted up when i went to see the rehearsal and the number of volunteers and work put it really touches your heart of how God is moving in these people's lives. It is through God's love that would spur them to work through late night just to make the event possible. But I do not want to feel lifted up when i enter a church setting and being strike back to square one when i'm not. That's not what God wants us to live. In His Word, He says that He comes to give us life, life in abundance, not just sufficient nor lack.

posted by tornado @ 2:02 AM