The Soft Pitch

In one of my earlier posts I promised to say how much our folks donated to the China earthquake victims. Well here goes, more than $185,000. To help victims of the earthquake that hit Central China, Avnet launched a global fundraising campaign. In total, employees raised $93,169. Avnet matched the amount, bringing the total donation to $186,338…most of the funds were raised in Asia, though all regions contributed. Some of the money was for a school and the rest given to Red Cross. Our folks continue to amaze me with all the things they do to support those in need around the world…for more info see our “best in the US” community relations vp Teri Radosevich’s blog on the community page. 

As you know the soft pitch blog is about softball too…my off work passion is 16″ softball. This sport is unique to Chi-town as we play it bare handed there. In fact I co-founded the Chicago 16″ Softball Hall of Fame in Chicago 13 years ago after creating a video on the legacy and history of the sport. We have been on a long journey to build a museum for over a decade. Well yesterday I flew back home and lead a press conference with my fellow board members and unveiled our site and museum designs…in Forest Park, IL. The mayor of FP was there too…a great day. FP is the Wrigley Field of Softball..It is the premier location in the game. Site of the biggest tourney which attracts thousands of fans. Now we just have to raise $500,000, yikes !  We got coverage in the Chicago Sun Times…just the tip of iceberg as we get rolling…and the key to our building fund success. Should be fun, telling the story on the sport will be a work of love. Want more info, or would like to contribute go to 16inchsoftballhof.com. 

Speaking of museums our Avnet off the lobby museum is pretty darn cool too…it’s the lead attraction to all visitors. Stay on our site to see some photos or go to Second Life for the virtual view. In either case creating a museum is quite a job…from vision, collecting memorabalia, photos, videos and then deciding what will flow and then making graphics etc to tell the story…technology sure makes a difference. The fun is seeing what makes a difference with guests as they learn more about us…alot of pride. Lot’s of fun ahead stay tuned.

After two weeks on vacation, I’m finally back, and I came to a conclusion: Even though Europeans have perfected the long holiday for relaxation and recharging, I’m not up to it.  While I was gone, my grass died, I lost all my notes on Avnet’s green initiatives, and I couldn’t seem to remember any of my passwords, so I spent a fair amount of time “resetting” myself.

Avnet did a little “resetting” of its own while I was gone, consolidating two integration centers into one brand new, expanded facility that incorporates some cool green features like special lighting and coating on the roof and walls to reduce energy use.  But more on Avnet green stuff later when I find my notes.

During my time off, I spent a week on an 80-year old schooner, the American Eagle, sailing off the coast of Maine.  Her decks glistened from daily washing and her brass sparkled from constant polishing (when the crew wasn’t hoisting sails or scouting for lobster pots, they were rubbing the railings to a nice shine). The most impressive part of the trip was that each member of the crew seemed to know what to do at all times with just gentle direction from time to time from the captain. But when it came to the really big job of hoisting the mainsail each morning, we all pitched in and helped while the captain gave direction. The cook, crew and any passengers who could heft the line (meaning, yes, me).  That meant it took more than 20 of us to get the Eagle under sail each day.  And because she is on the historic register, there were no modern-day electric winches if we got tired. Just teamwork and a hearty “Heave-ho on the throat! Heave-ho on the peak!”  (In a ketch rig with square sails, “the throat” being the corner of the sail at the mast and “the peak” being the outermost corner of the sail.)

But I digress – back to the move of our integration center. Much like raising the mailsail on the Eagle, moving into Avnet’s new Global Solutions Center required everyone to grab hold and heave ho.  A convory of 171 tractor trailers traveled a total of 27, 312 miles between the facilities to move the inventory.

Over the long July 4^th weekend, the team

–        Moved $98 million in inventory from three locations to the new consolidated integration center in Chandler, Arizona. They moved 4,446 pallets of 521,391 parts and somehow got them all into the right places in the new warehouse in just a few days.

–        Unloaded, received and put away 19,027 individual boxes.

–        Brought our new Warehouse Management System (WMS) on line, including two full days of testing the end to end process.

–        Processed 147,011 transactions to validate inventory correctly in the new system.

Most impressive of all, was that Monday morning all systems were up and running and the team was ready to ship orders: no problems, no delays, no disruption to our customers’ business.

Mike Kenney and Scott Garrett and their teams performed a world-class feat.  This was the largest move and inventory transition in the history of our Avnet Technology Solutions group and a story worth investigating about the behind-the-scenes effort to make this happen.

Just writing about the magnitude of the move makes me think yet again about vacation. The team that pulled off the move did double and triple duty and should be congratulated and thanked most heartily. They have earned a holiday. Maybe I’ll suggest they follow the example of the Europeans, who have learned a thing or two about the importance of work/life balance.  Some research may be in order, so maybe next time I’ll head to a favorite spot of my European colleagues and enjoy the Mediterranean sun instead of the brisk winds of Maine.