Death Knell�

2002-08-22

It has been a bad year for our company. A really bad year. And I think I may have heard it's death knell today.

Our parent company decided that if we were going to grow that we needed a new production plant. So they built us a three million dollar plant. They happily shut down our old plant (cutting costs, you) before the new one was up and running. Of course the new one would be running before we ran out of stock. Of course it wasn't up and running before we ran out of stock. It wasn't up and running until two months after we ran out of stock. Hospitals can't do without the stuff we make. If they can't buy ours they go buy someone elses. And most of them never come back.

When they did start shipping at the new plant they couldn't seem to get it right. Stuff went everywhere except where it belonged. Incorrect product was shipped. The right product was shipped, but the wrong packing list was included with the shipment. There were errors I've never seen before and I've been with the company for seven years.

Then the shipping department went and spent twice as much as we had budgeted for it. And bragged about how well they cut costs. Of course the fact that my boss had teamster employees working over a holiday weekend didn't help the budget any at all.

September 11 didn't help matters either. A nation traumatized and in mourning just doesn't do things as usual.

Now the plant has contaminated one batch of product with another product. I don't know yet if it's a disaster or just a very bad thing. If it got out onto the street, it's a disaster. It shouldn't be able to get onto the street. Product is supposed to be quarantined and tested before it's shipped. But the plant was also supposed to be up and running two months earlier as well.

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