PGA Championship & Inventory Control

PGA Championship

On a personal note, my wife (Kathy) and I made the trip down to Tulsa so that we could watch the last two days of the PGA championship. I was most impressed with Woody Austin, who lives in Derby, KS, just a few miles from here. It was blazing hot. Tiger Woods won, but Woody was close behind.

Inventory

Inventory Management is an absolute requirement in small business. One of the things that I learned through the bankruptcy of Newer Technology many years ago is that management must cast a careful and prudent eye on inventory. We do that a lot here at WiebeTech - we've developed several different ways to examine our inventory so that it well balanced, well stocked, and not obsolete. I hate obsolete inventory! I also hate not having inventory in stock, ready to ship to customers!

We've developed a system which allows us to examine our inventory by line item, complete with detailed usage and aging information. As a result, we are able to easily calculate obsolescence on our total inventory and scrap our junk. We have many different ways we can 'look' at our inventory using this system - we can change aging periods; we can set different cutoff levels for what constitutes an inventory obsolescence issue per line item.

Inventory in a technology company is kind of like inventory in the produce section of a grocery store. Lettuce looks great when it's fresh, but no one will buy it when it is stale and old. That is why our selection of hard drives is higher in capacity than many of our competitors - we tend to stock capacities that are new, in demand, and are likely to remain in demand for some time. We don't like to stock older drives with small capacities. They are poor values for the consumer, and they are poor inventory risks for us.

Our inventory control system is really composed of three major components: a) our enterprise financial system, b) which works in conjunction with FishBowl inventory control software, c) for which we have developed many custom reports. (I can't recommend FishBowl - it is cumbersome and buggy - we've had to work around some of its issues.) Email me if you'd like to hear more about FishBowl.

Where's James?

James is in the office!

Things got very busy at WiebeTech, especially in Q2 of this year. We were preparing the introduction of our RTX product line - it's now been shipping since June and is a success! Sales, margin dollars, profits are moving up. July was the best sales month since January (January's always huge) and August looks like it will easily move past July. Thankyou, hardworking WiebeTechers and faithful customers!

I spent July 1 through July 18 in Alaska, on a short term Church affiliated mission trip. The public view of the trip may be found on another BLOG:

http://saltshaker07alaska.blogspot.com/

There's lots of pictures there; also some posts which I wrote.

The reality of this trip was a little more adventuresome than what was posted. We were turned back by wind & waves; we were in overloaded boats; we were in risk of being swamped (had we not turned back) and that would have lead to bad things; we spent 18 hours in 'whale camp' at Elephant Point, somewhere between Kotzebue and Buckland, Alaska, waiting for weather to improve. (Ultimately, it did not improve; we returned to Buckland and flew back to Kotzebue in Cessna Caravans. We gave up on boats.)

Anyway, I survived and learned a lot about Eskimos, Christian faith, and how to survive with a large group of high school and college age youth in the wilderness.

I also developed a new hobby. Kind of. I've taken digital pictures for several years; and always wanted to pursue print my own pics. I recently purchased an Epson R1800 printer, and am now printing superb 13 x 19 inch prints using my Exilim 10mp camera.

This activity is bringing me a little closer to the WiebeTech digital photography customer base -- a great customer segment with enormous storage needs.

Later this week, I'll be attending the Leadership Summit which is put on by Willow Creek Church across the nation. Friday evening, Kathy and I are heading down to the PGA Championship in Tulsa. We'll bake, along with Tiger and the rest of the professionals.

I have trips scheduled out to HTCIA / San Diego later in August, also a week long sales swing through DC with my sales manager and my east coast sales rep (Jeff Hedlesky and Jerry McLean, respectively). Jerry worked for Lacie (WiebeTech's largest competitor in the commodity storage space) for 7 years prior to working for WiebeTech. Both of these trips are planned for our trusty corporate airplane, N206KJ.

On Labor day, (Sep 3), I'll be firing up the Cessna and flying out to Idaho for a camping trip in the remote parts of the wilderness. I should come back with some amazing pictures.

See ya.

What happened to James?

A lot of stuff. Ken Canfield lost the primary; the person he lost to also lost the election to Sebelius. So goes politics.

This has been a time of growth for WiebeTech. The little company that started in the basement of my house over 6 years ago now employs approximately 30 people. I've been blessed to have gathered a constellation of hard workers who care about the company and each other. And by definition, if they care about the company, they care about the customers. That is likely to be you, as you are reading this blog.

I have many specific things I could write about here. Here's a couple of quick notes: I once started writing a book. I had quite a few chapters in draft form done. I recently sucked them in from an archival CD and hope to be posting a few of them here.

A while back, I wrote a white paper which really isn't right as white paper on the WiebeTech website. I may post it here.

I recently took 6 weeks off from the business. It was a wonderful time to reflect and think about all things. While I was gone, the business prospered, just as it has for the last several years. That is a testament to the able workers I have here who made it all possible.

Continuing that theme, I'd like to tell you what I told them before I left. I quoted from two different chapters from the Bible. I picked a section from Matthew 25, vs. 14-30 , which talks about how the master who leaves on a journey invests with his workers. The workers get one, two or five 'talents' to invest. Of course, some workers take the money and make more, while others bury it and return no gain to the master. My workers returned much to me. They are a blessing.

The second Biblical selection was from the Old Testament, and referred to the concept of a 7 year Sabbatical. Well, it's hard to believe, but I'm in my seventh year here at WiebeTech, and it was time for some time off.

I spent the first portion of my time in Alaska, working the Kenai river. (Many thanks to WiebeTech customer Kevin for hooking me up with some able local advice.) I had invited my good friend Mike Andrews up for a few days, and he and I caught many Dolly Varden, Trout and Salmon. Mike was followed by another good friend, Don Isaac. Don and I did more of the same (fishing, sightseeing, talking). While it was important to see Alaska and catch fish, it was more important to strengthen relationships and take a break from the stress of life. This was beneficial to me in ways that I choose not to fully express here. I merely hint at it.

I had a very odd experience in Anchorage as Don and I were leaving the airport to drive down to the Kenai Penninsula. We were getting ready to merge onto a highway when we came upon a SUV that had hit a bicyclist. I wrote this dramatic experience up into a short story. I will edit it and post it soon.

A note just to Alaskan fishing fanatics: I fished the Kenai river, along with the Russian and Ptarmigan. All were fantastic. If you know of some particularly good river in Alaska that might be worth checking out someday, I'd appreciate the tip. IN 2005, I have also floated the Kisaralik; what a river; it can be a little intimidating. Email me at james@wiebetech.com; TIA.

I also was able to explore the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. I flew to the Gatlinburg airport in my able airplane (N206KJ) and drove around the park for a few days. Thereafter, I ended up solo camping in the wilderness interior of the park on Hazel Creek for 3 days. Unforgettable experience; extraordinarily beautiful. September was the right time of year to do it - very few people combined with perfect camping weather.

I also spent some sabbatical time working on my home theater. I've been putting up 2x4s and have enlarged the room. It's a construction zone right now. Someday, when it's done, I'll post a description of the entire room.

I've been having difficulty getting Apple to perform warranty repair on an iPod. Anyone else had that problem? They claim a ding on the case invalidates the warranty.

See ya.

Breakfast with Ken Canfield and Ben Staley

Over the weekend, I was privileged to have breakfast with Ken Canfield and Ben Staley. Ken is a Republican candidate for governor of the state of Kansas; Ben is the pastor of the Church that I attend, Northridge Friends Church in Wichita, KS.

Ken is the founder of the National Center for Fathering. He resigned his position there in order to pursue the governorship of Kansas.

I was impressed with Ken's positions on a number of issues. He can count on my vote in the upcoming primary.