I feel like I say this every time, but the past month has been incredibly busy. Not only was it my final month of Phase I of my MDP training, I also had two multi-day trips scheduled off-site.

I’ll begin with my on-site training for the month. I still had multiple learning sections of the operations module that I had to complete. Some of the important points included Accounts Receivables/Payables (AR/AP), Payroll, Hiring, Credits & Rebills, General Ledger, and the Hajoca Manager’s Approval Suite. This felt like an overwhelming amount of material to cover in such a short time, but Jeff and I sat down and scheduled a game plan to get everything done. I finished the Payroll material with Sam, the AP work with Christie, and everything else with Jeff. It was a lot of information thrown at me all at once, but I took good notes and made sure to learn these important aspects of Hajoca’s business.

I also had much going on off-site. First, I drove to Ardmore in the beginning of the month to meet with Cindy from the Internal Audit department. I have an operations review scheduled for August, so Cindy met with me to go over all of the procedures that IA performs and looks for during an operations review. An operations review is an unannounced audit of one or more of Hajoca’s profit centers. Everything from financials to employee safety is evaluated, and the profit center is assigned a score at the end of the review.

During the third week of the month, I was flown down to Houston, TX to attend a Solar Eclipse training session. “Solar” is the new GUI version of our Eclipse computer system. The plan is for me to become a confident user of the Solar system so that in November I can teach and train other employees how to use Solar effectively. I had already begun using Solar on my own, but I definitely learned a whole lot of useful features I did not know even existed during the class. Solar seems to be a very powerful piece of software, and I am very excited to unlock its full potential.

Last but not least, I drove up to Nashua, NH from the 25th through the 27th to help out with a new acquisition! Hajoca recently acquired Peabody Supply, located in New England. I volunteered to help out with counting inventory at the Nashua location. I worked with Andy from Internal Audit as well as Lee (another PC manager) and Bernie (a purchasing agent). Everyone worked hard and did a great job ensuring timely completion of the assignment. We even had time to enjoy a leisurely Saturday in sunny Boston 🙂

Starting on August 5th, I am going to be moving locations and starting my inside sales module at Weinstein Supply in Philadelphia. I did help them out with their annual inventory back in May, so I did at least have the chance to meet everyone then. A little anxious, but very excited about this move. Full update coming next month!

I can’t believe it’s been almost a year since I began my career here at Hajoca Corporation. It feels like my first day was only a couple of months ago. There was so much that happened this month; I’m not even sure where to begin. I was only at the branch for 8 days this entire month. Otherwise, my schedule was completely booked.

Nothing too crazy during the first week, so let’s skip right to week two. Kohler Company hosted a “Team Building” event with us. This began with a relatively short meeting/discussion about our future business relationship and goals as well as showcasing new Kohler products. The rest of the evening entailed a culinary adventure where we all got together (under the guidance of professional chefs) and prepared our own dinners! The following morning we played 9 holes of golf and got together for lunch. Although at Lansdale we don’t do much business directly with Kohler, I know that once I move to Philly, we will be doing a lot of business together. As I said in my previous posts, I make use of every networking oportunity. Who you know is very important to succeed in any business!

On the 18th and 19th, I spent two days working with and learning from the district credit manager and the rest of the credit department. I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I knew that the credit department approved our customers’ applications to open accounts and that they also worked to collect payments, but I had no idea what else they did. As it turns out, our credit department is very involved in risk management and often directly engages with our profit center managers to provide guidance. The specifics are beyond the scope of my blog post today, but all I can say is that I have a newfound respect and appreciation for all the work that they do. I’d like to give Roe, Tammy, Tom, and Renee a special thanks for their time and help in training me.

This was immediately followed by a vacation from the 20th to the 25th. This was my first long vacation since I have started with Hajoca. I had a blast. I’d like to write all about it, but as the saying goes, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” ;]

Last but not least, I attended the WANE (Wholesalers Association of the North East) Executive Leadership Conference with my regional manager at the Sheraton Hotel in Philadelphia. The event was a combination of seminars and vendor showcase. I saw some familiar faces, as well as many new ones. Again, I took full advantage of this networking opportunity and came back home with a new stack of business cards. The most inspirational moment, however, was the talk that the keynote speaker had with us. His name is Chad Hymas. I highly encourage anyone to check out his message and passion on his website. He gave me a signed copy of his book, which I am currently in the process of reading. I’ll briefly touch on this topic again in my blog post next month after I finish reading the book.

There are three topics I want to cover for this month’s post: a distributor “school” that I attended, another inventory observation I did, and my experiences starting out with purchasing.

On the 7th and 8th, I had the privilege of attending Weil-McLain’s “Distributor School”, which was a two-day comprehensive training on not only Weil-McLain’s products, but boilers and hydronic heating systems in general. Much like my experience with Charlotte a few months ago, the presenters and trainers from Weil-McLain shared a lot of unbiased industry information and knowledge. Having the opportunity to socialize with other distributors during lunch an dinner was also fun. Sure, we compete against each other, but we are all in the same boat and can relate through similar work experiences. I find training opportunities to be a good chance to network with many people in the industry.

The following week, I served as an inventory observer at Weinstein Supply in Philadelphia. It was pretty much the same thing as what I did in Allentown; just different people and somewhat different inventory because they serve different markets. For instance, WS Philly stocks a large amount of cast iron soil pipe, because the City of Philadelphia mandates cast iron pipe (as opposed to plastic pipe) to be used for DWV systems in their building codes. They also require the use of lead and oakum instead of service gaskets, so there was a lot of that as well. More importantly though, the Philadelphia PC is where I will be moving to after I complete my MDP Phase I training in Lansdale. This is happening very soon (in August), so it was fantastic to have a chance to meet and familiarize myself with the people I would be working with in the near future.

Finally, I wrote my first few purchase orders this month. Using our Eclipse software system, I analyzed our stock levels, sales volume, average demand, and such to determine how much of each product to buy. Other considerations included minimum order quantities to waive freight charges, box quantities, etc. I reviewed my POs with Sam (Lansdale’s purchasing agent), and he was pretty pleased with my choices. There were a few tweaks that he suggested, but overall he left my POs as I had initially wrote them. It’s amazing that I have the power and responsibility to purchase thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars of items. It felt a bit daunting at first, but after doing some thorough research and analysis on my buys, I felt confident that I was doing the right thing.

April was another busy and exciting month. Started things off on the 4th with the T&S Brass counter day. Our rep, Paul, arrived with plenty of sample materials and product information booklets. I ordered some nice catering (BBQ/fried chicken, baked potatoes, coleslaw, rolls) for our employees and customers. Everyone enjoyed the food, and Paul had plenty of time and opportunities to showcase his products to our customers. I think it was a very successful event.

The following week, I drove down to New Castle, DE for a two-day Eclipse software seminar. The topics were Purchasing and Inventory Control. I found these classes quite useful, as I am now preparing to make purchases for my operations phase of the MDP. The seminar wasn’t specific to Hajoca; it was run by the Eclipse Users Group for all companies that use the system. Therefore, I had the chance to meet users from other companies and hear about their experiences and feedback about the Eclipse ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system. I learned a lot of tricks and tips for purchasing and inventory management, but the best part for me were the manuals they gave me with screenshots of the different screens and the recommended configurations.

Finally, on the 25th and 26th, we had our annual physical inventory count. We closed the store and counted product for two days. I spent a lot of time counting our large waterworks items in the yard with our waterworks salesman. It was a good assignment because I never had that much exposure to the large valves and hydrants before. We spent all of Thursday counting, and on Friday we finished counting and running our verification and variance reports. At the end of it all, our inventory count was very accurate (error <0.1%). A job well done.

Now that inventory is complete, I will be ready to start making purchases for the branch in May. It feel very daunting, as there is so much responsibility when I am given the power to purchase tens of thousands of dollars of product. Let’s see how it goes!

March was yet again another busy month. First, I’d like to share a personal accomplishment. I’ve been an avid lifter of weights since high school. I began as a frail kid, but in the past nine years I have managed to add fifty pounds to my frame and triple most of my lifts. I was talking to Dave, one of our truck drivers at Hajoca Lansdale, who knew I was quite strong for my size; he suggested that I compete in the Pennsylvania State Powerlifting Championships sanctioned by the IPA (International Powerlifting Association). Dave is a former IPA record holder, and continues to coach many people in the sport of powerlifting.

In mid-February, Dave took me to the YMCA where he works and went over the rules and did some last minute technique adjustments to help me prepare for the competition. I only had two weeks to train for the event, which took place on March 2nd, but I had essentially been training for this since the first day I picked up weights. Needless to say, March 2nd came and I drove to the York Barbell Co. in York, PA to compete. Despite that I only completed 260 lbs. on the bench press, I managed 400 lbs. on the squat and surpassed 500 lbs. on the deadlift. The result? I finished first place in the RAW 181 lb. weight class division! (RAW means that assistive equipment is disallowed.)

Back to work topics… I organized a counter day for A.O. Smith water heaters. Carol (our local representative) gave me informational flyers, and I encouraged our customers to stop by our counter on March 11th. We rented a hot dog roller and provided lunch to those who showed up at our store. Carol was able to speak to our customers about new water heater models and other benefits and perks that A.O. Smith offered contractors. Counter days are mutually beneficial for the vendor, the distributor (us!), and contractors. It is a great way to build relationships with vendors. There are many great brands of water heaters; I know other Hajoca owned branches that do more business with other manufacturers such as Bradford White or Rheem. It all depends on which reps you maintain strong relationships with.

I have another counter day prepared for next month with T&S Brass. I am definitely looking forward to making that a success as well.

My first annual inventory experience with Hajoca happened on the 21st and 22nd of March. I was sent to assist the staff at our Weinstein Supply branch in Allentown, PA. We spent two days counting every item in their inventory. Although counting thousands upon thousands of items sounds like a monumental task, everything was very well prepared and organized. My specific role was to double-check and verify the counts, as well as make manual corrections on the counting sheets. The entire process did remind me somewhat of the warehouse relocation we did in Iowa several months ago, but this was definitely easier because we did not have to physically move or enter bin locations for every item.

Well, that highlights my most exciting moments of March. There is much coming up in April which I will share with you all soon!