Issue 11 - Upstream's Upswing - Lockwood International

Accounting by Betty Allen
The Accounting Department has been busy this past year providing financial support for Lockwood’s many acquisitions,
real estate ventures and business opportunities. Accounting is a service organization, providing services to
Lockwood’s employees, customers, vendors, bankers, insurance providers and state and federal agencies. We are
very happy to have the company in growth mode. Lockwood is a very dynamic corporation that is always providing opportunities
for us to learn from and manage. It is exciting to expand with additional branches and new companies and
while it is challenging to deal in new countries and with new cultures, it is also a very rewarding learning experience.
If there is one thing we can count on here at Lockwood it is change; it is but one piece of the puzzle in our ongoing
quest for continuous improvement.
Production by Donna Wells
Our annual team building exercise (inventory!) went well and thanks to everyone for your participation. Stage
Confirmation, Value Added Services, and MetalTrace® are three significant improvements Production has been
focused on recently. Stage Confirmation involves an additional step in our order entry process, however, it is an important
step on our road to bar coding and cycle counting. Renee Roberts and I need to conduct additional exercises
within the test environment and work with project coordinators in real time prior to roll out. The involvement of the
coordinators early in the process will allow for more feedback, input and ideas, reducing challenges. Value Added
Services will be a large implementation within our company but the benefits are significant; it will affect our entire work
order system at its core and allow us to capture history, such as modifications, better and buy product more efficiently.
Since this module will ultimately require us to re-learn how we process work orders, extreme caution must be taken
in its implementation. And finally, MetalTrace® has been added to our service offerings for improved MTR retrieval.
Sometimes change doesn’t come as quickly as we’d like but its better to delay implementation and work out issues –
this helps to minimize down time and promotes a successful go-live. These changes and future plans for improvement
move us toward our goal of Best in Class.
MRO by Cindy Williams
Articles discussing the economy and business styles consistently note that customer service has become more
and more important in separating companies from one another. One of the attributes of Lockwood International that
convinced me to accept a position here ten years ago is that commitment to customer service and integrity.
Many end users have used the last year to refit and retool their facilities, resulting in an upswing in MRO activity;
we have met that challenge and succeeded. Our Edmonton MRO team earned the Syncrude Award for Excellence
and has consistently reached 100% on time with zero errors in servicing the Imperial Oil/Velocity contract. Being the
MRO Manager, I am gratified to hear our customers all over the globe complimenting our professionalism and service,
even to the point of being told that they wish their other vendors supported them in the same way. As 2011 starts, soft
costs such as 24/7/365 response time, logistics, technical support, order automation and consistency in pricing-just to
name a few-will become more scrutinized through quantification. The services that the Lockwood MRO Team provides
its customers will continue to allow us to stand out from the rest.
Marketing by Laura Fitzgerald
This edition of the newsletter makes me realize the incredible growth we’ve quietly experienced over the last year;
as a result I find myself reaching out to more and more people to bring you news of our company. Maybe you’ve never
really thought about how Team Lockwood comes together to make us ‘go’. A multitude of sometimes small but heroic
efforts occur everyday around here. Perhaps this blip might broaden our perspective and appreciation as a company
for all that we do, both for each other and with each other. Think about the opening of a branch and how it involves
us all… The building – location, location, location. Financing must be arranged and contracts signed (Mark Lindsey
and Betty Allen.) Next, it must be made move-in ready (Koleta Parsley, Non-inventory team.) Utilities, lines of credit
and ability to receive funds and pay vendors - Betty Allen and her A/P group. Is communication necessary? Enter Tim
Alexander and the I.T. crew. Need a staff? Karen de la Garza for hiring and Margaret Graff for payroll. Of course we
want to sell product, so inventory is needed - enter Amanda Marksberry and the Purchasing team. Quotations, Salesmen
and Coordinators are needed so you’ll need help from June Yonkman, Bobby Mauldin and Donna Wells. MRO?
Certainly - Tim Yon and Cindy Williams and crew are on top of that. Do we worry about quality or safety? Very much
so…Benny Howard and David Pickle and the QA / QC team. Product needs to be stored and shipped…Mike Owens
and the Warehouse team, of course. There are a lot of documents that go out the door with our product so Documentation
and MTRs will help there. Once we sell product, we need to get paid - Mikelyn Martin and the Collections
crew make sure that happens. Do we need to replace sold inventory? Definitely, so Tim Yon and Renee Roberts from
Material Management will keep us stocked. And how do we keep our name out there? Marketing, of course! From
the moment an idea becomes a plan it takes all of us to make it ‘go.’ Way to ‘go,’ Lockwood!